An entire opera in sock form.

November 21, 2010 1:55 PM

An entire opera in sock form. Although the opera has a happy ending, alas, the pictured sock seems to be unmated. Another opera sock: La fille du régiment. Apparently, she often creates "stitch patterns out of something very nearly approximating whole cloth."

There are plenty more, but the ballet Swan Lake (scroll almost to bottom, look for red sock toe that is large swan beak) won't be available until January. Sadly for this non-knitting shopper, but perhaps happily for the passionate knitters of MetaFilter, these are kits.

I know the main page here has been linked before, but I personally had no idea socks like this existed!

posted by amtho (10 comments total)

Crescent fresh.
posted by Countess Elena at 2:31 PM on November 21, 2010 [1 favorite]

not to be confused with puppet or that matter muppet opera
posted by victors at 4:20 PM on November 21, 2010

FWIW, this one of the most interesting and lovely socks I've seen, and the commentary in the page, explaining all the different stitches and how each relates to characters or situations in Turandot is really something. I have a huge amount of respect for anyone who puts such thought into any kind of project, especially something like a knit sock.
posted by amtho at 7:22 PM on November 21, 2010

Here is a sock-puppet opera! In fact, we call it the first same-socks opera. (Disclosure: I am in residence with this company.)
posted by typewriter at 7:27 PM on November 21, 2010

Unless you're one of us, you have NO IDEA just how intense and creative and (frankly,) weird hardcore knitters can be. This is precisely why I write knitting books for a living.

I love my tribe.
posted by bitter-girl.com at 8:41 PM on November 21, 2010

That reminds me -- this is the link I always haul out to prove just how unusual we appear to the rest of the world.

tl;dr? Salient quote:

This morning, one of the most popular producers of hand-dyed sock yarn, Blue Moon Fiber Arts, announced that they were making so much money on their sock yarn that their bank managers decided it must be a front for something illegal, and shut down Blue Moon’s credit card system, and refunded all of the money for the 2007 Sock Club!
posted by bitter-girl.com at 8:43 PM on November 21, 2010

Beautiful and amazing and inspiring. I've never knit socks, but I do knit a lot of lace, and there's a ton of technique here to learn from. Thanks for this link!
posted by fiercecupcake at 9:10 AM on November 22, 2010

Hee. These are not my only forays into the opera world. I think La Fanciulla del West may be the silliest of all, not to mention that it's also an anatomically correct cowboy boot. There are other ballet entries as well - Kitri is both a sock and a lace shawl, and Firebird in the making was an epic in body art.

Demonic possession, they tell me.

Fun, I haz it.
posted by tsocktsarina at 11:17 AM on November 22, 2010

OMG it's the Tsarina herself! You are awesome! Don't let anyone ever tell you you're overthinking a skein of yarn!
posted by amtho at 11:32 AM on November 22, 2010

Oh tsocks, your existence makes me happy. (Especially Abbey, the one that is effectively a giant inside joke about spinning.)

Commenting just to join in registering my love for the tribe.
posted by clavicle at 12:49 PM on November 22, 2010