Getting Plaid

They're not the best photographs and don't come close to capturing the rich colors of the chromolithography. But if you click on the pictures to blow them up, you can better see the colors and patterns.




These two, above, show the 'ur' plaid, of the Campbells of Argyle. There are pages and pages of Campbell biography in the book, but I'll spare you. Except, maybe, to give you this snippet: "The [Campbell] appellation is personal, and is composed of the words cam, bent, or arched and beul mouth, and the individual so distinguished, was of the race of Diarmid o Duibhne, who is much celebrated in the traditional story, and was cotemporary with the heros of Ossian, an antiquity which few clans can claim with equal confidence, but the Campbells do not come forward very prominently in national history until the time of Robert the Bruce."

Yes folks, that's all one sentence. . .

There's nothing about the plaid specifically, but this, about the illustration: "The artist, in accordance with the character of the family of Argyle, who were distinguished as staunch adherents of the 'solemn league,' has exhibited the figure in the character of one of those doughty opponents of prelacy, poreing over the sacred volume to strengthen his resolution to stand for the convenanted work of Scotland's reformation." Got that? There'll be a quiz tomorrow.


Don't think this shows up very well, but the colors, above, are deep red, olive green, and salmon. Yum.





Above, one of my favorites. I like the colors a lot. And this one, unlike most of the other patterns, really looks like argyle if you tip the angle of the squares so they're diamonds instead. You can even see the lines running through the pattern.



Yes, a lot of the details are crotch shots. Hmmm. Where do you suppose those stockings end? (My sources tell me that Scots wear nothing under their kilts. Personally, I don't know, but wouldn't mind finding out. A guy in a skirt is kind of sexy, unless he's one of those Cher impersonators. And then, not so much. . .)




Here are many, many images from a terrific book in LCP's collection. It's James Logan's Clan's of the Scottish Highlands (London, 1845) 2 volumes. (WW)

A-S-S Women

Typical -- we hardly have enough room to work, what with all the food, patterns, and other stuff. . .

Hal would make a great knitwear model, don't you think? He could probably even pull off one of those overly-cably sweaters that no man looks good in. He's rugged without being obnoxious about it.


Someone thought it might be a good idea to weigh the yarn that went on the bobbins. Why was that again? So that that certain someone (who's way ahead of everyone else, by the way) could show off her fancy-pancy scale? Ok, maybe a certain someone else has scale envy.


Here's Val trying to decide what her color scheme should be. (Can you tell, she's trying not to kill me for taking her picture.) Congrats, Val, on getting into Brown. You're a super-star.


Val and her doughnut bobbins.



Val's line colors. I love how these bobbins look with Ewa's yarn on them. Like little pieces of candy. Luscious. Yarn money shots.


Val doing her first row of colors and learning about bobbin management. It's so exciting to see those first few rows of the pattern emerge. Val -- did you get any work done last night??


We made a lot of progress on our socks on Sunday. I guess we should've -- after all, we were at JWR's house for close to 6 hours. (Was it really that long??) Here's Ang with her sock, ready to work the sole. I cannot believe how much sewing we're going to have to do. I'm bringing booze to our sew-up session.

Lookin' Kinda Sockish

Now that I have the heel and the gussett done it's starting to look like a sock! The gussett goes fast because you are knitting on less stitches than usual. And I guess the foot will go faster too. I usually burn out on the foot...

rrrrrr-gyle

See what I mean? One of the books that passed through my hands today. Argyle is everywhere. It's starting to creep me out. (WW)

R. Guile

I'm seeing argyle everywhere. When in NYC a few weeks ago, it seemed like everyone was wearing something with an argyle design on it -- baby jackets, women's sweaters, backpacks. We recently got a sizeable donation of books to the LCP, including some with fancy endpapers. They reminded me of, what else, argyle:

Close-up, above.

So what, exactly, constitutes an argyle pattern? The diagonal lines? The diamond pattern? Is it any kind of plaid? I thought the answer would be easy, just a matter of browsing the OED for a definition. But all it has is an entry for Argyll, "a vessel of silver or metal, like a small coffee pot, in which to serve up gravy, so as to keep it hot." Hmmm. Not quite the thing I'm looking for.

There are plenty of Dukes of Argyle (and Argyll), from Scotland. So the name must come from the clan's plaid pattern, right? Here's what the internet has to say:
-----
Main Entry: ar·gyle
Variant(s): also ar·gyll /'är-"gI(-&)l, är-'/
Function: noun
Usage: often capitalized
Etymology: Argyle, Argyll, branch of the Scottish clan of Campbell, from whose tartan the design was adapted
: a geometric knitting pattern of varicolored diamonds in solid and outline shapes on a single background color ; also : a sock knit in this pattern
-----
So the design has to have diamonds? How far can you take an argyle pattern before it's no longer argyle? Or just enough but barely argyle? It's a philosophical question but also, possibly, a challenge for our next socks. Anyone?? (WW)

Hell Flap, Too

Here's my hell flap. It does a slightly different pattern that I usually do. It says to slip 1 as if to purl, knit 1 repeating across. I usually just sl 1 k 1. It is different. I kind of helps you know where you are and what you just did. I didn't loose track or make any mistakes for some reason when I did it that way.
JWR

"Hooking Up"

