Why they took so long, I don't know. Somehow I just kept getting distracted by other things (like this, this, this, this, this, this and this).
But now the Farfalle socks are officially done.
My inspiration came from Claudine's Little Cables Hat. I loved the idea of cables not set off by purls. The little staggered cables made me think of Farfalle pasta - even the color is is dead on Creamette.
The design is fairly simple. The hardest part was a little shifting to get the top of the foot centered and in line with the design on the leg. No real biggie.
Busy Bea was sharing her love of heels with a garter stitch border at just the right time in my progress, so a stockinette heel with a little garter stitch border it was. I do love the way it hides any holes when you pick up stitches for the gusset.
(Ooops - I guess this is my best heel shot. You can just see the garter stitch peeking out.)
It was a new toe for me as well - a round toe (from Knitting Vintage Socks and many other places as well). It fits my foot so nicely and is so mathematically pleasing, I will certainly use it again.
My only problem with them... it's way to hot for wool right now!
My notes are almost written into a pattern. I will post them someplace shortly.
We've got a little activity binder we use for amusement while traveling: colored pencils (they don't melt), coloring book, stickers, books, and a plain spiral notebook. Oh so much fun can be had with a plain notebook.
I was making sure it was fully stocked for some upcoming time away, and thought about what has annoyed me about the spiral notebook. It is difficult to open it and use it unless you open the three rings and take it out.
I had a small brainstorm...
...and did a line of single crochet along the spirals to use on the binder rings instead of the three holes.
I haven't felt this cool since I thought of using ice cube trays for a fun way to eat snacks.
I don't need to do a google search to know that I am probably far from the first person to think of this, but I am pretty excited to have a simple solution to my problem.
I am a little sad to be finis with my Clapotis. I now completely understand why there are knitters out there (like Very Pink) who have knit 10.
The pattern is not totally mindless, but it's simple enough to "multi-task knit" and pick up/put down easily. I wanted to keep myself from auto-piloting though (which I have a strong tendency to do), so I purled the "drop stitches" AND used stitch markers. Even still... I did make a couple mistakes to let the soul out.
The Clapotis pattern has a rhythm of 3 and 3 [knit, knit, knit then twist, knit (or purl), twist] - the little voice in my head kept repeating "1, 2, 3... cla - po - tee" as I went along. Or at least it did after I clued into the fact that it was "cla-po-tee" and not "cla-pot-isss" - duh! ::smacks forehead::
Many of my previous projects have been superwash, so this was the first time I used spit splicing (or to be a little less crude - a felted join) on a project, and all I can say about it is: Wow! That totally rocks!
I think that the initial skein squish of the alpaca fooled me a bit into thinking if would be a softer finished scarf. I am not a scratchy wool lover. In fact I am a fairly recent animal fiber convert - about the same time I started knitting a year and a half ago. Don't get me wrong, it is soft - but when I put it around my neck there is a little scratchy hair feeling to it. I may just have SNS (sensitive neck syndrome) - I wonder if there is something I can take for that. The alpaca is also very warm, AND it's July - so I am reserving judgment for when I can really take it out for a test drive.
Although there is no more fun, bouncy feeling now that I have blocked it - I really like the look of blocked vs. unblocked... and it has fabulous weight and drape.
If I ever do make another Clapotis (which is highly probable) I think I will choose a varigated yarn. I find it hard to believe that I am saying this - since I feel horribly scarred by pooling with varigated yarns - but I really like the effect of color changes with the dropped stitches - like here, here, here, here and here.
We are still living in the excitement of last weekend's move to the BKB (Big Kid Bed). D made one for him that fits his crib mattress out of the wood and supplies that overflow from fill our garage.
I was a bit worried about constant getting up or no longer napping - but so far we are cruising along like normal. And normal is pretty good.
In other Bud news - Arthur the cat (aka Tangles the Beanie Baby) desperately needed a bath after a leaky diaper incident. I plopped him in the washer with a load, and sent him through the dryer, and he came out with his whites white and his tans... um... tan. So all of you with Beanie Babies to wash, have no fear.
I figured I could take a chance since more Arthurs are available on ebay for about 2.99 plus shipping. Whew!
Start-itis that is. I've been trying to be good. I don't think that it is helping that I have requested a bunch of books from the library recently.
One of my coping mechanisms though is to let myself freely start really tiny projects like...
Ayanna's skirt
Brandon's "killer" surf trunks
and these little cashmere booties
Brandon and Ayanna are from my collection of Groovy Girl dolls at my library. They are currently out of circulation because they lost their clothes from so much love.
Ayanna's Skirt Yarn: "Rambling Rose" Zen Yarn Garden (I only had a small bit left from my Gloria v 2.0) Needles: US 2 circ magic loop
I think this is what I did:
CO 40 stitches k2 p2 ribbing for about 3/4 inch K 2-3 rounds Increase by one stitch every 5 stitches once around K 2-3 rounds Increase by one stitch every 6 stitches once around k 2-3 rounds Increase by one stitch every 7 stitches once around k 2-3 rounds k2, YO around one round k 2 rounds p one round BO
I started the legs 2 at a time magic loop. Each leg is 30 stitches around with a little seed stitch edge at the bottom.
Cashmere Baby Booties - a modified version of the angora ones in LMKG Yarn: Jade Sapphire Mongolian Cashmere Needles: US 2 circs
(photo from LMKG)
My leftover cashmere does not have the same super fuzzy halo of the angora in the photos for the pattern, so my attempt just looked and felt loosely knit and blah.
I wasn't satisfied with it's cute-osity (the official cuteness level) from my first attempt, so I made a few modifications.
With smaller needles (US 2 32" circs) I used the "magic cast on" to cast on 12 stitches on each needle. I knit back and forth 8 rows and then picked up 4 stitches on each end of the rectangle (added 2 stitches on each end of each needle to keep things centered) to start knitting in the round on 32 stitches.
I knit until the toe was 2 inches long, then like the pattern I left the center 8 stitches (1/4 of the total) stitches on the "front" needle and knit back and forth on the back needle for 10-12 rows and did the 3 needle bind off up the middle of the heel. I picked up stitches for the cuff (I didn't understand the point of the turning in the pattern) and k1,p1 around.
For my BO I k2 (or purled following the ribbing) put both stitches back on the needle and k2tog, then*k1 and put both stitches back and k2tog*. It made for a bit stretchier top. Thanks to Chawne for getting me hooked on that stretchy BO for toe-ups.
They are so cute and soft - I just want to play with them Benny and Joon style.
No new projects started tonight though. Instead I was doing this.
