Saturday, September 01, 2007

Here they are...

but I kind of want to put that in tiny letters, because these socks too are *sigh* deeply imperfect.


I still love my idea of these socks; they are for an "Anne of Green Gables" craft-a-long. The guidelines were simply read the book, and do something inspired by your reading of the book, before September 1st. I was inspired by the scene at the end of Anne's trip to White Sands to recite at a concert at the hotel.

The girls are talking about how fancy and impressive everything "in town" was, and Jane says "Did you see all the diamonds those ladies wore? They were simply dazzling. Wouldn't you just love to be rich, girls?" and Anne answers "We are rich. We have sixteen years to our credit, and we're happy as queens, and we've all got imaginations, more or less. Look at that sea, girls - all silver and shadow and visions of things not seen. We couldn't enjoy it's loveliness any more if we had millions of dollars and ropes of diamonds. You wouldn't change into any of those women if you could. Would you want to be that white lace girl and wear a sour look all your life, as if you'd been born turning up your nose at the world? Or the pink lady, kind and nice as she is, so stout and short you'd really no figure at all? Or even Mrs. Evans, with that sad, sad look in her eyes? She must have been dreadfully unhappy sometimes to have such a look. You know you wouldn't, Jane Andrews! ... I don't want to be any one but myself, even if I go uncomforted by diamonds all my life. I'm quite content to be Anne of Green Gables, with my string of pearl beads. I know Matthew gave me as much love with them as ever went with Madame the Pink Lady's jewels."

So my socks are Anne socks; she was wearing a white dress in that scene, though (with a pearl bead necklace) and I just can't make my handknit socks white. So I used Claudia's Handpaint in Butter Pecan - it's a cream sort of color, with shots of a yellowy color that reminded me of the infamous ugly yellow dress Anne first wears, and another color that sometimes looks purple and sometimes looks auburn. Purple reminded me of the amethyst brooch of Marilla's that Anne admired so much and then was accused of stealing, and of course auburn would be for Anne's hair. So instead of white for the dress she's wearing in that scene, the socks represent the things that have helped make Anne who she is.



I'm also working on a pair of "Pink Lady" socks with crystal beads that will be a frilly, lacy pattern, but I haven't finished yet. Unfortunately, my Anne socks a) don't fit me and b) don't match each other. The second one is smaller than the first, but even the larger first one won't fit on my foot, and I'm kicking myself. Right now I think I'm going to *gasp* frog the second one and re-do it to match the first, and then I'll find someone they fit and give them away. But I'm really mad at myself for having stopped trying them on once I turned the heel.

5 comments:

Lauren said...

I really like the design of them, I'm sorry they didn't turn out the correct size.

Bryony Ramsden said...

Oops! That wasn't quite to plan, but they are still very pretty, so even so, be pleased you managed to interpret the book so well. Not many people could have been as creative as you, or design something like that just from a story, so you've done well :)

Anonymous said...

They are so gorgeous! As soon as I looked at them, and saw that they were inspired by the trip to White Sands, I thought they looked like the beach. But your description of your inspiration for them goes far beyond that.

nicole said...

Yaaaaayyyy! They are so pretty! Too bad you have to fix them up a little - but they are awesome - and I love the excerpt you were inspired by!

Morgan said...

Well, they look perfect to me! I love that you made something inspired by the book, but useful, too! Very pretty!