Thursday, July 05, 2007

Who's got spirit? I guess I do

On the day we celebrate American spirit I finished a pair of socks in honor of an American tradition, futbol americana (also known as football). These socks make me think of fall, of watching football games, of tailgating. As such they are my rockin' hawk socks. They are so named because the color and choice of project was started as a (belated) father's day gift for DH so that he could wear them to keep his toes warm while he tailgates. Although our days in Iowa are limited, I am sure that he will continue to wear these on football Saturday's out of tradition. Happy father's day Chad, enjoy your Hawk socks!

The yarn choice was Lorna's laces Bee Stripe. Interestingly, none of the LYS carry this color. I found it this spring when I was in Pittsburgh at Dyed in the Wool , at first I was surprised (they had several different types of yellow and black yarn). I thought to myself, "Why all the Hawkeye love so far away?" I picked up my sock yarn and some other purchases and was making small talk with the owner and made a joke about how I had to fly to the East coast to find Hawkeye sock yarn. She laughed at my perplexed look and said, "That's Steelers yarn hon, but if you want to pretend it's Hawkeye yarn go ahead." Oh yeah, duh. The Hawkeye colors and uniforms were initially modeled (and still bear an uncanny resemblance to) the Steelers uniforms. So it is little surprise that I would find black and gold yarn in Pittsburgh.

The pattern is a chaotic sort of basketweave that was pretty fun, it is based on "Gentleman's Shooting Sock" from "Knitting Vintage Socks" on size one needles. They are also my first finished pair of socks for Summer of Socks!



Let's go Hawkeyes........... Let's Go!!!!!!

Here is a closer detail of the stitch pattern



"The word is "Fight! Fight! Fight! for IOWA,
Let every loyal Iowan sing;
The word is "Fight! Fight! Fight! for IOWA,"
Until the walls and rafters ring (Go Hawks!)
Come on and cheer, cheer, cheer, for IOWA
Come on and cheer until you hear the final gun.
The word is "Fight! Fight! Fight! for IOWA,"
Until the game is won."

- The U of Iowa Fight song

3 comments:

Tracy Batchelder said...

Nice socks! They will be a great reminder of Iowa when you are no longer there.

tekopp said...

I loved reading this post :) The story just made me smile.

Melissa said...

Great socks!

I had no idea the Hawkeyes uniforms were fashioned after the Steelers. Another Steelers nugget for my brain :)

A few years ago I was flipping through the TV stations and saw black and gold jerseys and automatically thought it was the Steelers. I then realized it was Saturday, so it must be college. It was Iowa.

It was a great game and now I watch them whenever they are on TV here in NC.