Dear Kay,
Let’s talk about taste for a minute.
This yarn has sparked some frank and unbridled Opinion.
A number of people have weighed in about this yarn. I was told that it’s trouble because of its wild contrasts in color and value. It pools. It flashes. It’s unpredictable. It’s not something you’d use for a garment. It’s not something you should even knit.
Screw all y’all! This stuff is brilliant. Unpredictability is what I’m here for.
I abandoned all other knitting to make a pair of socks out of this yarn called Fred, colorway Huntsville, because I was curious to see what would happen. And I wondered how these colors had anything to do with the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.
Through the mighty power of the Internet, I got my answer—from the yarnmaker herself, Rain Pope. It totally made my day when she wrote: “The actual, specific inspiration for the Huntsville colorway is . . . The Saturn V rocket. The first thing I noticed was the red lettering and black stripes, and when I saw the rocket displayed in its separate sections, I loved the gold and steel gray colors on the ends of the sections.”
A Saturn V rocket. I can’t believe I missed this—I spent many summers zooming past the Saturn V rocket located at a rest stop along I-65 South on the way to the beach. It is ICONIC, that rocket.
Kay, I’m surprised you didn’t make the connection yourself, seeing as how you have actually knitted underneath a Saturn V rocket at least once in your life.
On the way to Birmingham, a while back, at that rest stop with the Saturn V rocket.
This is Susan B. Anderson‘s “How I Make My Socks,” a real Toll House Cookie recipe. It makes a delicious sock.
The mini stripes rhyme often enough that there’s some order to be found.
Turning a heel remains one of knitting’s most elegant maneuvers.
Socks are not subject to the rules of Taste. Socks are subversive little exclamations. I can’t wait to blast off in my Saturn V Fred socks, colorway Huntsville. These make me want to keep the unpredictable socks flowing. What’s the craziest sock yarn you’ve ever used?
Love,
Ann
Bold yarns are often paired with a solid for shawls. Socks are an excellent choice. Love how they turned out. Makes one want to leap tall buildings or run miles….well maybe not. But they will be fun to wear….maybe to MDSW?
You go girl! I’ve knit numerous pairs of socks on many wild colors…can’t remember the names of the yarns, but they’re fun to wear. Breaks up the dullness of some conventional outfits.
Nerd Girl yarn in black, white and hot pink. They made the most fabulous lightening bolt pooling you’ll ever see too!
That sock is out of this world!!
Surprisingly, my husband likes this yarn. He says he’d wear socks made out of it, and he’s pretty conservative. Usually, he just wants his socks to be black.
I love that the colors are modeled on a rocket.
Those socks are awesome! Now to search for that yarn. Gotta Love a colorway with a good story.
I love the “Rocket Socks”!
Oh – P.S. This is probably the craziest sock yarn I’ve used: Irohamomiji colorway of Into The Whirled Ulundi Sock in these: http://ravel.me/KatherineM/9ai0v
love them!
We were just there! I grew up in Decatur AL and the Space and Rocket Center was a major part of my childhood. We visited last weekend and took my daughter. We brought back space ice cream for her class. It was a hit.
Love the socks and the rockets!
I love the socks and your response to those who dissed its awesomeness. May your socks take you to infinity and beyond!
The wilder the socks the better. I’ve worn wild socks for as long as I can remember (which is apparently a pretty long time…I was asked a few years back by a kid in my class if there was electricity when I was little.) I have sock yarn in waiting which is pink and green. The pink is the color of poke weed stalks. The first time I ever saw polk weed (until then I thought it was just something made up for a song) was nearly two years ago when I was taking the dogs for a walk, not long after I arrived in NC from Australia. I stopped dead and took photos, as I realised the color was the same as the yarn I had waiting patiently to join me in NC from Australia. I was so excited to show my then fiance my latest find. Fortunately for me, crazy is embraced and celebrated in the South and he put it down to me being a Crazy Aussie, who got (and still does almost two years later) excited over squirrels and all kinds of “ordinary, everyday” things down here in the South.
What?There is A crazy sock yarn ?????????
I’ve had my picture taken under the Saturn V! Your socks are lifting off in that color way!!!
Well, I was wrong about the stripes, thought they would be more, well, stripy. I started a pair in Noro Sock once, expecting Noro magic, but I hated them so much I frogged and turned them into fingerless gloves. And gave them away.
Haters gonna hate! I love some crazy-pants socks. And frankly, knit up the rocket socks are a little tamer than I thought they’d be (but still funky cool). Knit on!
Fabulous stripes!
The way the mini stripes are offset on the heel flap delighted me this morning. Thanks.
My wildest socks are made with Wisdom Yarns Saki Silk. They are so wild and pretty that I wear them even though I knitted them at an iron-like gauge.
I have a lot of wild sock yarns and not nearly enough time to knit socks. Work is the scourge of the knitting class.
You are so right. My new mantra.
Damn! Now I might have to get me some of that yarn. And I don’t even like multicolored sock yarn (I’m a kettle dyed textured sock kind of girl).
Love, love, love the spirit in these socks! I’ve worn wild socks with plain outfits for years and they make me happy! Your yarn is fantastic!
You want wild (in a good way)? Rachel of Dyeabolical is your gal. I’ve knit some wild socks with her lovely yarns. And the names are so fun. Next up for me is a pair of Thunderboom socks. Lately, she’s busy making her lovely colorways self stripe! So fun.
