Madame Defarge

Socktopia had a great theme this month:Madame Defarge. How could I resist knitting a pair if socks dedicated to the main villain in Charles Dickens's, "A Tale of Two Cities"? In case you are unfamiliar with the book or the character, here is a quote form Wikipedia:

"Madame Thérèse Defarge is a fictional character in the book A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens. She is a tricoteuse, a tireless worker for the French Revolution and the wife of Ernest Defarge.
She is arguably the main villain of the book, and ruthlessly seeks revenge against the Evrèmondes, including Charles Darnay, his wife Lucie Manette and their child for crimes a prior generation of the Evrèmonde family had committed. These crimes include the deaths of her sister, father, and brother-in-law. Eventually, her quest for vengeance results in her downfall and death.
Defarge represents one aspect of the Fates. She knits, and her knitting secretly encodes the names of those people she will have killed. The Fates used yarn to measure out the life of a man, and cut it to end it."

sweeeeeeet.

So I knit a pair of socks in honor of an awesome villainous!

Name: Madame Defarge Socks

Pattern: My own, top down

Yarn: Socks That Rock Medium weight in Tanzentite

Needles: US2, Knit Picks classic circs

Notes: For some time now I've been boiling an idea in my head to knit a pair of socks consisting of two different patterns, but using the same yarn. For example, knit one "Monkey" and one "Zokni". They would be the same color, but different patterns, and therefore, no SSS! This would be especially good for socks that you realize half way through the leg on #1 that you are going to dread #2. Oh, and as a bonus, it would be like wearing mismatched socks, except nobody else would realize they were mismatched, unless they really looked. I finally implemented the plan this time!

These socks are inspired by Madame Defarge, but I couldn't stand the idea of knitting peoples names into my socks that I didn't like, although the idea of forcing a few choice people to "smell my feet" or walking on them all day was appealing. Instead, I chose to knit her name into my socks 5 different ways.

Sock #1 has Madame Defarge written in "binary" down the center front,

and her initials on the underside of the foot.

Sock #2 has her name written in braille at the top,

"Madame Defarge" written with purl stitches running down the front,

and her name in Morse code on the sole of the foot.

I did use the same ribbing at the cuff, and on the foot, although, since I was making it up as I went, sock #2 has angled ribbing on the foot. "Derfarge" has 7 letters, so my last 'E" ended up below the ribbing line. It's a design feature.

Overall, I love these socks. I gave up my STR cherry on these, and I don't regret it. I am in LOVE with STR. I now understand the big deal. It's even better that they are one of a kind, unique to me, (who else would want a pair of mismatched socks dedicated to a villainous) and totally cool pair of socks.

Blogging about.. well, not much at all

Summer is so weird around the Costumechick blog. I am not at work a whole lot - mostly because I need to use up my Vacation days, and my pirated (yes, still) Internet at home is spotty, at best. But I am trying to post when I am actually at work, and have time, since I have lots 'o crap to do because I'm not here much. It is a vicious cycle.

What I've been up to:

1.The Dahlia Darling sweater. I'm still love it, but am not working on it. I developed a rash. I stopped knitting it, just in case, and a week has gone by. My rash is gone. Could be a coincidence. I am going to finish a few other things, then pick it back up. If the rash comes back, I'll have to take evasive maneuvers.

2. Fountain Pen Shawl.

I pretty much hate it. I dislike the yarn and colorway, but I am on the last repeat, so I am finishing it anyway. It's hard to stay on top of it though. I can find a million better things to do. That said, I'm not frogging it. If I don't like it now, I'm not going to like it better later. Instead, I'll overdye it when I'm done, providing it looks as much like ass as I think it is going to.

3. Little Black Cat Hat. I cast this on in umm.... May? All it needs are eyes and ends woven in. How lame am I? You know, I could avoid the Fountain Shawl tonight and finish this.....

4. Mark's mittens. I forgot I even cast on for these until I looked at my Ravelry WIPS. Sad.

5.Cloverfield Shawl. I cast on for this in the fall for a play at work. We ended up not needing it, so I stopped working on it and put the project in my desk cubby at work. I keep looking at it and thinking "just finish it". At the same time, I know there are errors that I just fudged around since it was just a prop, and i think "rip the fucker out." Really, I'd just like my needles back.

6. Three sweaters of crappity crap. I have three (THREE) sweaters that I need to frog. One is done to the armpits, and I realize it is three sizes too big. One is done, but fits like ass. The last is Evad's mutton chop sleeve sweater of Doom. Seriously. It's been 4 years. Sad Sad Sad

7. Madame Defarge Socks.

Obviously, I have nothing else to knit, so I cast on for my Socktopia, July socks. The details will come later. Just know that it wasn't *all* Fountain Pen avoidance.

Whew. But you know, despite all of that, I did manage to cast on and complete two quick projects last week.

It's a hat and a scarf from some RAK yarn that I think is Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride Bulky. I still have a ball left, so I might make more some more quick hats. I don't know if they are a gift or for charity yet. We'll see!

Oh, and I heard that! I know I had lots of things OTN, but I didn't have any good movie knitting. My dahlia sweater was on Time Out, otherwise the ribbing on the front would have been perfect, I hadn't cast on the socks yet, and the rest are too complicated or involved, in some way, to do at the movies. I am practical, you see.