Step Up Socks, Top Down

Quick photos in my mudroom, because that's how I roll.

It's easy to add colorblocking on the heel - a photo of that is on yesterday's post. 

The pattern is for sale on Ravelry and on Craftsy.

Step Up Socks, Toe Up

Step Up Socks, Toe Up, Self-Striping Yarn

Step Up Socks, Top Down, with colorblocked, slipped-stitch heel

In her Encyclopedia of Needlework (I use the English edition, published in 1886), Therese de Dillmont calls this heel the "heel in steps."

Her heel is beautiful, but can be hard to work out, from her instructions. I agree with her verdict: "A heel made like this is no more trouble than the former one (a square heel, what she calls the Usual heel); it fits closely to the foot and consequently wears better than any other shape."

I designed a version of her heel, which was knit from the top down, and reverse-engineered it to also be worked from the toe up. I have been knitting and wearing them since 2013. I don't wear out a lot of my socks, but I do have to darn some of them, every once in awhile. None of the socks I have made with this heel have required darning. That’s the highest praise I can offer a sock heel!

If this heel was first published over 130 years ago and I, myself, have been walking in it for over 3 years, why am I publishing it now?

I guess I was waiting for the right name and inspiration to push me: The Step Up Heel.

Donna Druchunas’s voice, especially, has been calling to me, since the election. When she asked if I had anything to contribute to her Knitting as a Political Act e-book, I was at a loss, at first. Then, I remembered this heel, tucked away in my knitting notes and sock drawer, and thought: “maybe this is the time for this heel pattern to emerge back into the light of day.”

I’m self-publishing the Step Up Socks pattern, as quickly as I can. There will be two versions: toe up and top down. I’m publishing the toe up first, since, for me, political action comes from the ground up. Top down will follow, since we need that, too. We need it all. We need everyone. No matter how you feel about politics right now, I think we can all agree that we should be on our feet, stepping up to the challenges laid before us.

I care about freedom, democracy, women's rights, indigenous rights and LBGTQIA equality. I don’t have a lot to give, but I am doing this: I’ll donate 10% of my proceeds from selling these patterns to a charity that I think will have the most impact. I may chose a new one every month, or I may stick with the same one for a long time.

Both patterns include stitch-by-stitch instructions for set sizes, very short instructions for if you want to use a customized stitch count, and tips for changing the colors and texture of your heel.

Look for them on Ravelry: http://www.ravelry.com/designers/lara-neel and Craftsy: https://www.craftsy.com/profile/lara-neel.

I Wore White for Hillary

I knew I wanted to wear white for election day, yesterday. I don't own a lot of white clothes. But, I wanted to do it for political, historical and feminist reasons.

I also wanted to try this Wrap Peplum Blouse from Stretch & Sew. It's number 325. The pattern also includes a half-circle skirt with a waistband and, even though it doesn't crow about it, a wrap dress.

I cut out the largest size (a bust size of 40), which is a little small for me, but my fabric is closer to 33% stretch, not 25% stretch, so I figured I would be able to get away with it. 

After cutting out the sleeves, two fronts, and a back, I had EXACTLY enough fabric for one layer of the peplum. In the original pattern, the peplum is cut double and stitched and turned to form the bottom edge. I guess this is to give it more weight, but it also saves you from having to hem a shape that I can best describe as a swoopy wing. You see, the peplum is cut out all in one piece, so it wraps around the body and also has that sweet/cute curve on both fronts. It reminds me of ballet class. I ended up just serging that bottom edge, mostly to save time. I tried a rolled edge on the serger, but this fabric just wasn't having it. 

You can see this above, but I abandoned the sleeves. I really wanted to like them, but they were just a little TOO 1974 for me. Poofs, gathers and pleats. All at once. A little too much for me. Also I didn't do a bicep adjustment so they would have been super-tight on top of all of that nonsense. 

I skipped all of the facings and I wanted to use knit stay tape for the edges I needed to turn under and coverstitch. However, when I looked in my bag of tricks, I didn't have any in white! After pondering adding contrast-color bindings (I didn't even have enough scrap fabric for bindings), I decided to just press the edges under and coverstitch without any stay tape. 

I'm very happy with the result. There is a little pulling at the underarm, but I think it's ok and I'd rather not add front darts on top of everything else. If I make it again, I'll substitute in armholes and sleeves from another pattern so that it can have t-shirt style sleeves. I may also straighten out the curved edges on the peplum, but I rather like them. 

The length is perfect and even the waist length is perfect, which really matters for a wrap top. Someone needs to explain to me why I have to shorten the bodice on new patterns and I don't have to do it on vintage patterns. Have people really gotten that much taller in the last 40 years? Was Ann Person really just smarter than everyone else?

Some of the earlier Stretch & Sew patterns top out at a 38-inch or 40-inch bust. I'm thinking that Ann was a skinny Minnie (she mentions having to do a small bust adjustment in at least one of her books), so maybe she just didn't think about the larger sizes, at first. Later patterns have a wider size range.

P.S. - Heartbroken, today. I wrote the rest of this post yesterday. I'm never going to stop making things or teaching other people to make things. It's important to me.