Skull Stockings

Skull Stockings, 2006

These were designed mostly using the Elizabethan stocking formula found here. Sometimes the link doesn't work so I've got a shorter version posted here, but it doesn't have the nice photos & diagrams. The stocking top is from a 1940's pattern. They also use Sarah Bradberry March's great Skull Lace pattern, but with a few changes in the stitches to help simplify top-down knitting.

I'm posting the confusing pattern I used for size Large (they're a bit too large for me). Using the Elizabethan formula and your gauge you will be able to plug in your numbers and make them to fit pretty much anybody. Posted stitch counts are mostly for illustration purposes. Size can also be changed using smaller or larger needles. Skull Lace pattern can also be applied to the center front any old stocking or kneesock pattern.

8 oz. fingering weight yarn, more or less depending on size (see note below)
Set of 4 size 2 (US) double-pointed needles
Set of size 0 (US) dpns (you will only need three)
One size 6 needle
Stitch markers
Row counter

NOTE: Yarn amount was changed from 6 oz to 8 oz because I used recycled yarn. It was a bit smaller gauge than fingering weight so there would have been more yards per oz with my yarn than with fingering weight. The original 1940's pattern recommended 4 or 5 oz fingering weight yarn, but the size of the finished stocking is much smaller. I just want to make sure you guys buy enough yarn to finish!

Cast-on method previously posted at http://vintagekal.kitchenerbitch.com/: Using size 6 needle, cast on 120 stitches loosely. Knit one row using the size 2 needles, dividing the stitches equally among the three needles. Work 1" in stockinette stitch, then work one row of eyelets: K1, K2 together, yarn over, repeat around. This will be the fold for the picot hem of stocking top. Work 1" in stockinette. Work twisted stitch row: knit two stitches together into the front of stitches but before slipping stitches off neeedle knit together through backs of same two stitches. One decorative row of K1, P1 stitches can be used instead.

Turn the piece upside down and using a size 0 needle pick up the same number of stitches from the cast-on edge making sure they line up with the ones on the first size 2 needle. Do this with all three needles making sure you have the same number of stitches on both sets of needles. Turn up the hem the same way you would have if you were sewing it, with each size 0 paired up with a size 2 and then take your 4th size 2 needle and knit the two sets together taking one stitch from a size 2 & one from the size 0 next to it all the way around until you have all stitches knitted together. You should then have the same amount of stitches you started with and a hem that will stretch and move as much as the rest of the stocking.

Work 2" of stockinette stitch, then one row of either twisted stitches or decorative K1, P1 repeated around.

Stocking top hem can also be sewn down loosely rather than being knitted in. I always manage to sew my picot hems down too tightly and this makes a more stretchy hem. To work sewn down hem work 1" stockinette, work picot eyelet row, then 1" stockinette. Work row of twisted stitches or decorative K1, P1. Omit steps using size 0 needles. Work 2" of stockinette, then either twisted stitches or K1, P1 repeated around. Hem is sewn down when stocking is completed.

Alternate stocking top: Cast on 120 stitches loosely onto size 2 needles, dividing evenly between the three needles. Work K2, P2 ribbing for 1", then work 2" in stockinette, then work one row of K1, P1 stitches.

Lace pattern changes: Print pattern for Skull Lace. Pattern has to be worked upside down and several rows had to be switched around because of this plus number of decreases had to be changed since stockings use only one repeat of pattern. I also only used the repeat on the right--the one next to the numbered rows on the printed pattern.
Trade rows 48 and 50. Trade P2 tog under the three yarn-overs in row 42 with K1, P1, K1 above three yarn-overs in row 44. Change K3 togs in rows 29, 39, 43, 25, 21, and 17 to decrease two stitches instead of three. This keeps stitch count consistant. I also changed purl stitches surrounding skulls and crossbones to knit stitches to make stocking smoother.

