Booties ready to be delivered!

I just finished making 7 pairs of booties (2 of which are not completely finished but knitting wise they are done) and I thought I was done, but then my cousin goes off and has a baby boy yesterday. The Hazel Knits comes back out! I love the Beach Glass/Chocolatier combo, totally perfect! I am also playing with stripes. I need to figure out how to make them with those leaves (from the original pattern) so that I can avoid buying and sewing on buttons. I hate buttons. I never feel like they are secure enough.

And BIG NEWS - I cast on for a … drum roll … SWEATER! Yes, you heard that right, a garment! Not a sock, not a scarf, not a bootie, not children’s clothing, a full grown man’s sweater! Michael actually requested one. I knit him one out of alpaca when we lived in TEXAS so it never got worn and it is still too hot to even wear here. I attempted to knit him one out of cotton, but got about 1/2 way done and put it away (this was 12 or so years ago) and I just frogged it 6 months ago. It was waaaaay too huge. I have also made maybe 3 or 4 other sweaters. One sleeveless one for my mom who actually wore it quite a bit. One for my sister, who I’m guessing never wore it, and a couple for myself - one came out waaaay too bulky and the other I wore a few times. So I haven’t had very much luck when it comes to sweaters. But now that I know a whole lot more about knitting and am more careful about stuff, I thought it was time to try it again. After scouring Ravelry for appropriate patterns, I decided on Jared’s Cobblestone Pullover. I almost didn’t cast on because looking at how much it would cost was very off putting. And then I found Cascade 220 tweed at Die Wollbox for around 7eur/skein. Not bad at all! Wish me luck, I hope I don’t get too bored with the stockinette…

Go ahead and queue it in Ravelry: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/saartjes-booties-the-bockstark-way

The Original Saartje’s Booties Pattern is here.

OK, I’m sure someone out there has done it this way and I haven’t seen it or never wrote it down. But here it is what I do:

Using the Magic Cast On, cast on 31(35) stitches (do it normally to 30(34) sts then loop the yarn over one more time to create an extra stitch). You should have 15(17) on one needle and 16(18) on the other. It is important to do the magic cast on because it creates a row of “purled” sts. Please note that you are working the piece WRONG SIDE OUT.

Join in the round.

round 1: p15 (17), pm, p1, pm, p15 (17) You should move the stitches so that you have 17(19) on one needle and 14(16) on the other. It makes the increases easier.
round 2: kbf, k to marker, m1, k1, m1, k to last stitch, kbf
round 3: purl
round 4: kbf, k to marker, m1, k3, m1, k to last stitch, kbf
round 5: purl
round 6: kbf, k to marker, m1, k1, m1, k3, m1, k1, m1, k to last stitch, kfb
round 7: purl
round 8: kbf, k to marker, m1, k1, m1, k7, m1, k1, m1, k to last stitche, kfb
round 9 - 18(20): work in garter stitch, removing the markers
round 19(21): switch to CC (optional) and purl
round 20(22): k15(17), ssk 5x, k1, k2tog 5x, k15(17)
round 21(23) - 23(25): work 3 rows garter stitch
round 24(26): k10(11), bind off 21(23), k10

Now, TURN THE BOOTIE RIGHT SIDE OUT, you are now going to work on the RS.

The straps are going to be worked like the original pattern. For my cast ons, I don’t cut the yarn until after I’m done knitting. I just pull a long length from the currently worked yarn (photo coming soon). Be sure to leave ample lengths so that you can do the buttonloops.

Right strap:
continuing from previous round (turn), k10(11), co 10(12), turn
knit 20(23), turn
knit 20(23), turn
bo 20(23)

Left strap:
cast on 10(12) then knit 10(11)
knit 20(23), turn
knit 20(23), turn
bo 20(23)

Finishing:
You only have to join the very top rows of the bootie and that’s it, and then weave in the ends… For the buttonloops, I used this tutorial.

Knitted Buttons:
For the booties, since they are so small, you need a small button. Cast on 5 stitches (leave about 5″ of tail on the cast on edge to use as stuffing), work 7 rows of stockinette. Cut yarn and leave about 12″ of tail. Pass tail yarn through live stitches, then with a tapestry needle, pick up stitches along the rest of the 3 edges. Pull tight and stuff the cast on edge tail in the bobble. Make a couple of criss-cross stitches to sew it shut. Sew into place.

Please let me know if you have any questions or errors to report as I’m just writing this off the top of my head!

Modified Saartje’s Booties in Hazel Knits

Oh so tiny!

I have been completely obsessed with perfecting Saartje’s Booties (pdf)! So now, I give y’all permission to have more babies! :) I have already knit 3.5 pairs, but only 2 completely finished.

