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.
6 comments:
Great socks! I agree ... it's the "looks hard, knits easy" thing that tends to make patterns like Clapotis popular, and the fact that different & lovely results can be had using different yarns. Other good examples are the One Skein Wonder and Fetching ... which have the added benefit of requiring little yarn & therefore are economical.
for the record? I will probably be the last one to start knitting jaywalkers :)
Your socks look great :) wish I had more time to knit these days...
Heh. And I thought *I* was the last one who hadn't knit these. I had a bias against them precisely because everyone was knitting them, but my friend Ashley convinced me that they are some of the best fitting socks out there. So my next socks will be Jaywalkers, in a Lorna's Laces colorway I picked up at Purl Soho when I was in New York a year ago. I finally finished a pair of socks for my boyfriend, so I'm ready to cast on. :-)
Fabulous socks! I like how the yarn is striping.
I started a pair of Jaywalkers, but I don't like the yarn. I have some other that I want to try. I, too, thought I was the last person to knit them.
Hi!
I'm french, but I lived in Beaver Falls during my teens : My father was working at the nuclear power plant in Shiping Port.
Nice jaywalkers !
You socks are going to look so amazing in that colourway - love it already. I've yet to do the Jaywalkers myself....
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