First row (Size Large, 120 sts cast on): (first needle) Purl 1 (seam stitch), knit 39, (second needle) knit 10, place marker, start with row 56 of lace pattern (one repeat uses 20 stitches), place marker, knit 10, (third needle) knit 40.

Work decreases approximately every 4 rows, one on either side of purled seam stitch. I decreased to 90 stitches for knee. Work 1" without decreasing, then start increases to calf. I increased to 100 stitches, then worked 1" without increasing. I decreased down calf to 68 stitches for ankle and worked about 2" without decreasing to heel. These numbers will change when using stocking formula and your size and gauge.

Heel: Any sock heel will work. I used something called an "auto heel" from The Complete Guide to Modern Knitting and Crocheting by Alice Carroll (1942). The instructions don't make much sense but it's basically using short rows to form heel. "Arrange the sts. as for the Dutch and French heels, half the sts. for heel and half for instep. The wool should come at right-hand end of heel sts. All first sts. are slipped. P the heel sts. Now work in stockinette sts., knitting 1 st. less in every row, until 9 sts. are left unknitted on each side of small knitted group in center. The last row should be a P row. Turn, and K back along center sts. just purled. Pick up strand between last st. just just knitted and first unknitted st. Place it on left-hand needle, and K this loop with first unknitted st. Turn, and repeat this process on P row, purling the loop and the unknitted st. at end of row. Continue in this manner until all sts. are knitted again. Arrange the sts. for the foot, as for the French heel, but pick up only 4 sts. at each side."

Continue to work pattern on 68 sts until foot measures 2" less than desired length.

Toe: Remove markers and work toe in plain stockinette stitch, making sure there are 34 stitches on lace needle and 14 on each of other two needles. 1st needle (14 stitches)-K to within 3 sts., K 2 tog, K1. 2nd needle (34 sts)-K 1, sl 1, K1, psso. K to within 3 sts, K 2 tog, K1. 3rd needle (14 sts)-K 1, sl 1, K 1, psso, K to end. Knit one round plain. Repeat these two rows until there are 8 sts on lace needle and 4 on each of other two needles. Place the 2 groups of 4 sts together on one needle and graft toe together.

Skull Stockings Done, Dammit

While I was out of town I managed to finish my stockings. I even used a heel I hadn't ever done before. Of course I did it flippin' wrong, but you can't tell when you look at them. I frogged the first one all the way up to the first calf decrease and reknit that one, too.

Blogger doesn't want to upload pictures right now, so you'll just have to pretend I've got some damn snazzy photos of Skull Lace Stockings, but without my brother wearing them. I put the fool itchy things on in this heat and took a picture just for you guys. You'd best appreciate it or else I'll go crazy ape bonkers and maybe smack my brother with something. I've probably got heat stroke already anyhow, just sitting here at the computer.

I'm working on the stocking pattern, so that will be up maybe tomorrow, when hopefully Blogger decides to let me post photos.

I've started knitting a nice little short-sleeved rib knit 1940's blouse from Alice Carroll's Complete Guide to Modern Knitting and Crocheting, 1942 edition, but I can't post a picture of that either. I'll post the pattern with it, since I've been lazy with the vintage patterns.

The cat is still ticked off at me, since he puked and drooled all the way here, but it's way too hot for any kind of cat revenge. He'll get me back once the AC makes a dent in the humidity.

Just Spreadin' the Hate Around

Jaysus. Obsidian Kitten tagged me. Which six people do I want to despise me so much that I could send this thingy to?

Feh.