Yes, screw all the naysayers. I’m puttin’ my stake in the ground with ya. I just bought a skein.
Awesome! Has she sold out of the yarn yet? I love crazy sock and so does Mr1282. He particularly enjoys taking off his shoes at the airport to show off his hand knit socks.
LOVE the Opinion with a capital O!! LOL I’m with you…this is excellent sock yarn…turn heel, turn!
Stripe-y sock yarn is my favorite!
Ignore those nattering nabobs of negativity. They don’t know what they are missing with hand-dyed variegated sock yarns. I’m not going to try to convert them though – because that’s less yarn for me! 🙂 I have lots of wild sock yarns in my collection (it’s grown to be more than a stash). But the wildest that I have knit up is probably the bright pink and green yarn I dyed myself. I made them into pedicure socks to go with my fuchsia flowered flip-flops! http://www.ravelry.com/projects/shellbelle/fish-lips-kiss-heel
Are socks difficult to make? Maybe a Super Easy Sock KAL with everyone’s crazy yarns?
Thank you for Susan’s post. I was just watching her yesterday on Knitting Daily TV and she was making these adorable knitted animals like a dog when turned inside out becomes a doghouse. Talented!
I too share your enthusiasm and love for unpredictability, though I appreciate that amount of potential visual disorder can be troubling for some. (I even like pooling in many cases!) I love to knit socks, shawls, fingerless mittens, and baby everything from yarn with colors that do unexpected things.
I feel like unexpected and wild potential with yarn colors is much easier to embrace than unexpected and wild potential places like while driving, in the bathroom, anywhere with snow, and to a moderate degree in my kitchen, in a bar, out in nature, or riding bikes.
That colorway looks amazing as socks. Thank you for sharing them with us! They are a ray of sunshine on this chilly, gray, spring day in New England.
I have some “Mind the Gap” yarn that knits into 16-stripe repeats, I think, that shall be on the needles by mid summer for sure!
I love to knit socks—they are almost all that I knit. I have worked up some crazy Socks that Rock colorways from Blue Moon Fiber Arts—I like to combine the really wild colorways with a solid and do some kind of colorwork—I love it when they settle down into a mosaic or slip stitch pattern and look like stained glass.
If you/we do some kind of sock knit-along, I’m in.
subversive little exclamation is sooo descriptive. thanx
Nice! Love a slip stitched heel. I like the rocket colours.
I really like Misty Alpaca Sock Yarn – almost every stitch is a colour change. I think my last pair the colour was ‘Seattle’. Small sweaters for your feet. Noro sock yarn is pretty fun too.
You should see the ‘suits’ (young and less young) in downtown Calgary, they really like their wild socks (likely not handknit tho’).
I’ve mostly make short row heels (Lily Chin pattern), but a proper turned heel is such a nice little maneuver. I use a similar standard sort, but Nancy Bush has all sorts of interesting heels in her patterns/books.
I am sooooo drawn to unusual colorways! I have made a cowl that looks like Fruit Loops cereal, and socks that look like confetti. Count me in ten ways to Tuesday!
Count this another vote for a Modern Daily Craaazzzzyy Sock K-A-L!
I love these socks, but I have to admit I’m afraid of yarn like this. My problem is it is best suited for a plain stockinette sock, and those bore me — I like interesting stitches, I guess, more than interesting yarn! (I also love turning the heel – it makes me feel like a real knitter!)
I have knit a couple of pairs of Kaffe Fassett-designed striped socks (Regia brand yarn). I live in the South, and I’ve been disappointed at how few people ever comment on my brightly striped (and handknit) socks. There are not many crazy sock folks in my circles, and I don’t have a reputation for wearing crazy colors. It’s a puzzlement.
Looks nice to me–stripey!–but I agree, socks especially are in the eye of the beholder, and what matters is how YOU feel about them.
Love this color way – wonder if Rain Pope still makes it? I went to her site and her shopping link is disabled due to her shoulder injury – let’s home she has a speedy recovery and gets back to making some beautiful rocket yarn! I am a big rocket/space fan as well!
Hi Sheri–The link in the blog post takes you to Hook a Frog, the yarn shop that sells this yarn!
I think that colorway looks awesome. I’m actually knitting the same pattern at the moment 🙂
Have you ever touched Casbah yarn by Handmaiden yarns? It’s delicious to tough and some crazy colors. I made a pretty little shawl called Bella with the color way Puffin. It’s all orange and black and white, just fun. I love crazy yarn and try to make normal things out of them if I can.
Loud socks are my favorites. Winters are long in Massachusetts and a fun sock lifts my spirits. Besides, sock yarn does not count as stash.
Wow! Loving the ‘love’ of the Huntsville colorway!
We asked Rain to make us a Huntsville colorway, of course our thoughts went to Rocket City and the amazing Saturn V that highlights the city profile!
This time, when she dyed Huntsville for us, she dyed some coordinate colors. The black, red, and gold. Would be perfect for heals and toes or a trim on a shawl!
Oh, and Huntsville colorway also comes on Madeline, if you would like some sparkle!
Rocket on!
Rock on Ann!
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Somehow I am not getting your posts. This is the last one I have received. Please resubscribe me.
Your morning posts are a special part of my day and I miss them. Many thanks!
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Actually, this is a Saturn 1b with H-1 engines slung underneath.