The first one was the one with sublime baby cashmere merino silk dk and while I did a fairly good job with the seaming, it just took a lot of time doing it and going around the heel was kind of weird. I followed the pattern to the “T”. I was slightly confused with the strap parts, but eventually figured it out. The tutorial that I used for the buttonloops are here. The buttonloops are my favorite part but I still need practice with getting them both the same size. I also went over some mattress stitch tutorials here and here. Katariina gave me a good tip about the ends sticking out, and told me to thread the ends through the sts to “hide” it. I can’t believe I didn’t think of this before!

I also made another pair with Wollmeise Rittersporn and Sonne, but only completely finished one side but just knitted the other. All that seaming and ends weaving in is a lot of work!

So I decided to try doing it in the round via fleegle’s method. I had to learn to do the Turkish cast on (a lot easier than I thought it would be), but was dissatisfied with the knit sts at the cast on edge. And also, to keep it true to the original pattern, I turned it inside out and did the straps the “normal” way. This also made the strip of knit stitches on the inside so it’s not as noticeable. So it wasn’t completely seamless, but I think it looks better. Also, I like the original button loops and not crochet version.

So, this is leading me to my own variation of the pattern, one that I think keeps true to the form of the original while doing it in the round, except for the last bit. I will write it up in case anyone else is interested in my method.

The booties in this pic are with Hazel Knits Artisan sock in Tulip and Chocolatier. Yummeee! I am making these for boy/girl twins, so I’m thinking of making the other one brown and green or blue, haven’t decided yet.

1 bootie in search of buttons!

So I’ve wanted to make Saartje’s booties (pdf) for awhile, but in my head they were for girls. The cross over strap thingy made me think it was a girl thing. But everyone on Ravelry and even my husband said “no way!” So now I’m going to make 4 pairs for friends. Didn’t I tell you guys to stop having babies??? I guess you didn’t listen. That’s ok, they are waaaay cute! Weaving in the ends is a bitch though. I hate having ends stick out. How do you guys deal with this? In the pictures, I don’t see anyone else have ends, maybe it’s just hidden. I’m getting better at seaming though, so that’s good news!

Destash is going well, thanks to all who participated. I have to take photos of more yarn and put them up.

And now, a quote from my hilarious husband. I asked him to get a 10 lb. bag of rice, but instead he got a 10 KILO bag. And then I found that he wrote this in his blog: “Today I walked across town with a 10 kilogram (20 pounds?) bag of rice on my head. It was so much easier to carry that way! I don’t think there is anything else to say.” No wonder the kids have been saying “daddy rice head”. I just thought they meant he likes rice.

So, I have piles and piles of yarn in my room that I still haven’t integrated into my stash. I went through my Ravelry stash page and put some up for “will trade or sell”. Take a look! It’s probably not worth it for those of you outside of the EU (unless you buy some of the german yarns) since the shipping is so high. I’m looking to sell and not trade since the Wollmeise spring market is coming up in April and I need to be prepared! Oh yeah, and also, I have kids to feed. But that’s not quite as important. ;)

I think as I dig through my stash and put them up on Ravelry, I will probably have more. But this is the first cut.

First handspun hat

Yesterday I had a serious hankering to knit a new hat. Last year, I did a swap with Chawne (cauchy09) and she sent me some really gorgeous handspun. I didn’t knit it up right away, but I thought about it a LOT. I wanted to have the perfect pattern! It was also only around 100 yards, so it had to be small too. Back when we swapped, I didn’t make a whole lot of hats, so that didn’t even cross my mind. But yesterday, I was really really driven to make a hat and that was the first yarn to pop into my head.

I originally wanted to use the red skein, but it had less than the other color, so I thought I should be safe and use the one with more yarn. It didn’t take long to make - maybe 3 or so hours? It’s a simple “square” hat, knitted in the round on 72 sts. Then I kitchenered the top except the 4 sts on each end. Then I made some icord and voila!

I love handspun now and want to get more. Anyone up for a trade? I have LOTS of Wollmeise! :)

Pattern: my own
Yarn: Handspun from cauchy09 - Hello Yarn 100% corriedale top “trodden” - 3ply, dk/aran weight
Needles: Knit Picks options US9 circ needles
Started: February 22, 2007
Completed: February 22, 2007

So, I remember a few days ago my husband mentioning how ticked off he was that he bought shampoo only it turned out to be conditioner. And I was like “didn’t you check it”? And he said yes, that it did in fact look like shampoo (the bottle did, at least). He didn’t know that “Pflegespülung” means conditioner. And mind you, my husband buys things that he is familiar with - so he always buys Clairol Herbal Essences. This is the shampoo with the woman going nuts because it smells so good. I always thought it was funny, but it smells good, so whatever. Anyways, he has bought shampoo before, but maybe they were out, so he picked up a bottle that looked like shampoo. If he bothered to open the bottle, he would’ve known immediately that it was not shampoo.

So today, while in the shower, I noticed that he bought a new bottle of shampoo. It is called “Guhl” (pronounced “ghoul”). I was laughing so hard! Because in my head, he was so mad at Herbal Essenses, that he bought the one thing that was the least flowery and Herbal Essense-like. It says something like “has a manly scent”. Oh god, I’m still laughing…