Six Retarded, Pointless Things About Me
1. I'm ambidextrous, except for brushing my teeth. Can't do that left-handed at all. If I break my right hand then I suppose my teeth will just have to fend for themselves.
2. I can undo buttons with my feet. This is kind of a mood-killer, unless you're with a guy who's got a foot fetish.
3. I learned to knit from a library book. This sort of explains why I tend to call knitting "purling" and vice-versa. I learned to spin yarn from a book too. I think my friends are all imaginary.
4. I'll pretty much eat anything except for Necco Wafers. I think Necco Wafers are the prime example of man's inhumanity to man and can't understand just why they haven't been discontinued. I mean, who the hell voluntarily eats things flavored like Pepto-Bismol, Lemon Pledge, and Nyquil anyway? There's probably a Necco warehouse filled with these things that they've been trying to sell since 1947. That stuff on the ouside, you think it's cornstarch? Nahhh, it's dust.
5. I hate flip-flops with a passion usually reserved for things like the IRS and Republicans. Damn, I hate me some flip-flops. I especially hate guys in flip-flops. I have to restrain myself from running across the street and yanking the flip-flops off a guy's feet and beating the living snot out of him with a flip-flop in each hand. Did I say I hated flip-flops? Yeah, I hate flip-flops.
6. I hate poetry too. I once worked with a woman who wrote bad Christian love poetry and forced us all to read it. I still wake up screaming. A couple years ago I had a literature teacher that found out I hated poetry and she made me read some out loud, as though this would make me see reason. Of course it was written by a classmate and it was about her dead husband. She even brought in a lock of his mullet as an illustration. I should have beaten her with flip-flops.

Brace yourself, six random people.

Hotcha!

This is for all you girls who think my skull stockings are hot stuff. They seem to take on an entirely different personality when worn by my brother. He just went and yanked the "hot" right outa them. They'll never be the same.

You all have my permission to run to a dark corner and cry now. I'll be there as well, weeping uncontrollably.

I suppose now no one will be clamoring for the pattern when I finally write it down instead of posting "use the top of this pattern & the calf bit of that one".

Maybe they'd look better with garters?

Vintage Stitch-O-Rama, Travel Sized

I've gone from Stinktown to Boogerville for a couple of days, apparently just to make the cat really carsick.
I had to make these using my digital camera and Microsoft Paint because my brother doesn't have a scanner nor does he have a decent drawing program on his computer. I'm actually surprised these even uploaded at all since his ISP seems to be of the wood-burning variety.
Grumble.
Nearly done knitting skull stockings.
Nothing much at the thrift stores, except for a copy of the utterly appalling Don't Throw it Away. I don't need a matching set and couldn't convince my brother to buy one.
Other than that I got nothin'.

Almost Done

It's been way too hot to knit anything slightly wooly. I guess there's some wool in these--there was no tag in the sweater I unravelled. It could've been recycled indoor-outdoor carpet for all I know. It got much too humid, even next to the AC, to knit. Every time I turned the stocking it draped across my lap and made my leg sweat.

Feh.

But I managed to get down to the calf decreases on the second stocking. They look short, but when they're worn they stretch lengthwise.

The heat even felled the Orange Tornado. He slept all day and saved all his tearing through the apartment and meowing for no reason til 6am. Oh, I'll get my revenge when I cram him in his carrier for a three-hour road trip later this week. He gets carsick.

Sweaty

100 degrees today and 102 tomorrow. Fan-freakin'-tastic.

I'm considering sitting on the kitchen counter with my feet in the freezer but I'll settle for dumping the ice trays down my bra.

Because It's Too Damn Hot to Knit

Forget-Me-Not Dog Collar, 1906

Forget-Me-Not Dog Collar
New Idea Woman's Magazine, June 1906

Note I should have put in the original post: It's a ladies' choker rather than a collar for a dog. Sorry guys! Note added 9/23/2006.

Materials: 1 clasp with 3 eyelets, 3 bunches turquoise beads, 2 bunches yellow beads, 1 spool white sewing silk, 2 needles No. 14 "Milliners."
Thread both ends of a 40-inch thread of silk and fasten to one end of clasp in the center of silk.
Thread 2 blue beads on right needle and pass left needle through; point of needle points toward clasp.
*Thread 4 blue beads on the right needle and 2 blue on the left needle and pass left needle through the 2 beads of the 4 on the right needle.
*Repeat from * until chain is finished and fasten. Three chains made by the foregoing directions are required to make the dog collar illustrated. The yellow centers are put in after all three chains are finished, thus: Thread a needle with silk about 21 inches long and fasten with a strong knot and sew a yellow bead in the center of each flower.
If desired, white, pale pink, green or lavender beads may be substituted for the turquoise blue, continuing to use the yellow beads for the centers as directed.