I saw my mom over the weekend. She was bemused that we were all making argyles. I told her that her socks were much admired and now, famously, posted on the web. I asked her if she'd made any other argyle socks or if the two pairs I had were it. She couldn't remember exactly, but said that she supposed she knit a pair for every guy she was "going with." For her, that must've been a lot of socks. If all these coeds from the '50s were crocheting instead, we could call it a version of the "hooking up" culture. . .(WW)

Return of the hell flap

So here's a question/conundrum: You know that mistake I made by not knitting the final row of the 't'? Well, I was looking at other vintage patterns and not one of them says "knit final row in pattern" (or even words to that effect) after knitting the center section. They all say "slip last xx stitches to holder." Is it assumed that you have to tie on another bobbin to do that last row? Or is one supposed to remain satisfied with rows that don't match? (WW)

Hell Flap

So now I'm about to begin my heel flap (I keep writing "hell" flap). When picking up these 32 stitches -- and hey, are you noticing that the instructions are kind of fast and loose, that they're assuming we've done this before?? -- I noticed that I never completed the final row of the 't'. The instructions say to knit 16 in the pattern, then slip those to a stitch holder, then continue with the pattern, and slip the final 16 to another holder. Well, I knit the center panel stitches and then slipped the final 16 *without* working the pattern. (I realized this at the time, but figured at some point you'd go back and pick those guys up and have a chance to work that final row.) No such luck, so I had to go back with my bobbin of brown and do that final half row. Fortunately, I had plenty of grey and yellow tails hanging down that I could catch those single stitches. But there was no way for me to even do a short-row for this half on my way to working the "hell" flap without ending up with an extra row.

Oh yeah, and I'm leaving my yellow bobbins because I think I want to continue the yellow diagonals down through the foot. We'll see how that goes. . .

So anyway, now I think I'm all set -- and what's another few ends to weave in, anyway. So on to the hell flap tonight. I was reading through the entire directions this morning and realized that there's *a lot* of sewing to do on these babies at the end. That might really suck. (WW)

4 diamonds fini

Hi Everyone-
I finished the fourth diamond and on the second to last row noticed a mistake. As you are all finding out- when you finish a diamond you end with one st on each end for the lines and one st that is the point of the diamond. If you made a mistake, well, this won't happen. I did make a mistake further down where the lines leave the diamond. I shifted the stitches up one row on each side and I ended with no sts on each end and one st for the diamond. But I made the mistakes on both sides so I don't think they are very noticable. Am I a wimp? Should I rip back? You be the judge...

Angela and I took a walk today and here's a picture of her sock that I took in the car!

Another Meeting of ASS?

Hi Guys,
Check out these Gap argyles. It seems that the machines don't have to go to all the trouble that we do to carry the yarn for the lines. And when they change a color in the diamonds, they just cut the yarn. We should have it so easy ;-)

I am getting close to finishing the argyle pattern and start the heel (I think). And I bet a few of you are, too. Shall we get together next weekend? I will host this time. I remember that Yards will be closed on St. Patty's. How does Sunday the 18th look for you all?
JWR

Good idea

Hey Kristin,
I can't figure out how to respond to your comment in the comments section, so I'll just post it here: good idea to hook the two stitch holders together *in front* of the knitting. I hadn't considered it before but it makes perfect sense. I can't believe you're so far along with two socks. You're a maniac. Can you post pictures?? (WW)

Never enough argyle

Here's a better image of that sock booklet I posted yesterday. The colors are really interesting. Below, more argyle patterns from vintage booklets. Again, the color combinations are really unexpected, like the grey, seafoam, yellow and brown combo below. I love that the pattern makers put all the socks on a yellow plaid background, as if you just can't get enough argyle.






Just above, a close-up of the hole problem I was having with the yellow lines. Not a great picture, but you can see where the tension in the yellow is too loose and it makes a little hole. It's pretty easy to correct -- just snug up the stitches from the back, working all the way up to the live stitches on the needle. Now I know to really tug these babies -- not just the single stitch color, but the surrounding one as well. In this case, tugging the pink after twisting around the yellow kind of "locks in" the stitch. Ok, I'll stop now. (WW)

To cut or not to cut. . .

Time to cut some of those bobbins loose. But how much extra yarn do I need to leave for each color?


It's kind of hard to see, but I've finished my first diamonds and put the side stitches on super-huge stitch holders (the only ones I had -- I'll have to get smaller ones). How we'll be working the heel, I have no idea. That's for JWR to figure out. (WW)

3 of Diamonds!

Hey Everyone,
I know I shouldn't brag. It's bad karma, I'm sure, but...I finished the third diamond! You can't really see it here because it rolled a bit. But the light green is attached for the new diamond and the oranges are attached for the lines. I am showing front and back, of course. JWR
BTW, you can double click on the pictures to see them up close.

So I was thinking about the argyle socks my mother knit for my dad back in the day, when they were engaged. The socks are amazing -- a real testament to what women did for their men in the era before hard-core television watching and (presumably) having lots of sex. Above are more simple versions. And below, more complicated ones:




The color combinations are kind of unusual. I wondered how she decided on brown, white, cream, red, and green (wouldn't have been my first choices). And then I found this really great vintage sock knitting booklet, which is one of my favorites. The argyle sock on the cover is just this color scheme. JWR thinks maybe they had kits, which is a good theory.


Not a great photo (and how do you rotate, anyway??). My mom was telling me that she knit these socks in college. She went to an all girls' school and said that during lectures it was difficult to hear the professor because everyone's bobbins were "click-clacking" away. Funny that now the click-clacking in classrooms comes from people typing on their computers. WW