Lace-edged Socks

I mailed more socks off to Lily and Eva yesterday. I forgot to take a picture of Eva's socks. They're white socks edged in Altin Basak #3005, size 50. Maybe Alison will take a picture of Eva's socks and e-mail it to me so I can show them off!

I've been asked by a friend to post my way of making lace-edged socks. Remember, I'm a librarian, and I spend my time telling stories to children, so sometimes I get a little long-winded! Here goes...

I learned to tat from watching videos by Mildred Shire Clark and Bev Dillon. They're wonderful! I can stop and rewind to my heart's content. I just can't find them right now, because my sewing/knitting/crocheting/tatting/computer room is such a mess. In one of those two videos (since I can't put my fingers on them right now, I can't tell you which one), Mildred/Bev showed a pair of children's socks with tatted lace. I thought, "Hey, I can do that!" (I talk to myself a lot!) When my girls were little I used to crochet edgings on their socks, so why not tat? One of the videos showed daisy lace, which I sort of memorized (that means I think I remember how the pattern goes). It's a shuttle only pattern, so it's easy for me to carry around in my purse.

Each daisy is a ring of picots. The first ring is 2 ds, 6 picots separated by 1 ds, 2 ds, close. I'd guess that I leave about a 1/2 inch of thread before I start the next daisy. All of the following daisies are 2 ds, join to last picot of previous daisy ring, 5 picots separated by 1 ds, 2 ds, close. I follow this pattern until I have 42 daisies. I leave a very long tail, probably a yard... I'd rather waste a little thread than run short. Then, I simply thread my needle and attach the lace by the thread in between each daisy to each recessed rib. I stretch the ribbing as I sew on the lace so that there is still enough give.

How did I come up with 42 daisies? I counted the number of recessed ribs on the sock. I haven't tried this with adult socks yet. The ribs are wider than on children's socks, so I'll have to experiment. I'm very slow with any needlework I do, so one sock takes me about 2 to 2 1/2 hours to complete. Whenever I speed up I make lots of mistakes. Oh, who am I kidding? I make lots of mistakes anyway!

Am I violating copyright by sharing how I do this? I hope not! If I am... Mildred, Bev, please forgive me!