Note: I have no idea how many beads are in a "bunch" but you could probably approximate from the picture.

Squeee!

Hmmm, no stitchin to be found here. But it is vintage, which depresses the holy hell out of me. Don't run up to me & tell me that crap I wore in jr. high school is now vintage. I'll just go postal, that's what I'll do!

These are for MsFortuknit who mentioned The Swans a couple posts ago. Feb. 14, 1988. I'm like two feet from Michael Gira. He probably flung sweat on me or something.

Nobody comes here anymore, dammit. Never, ever.

Oh yeah, Rozz Williams' autograph from a 1991(?) Shadow Project show, which I keep tucked away in my vinyl copy of Christian Death's Only Theatre of Pain.

I'll shut up now and go back to knitting.

Looks Like A Stocking Anyway

Look, one whole stocking done. I've been knittin' like a mofo for the past week or so and for some reason watching all 947 taped episodes of Bablyon 5, with the ten year old commercials for stupid crap like pagers. I forgot completely about pagers. I even sat there for a second and wondered just what the hell they were. Did a kid's beeper go off in class forcing him to run willy-nilly to the nearest payphone? There were damn old enough that they didn't have text messaging yet, so maybe.

It's a bit larger than it should be, so you have to hike it up pretty far--which is fine by me. That would leave less leg out in the cold. I used the Victorian Silk Stocking pattern but in stockinette rather than rib stitch, plus I used the top of the 1940's stockings rather than the Victorian top. Then there's the skull business.

I used recycled yarn from a thrift-store sweater and size 2 dpns. Size 1 might have been a better choice for this yarn, since it's two strands of grey acrylic-blend thread, plus that would have made the stockings a bit less baggy 'round da ankles.

I'm trying to find some affordable silk in the colors used in the Victorian pattern, or maybe some rayon, so I can knit those the way they're supposed to be, since I don't have any gaudy Victorian stockings.

The second picture is the snazzy decreases up the back of the leg. For some reason hand-knit stockings seemed to be pretty much leg-shaped until the 1920s, then knit stockings turned all cone-shaped. The Victorian pattern had decreases to the knee, then increases for the calf, then decreases down to the ankle. The 1940's pattern just decreased down the leg all the way to the ankle.

No word from Knitty just yet. If I don't get a rejection in another couple weeks or so I'm in like Flynn. Unless that means I'm being arrested like Errol Flynn for boinking underage girls, then I'm not.

Knittin' Like A Mofo

Last year I was in an un-airconditioned bar in a corset & boots, so I decided to stay home this Fourth. So what do you do when you have a four-day weekend all to yourself? You knit like a mofo. It was too hot to go out and when it wasn't hot, it was raining. So I sat in the AC and knitted woolly stockings. I'm nearly done with the first one. I've done the heel and now I'm onto the decreases at the instep.

The lace skull & crossbones pattern looks better when it's stretched. Then I got those annoying ladder thingies you get when you knit with dpn's which damn well better come out when I block them.

Damien the Cat From Hell demanded to be in this picture because it's his 15th birthday. Apparently being half Siamese makes cats live to be something like 95 years old AND be a wound-up little pain in the ass that never ever shuts up. I'm convinced that someone secretly replaces him every few years. He's been cloned (like the Venture Bros.) and when I take him to the vet they just give me a fresh cat.

I've decided that these stockings are going to be a tad droopy if they're not pulled right up to the stop sign. They seemed way too tight when I'd gotten to the knee decreases, then they suddenly grew to massive proportions the next time I tried them on. I'm just considering these to be practise for the fancy silk Victorian stockings I've been planning to knit for like forever.
On another subject, I did make the Knitty deadline and so far they haven't told me my pattern sucks donkeys.