Graph Paper, Dungeons & Dragons and Harry Potter

I want to create a Harry Potter sock design. Oh, I'm sure lots of people have already done this, but I want to try it, too.



From the toe up, you can see
 how many rows it took me to
"perfect" the lightning, avant garde
though it may be.

 My four older children are huge fans and each one of them has a complete hardcover (and a softcover) set of the series. My son even made me (ok, I wanted to...) stand in a very long line at midnight outside Barnes & Noble when the last couple of books came out just so he would have a shorter break in his reading of the stories.


Like so many other families, we have seen all the movies, purchased all the incarnations of the home versions--gift boxes and otherwise--and watched them each several times. My oldest daughter recites them almost as well as she recites lines from The Princess Bride and all the Pirates movies.

My younger daughter, now 11, still dressed as Harry Potter last Halloween for the third year in a row (we borrowed her grandma's old 50's wig--not a replica--which makes a very nice Harry Potter hairstyle. Well, that is, maybe until this last use. Now it more resembles Jim Carry's "Lloyd" character in Dumb and Dumber with the extra short bangs. I wonder if my daughter got hold of the scissors? Hmmm...)


At any rate, I know we are not special. We are shamelessly riding the Harry Potter wave and me saying I want to design an HP sock is like saying I want to dress like Austin Powers for a costume party: it's been done, played, tapped out--the complete opposite of original.


But I don't care.




Grawk Med Weight by Blue Moon Fiber Arts

 The muses spoke to me upon a single viewing of Grawk Fledge and Grawk by Blue Moon Fiber Arts in Socks That Rock. They said, "Hey, you should design a sock in homage to a fad that is so huge, so Not-Indy, so commercial, that your friends might even puke when they see it."


Well, no one will probably puke. I mean, what knitter can puke honestly before Blue Moon or even any good smelling hand dyed wool? I really think that the worst that can happen comes down to a scenario like this:


Me: "Hey, check out my lightning bolt design!"
Friend: "Oh..." voice trails off.... "that doesn't really resemble a lightning bolt...but it's nice."


Or this one:


Me: "Hey, check out my new socks!"
Friend: "Oh, those are nice"

Translation: "It's too bad Janelle doesn't know what she's doing and no one will buy those. But I won't tell her and just let her keep pretending she's really designing stuff. At least she's more quiet and self-absorbed these days and interrupts me less when I try to talk to her."

What may occur doesn't matter to me. I'm doing it.




My most recent attempt at a lightning bolt

 I worked out two of what I thought were lightning bolt designs.  One had a knit between the eyelets while the other did not. I tried out the regular one first, and thought it was too flat.  The more substantial DK weight yarn needed more, well, substance.


I began the second one (yes, in the form of a sock. Stupid, I know, but I just HAD to see it!) and thought it was muddy. The photo on this page is about the 4th incarnation of the lightning and I am likely going back to the first one, and adding columns beside it with baby cables, then entwined snakes.


You know, Parseltongue and all that.




What I think is my final design for the sock

 I think this next time I've got what I want. Do I even know what I'm doing? No. Will I be able to wear these in 10 years? Sure. Right along with my Dungeons & Dragons tee.