Well, one more time my students have made my day! Linda took my Heritage Heirloom Sox class at Heritage Spinning in January. She says:

My mom and I have our socks done from class, and finally got together to take the shots! They came out really cute and we are getting ready to play around with the pattern for a new pair.

Wowie! These ladies took the pattern and made it their own. Notice that Linda’s version has a different color for heel and toe, a nice touch. (I’m pretty bummed, because I am going blank on Mom’s name… I remember she had a name the same as someone important in my life but I just can’t remember right now.)

Mom (Diane) added an extra geometric band of squares at the bottom of the cuff. She also created a double-colored stripe at the toe. That extra stripe is really wonderful.

I just love how creative knitters are. They almost always refuse to call themselves artists, and it baffles me. When I worked with rooms full of polymer clay artists, they kept asking me exactly what green they should use, and they did their best to duplicate my project as I had designed it. I wonder if they were afraid to do things “wrong” or if they really thought they were not capable of doing a beautiful version of my concept in a different way?

Knitters instinctively change at least the color of their project, very often. And since yarns are not available universally (or they get discontinued), knitters have to learn to substitute yarns often enough that they learn they can change things.

And then when people keep going with their creativity, when they add two stripes at the toe for example, well… that makes it even more art. So why are we not calling ourselves artists more often? I don’t get it.

Ladies, you did a fabulous job! Keep up the excellent work, and please stay in touch.

Photos: 1) Linda and mom Diane, modeling their new creations. 2) My version of the sock as pictured on the pattern these ladies used. 3) Same ladies, same socks, up close.