Shake your booties

I seem to be copying Max in all her knitting lately. I recently finished these baby booties--from Saartje Knits--with help from Miss Max. For some reason the way the straps were written in the pattern didn't quite "grok" with me. But after a few tries and help with the button hole (learned something new there), I finished them right up. They were knit in Debbie Bliss Cashmerino. They're probably for a 12 - 15 month old baby, but they'll be given as a gift at a baby shower next week along with this baby sweater that's probably closer to newborn size.

This is another project that Max completed in 2007: the famed baby sweater from Elizabeth Zimmerman's Knitter's Almanac. I think I have trouble really recognizing lace patterns, so I started it and made a few too many mistakes for my taste. Since I'm so not fearless about ripping back and picking up stitchs, I just ended up frogging the whole thing and starting again. For me, the second time was the charm. It's also knit in Debbie Bliss, but in the Merino dk.
2008 is getting off to a good start for me in terms of FOs and stashbusting!

Beegbootees

Pattern: Saartje’s Bootees (pdf)
Yarn: Koigu KPPPM
Needles: US 1 (2s would have been better)
Gauge: between 7.5 and 8 st per inch
Size: Newborn; right bootie: 3 5/8" long, left bootie: 3 3/8" (aargh)
Notions: 4 vintage pale green cat-eye buttons

Something spooky happened while knitting these booties: my gauge got tighter from one bootie to the next. Though I’ve always disliked being a loose knitter, I’ve never been able to tighten up. Until now, apparently. Oh, well! Many, many humans have one foot larger than the other - perhaps this baby, due November, gender unknown, will too.

The next pair, for a baby due October, follows shortly. This was a very pleasing pattern to knit. A modification I’ll make next time is adding one or two stitches to the top strap (alternating from left to right). That would make the top strap fit more nicely over the bottom, when buttoned.

I keep saying this, but omigosh! It’s so hard to go in to work this morning. I have the two final dvds in the second season of Veronica Mars and it’s raining. But it’s my last day before vacation, so I must. Cheerio!

No-good, two-timin’ KAL pal

Hi Stacie! I have a confession to make:


Wing o’ the Moth isn’t back on the needles yet. While I probably don’t actually have to wait until I can get bifocals, I just haven’t been compelled to up and cast on for the third time. Not like I was compelled to knit some booties after seeing Adrian’s at the Lazy Redliners SnB. Compelled, I say.

Above is my first pair, quickly abandoned when I decided, in the dim light at 10pm, that they looked, well, not like clown vomit, precisely, but... Maybe baby-clown spit-up. None of the expecting parents on my list are quite hippie-ish enough for a pair of these. Although they’re looking better in this morning’s foggy light.


Here’s the first of a better pair. It’s Koigu KPPPM in a color I think of as Taos. I don’t know that the yarn will actually be heavy enough. It’s an experiment. One I’d like to stay home to complete and then write up. I’m making the larger size—let’s call them “beegbootee.”


My spoils from last night’s stash-be-gone include this 8oz hank of Hello Yarn superwash merino, whose slightly wonky spin caused Adrian to label it a dud. Not to me it’s not. Yum. Yum, yum, yum. Thank you, Adrian!

At this point, I still plan on taking Moth to the Cape with me next week, but Stacie: you should be ready to perform an intervention if I can’t talk about anything but beegbootees over the next few days.