As
Meg correctly guessed, I am knitting the
Jaywalker pattern from Grumperina. It seems that every time someone writes a blog post about knitting this pattern, they claim to be the last one to be knitting it. Meg has corrected me in my hubris by informing that she will in fact be the last one to knit this pattern.
I really like the way that the pattern looks in my Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sport in the Purple Club colorway. I’m glad that I finally decided to knit this pattern. I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how patterns get popularized all over the web. I believe this topic has been explored several times on other blogs, but let me throw in my two cents.
It seems that the patterns that become most popular on the internet are relatively simple to knit, but they look complicated. They also allow for the possibility of many different interpretations. Let’s start with the Jaywalker socks as the first example. The stitch pattern consists of only two rounds and one of them is knit all the stitches. Who knew that such a simple set of stitches could create such an interesting fabric? (Well, at least
one person did.) The variations in the finished product are endless depending on the type of yarn you use. You could get blips of color (like the original), stripes (like mine), or they could be totally solid. This idea of a simple pattern that can look totally original applies to a lot of the most popular patterns on blogs including
Clapotis (I finally knit one last year) and
Forecast (on my must-knit list).
I love seeing what people have done with patterns from the web. So customize away! That’s what knitting is all about.
I'm really impressed with how well the sock fits. Of course, the pair will be finished just in time for above-freezing temperatures in Cleveland next week.
