Sassy Does It

The photo shoot with Maizy is a wrap, so now I can share my review of this pattern (as modified from women’s size to child’s) and the final product.

Original pattern:  More Fun Than Cables Socks by Marguerite Byrne, available for free at Stitches of Violet (Ravelry link)

My modified pattern:  More Fun Than Cables Socks (children’s knee-highs); mini-me version to fit 3- to 4-year old feet (Ravelry link to project notes)

Yarn:  Valley Yarns Huntington (machine washable wool) in colorway 4150

Needle:  US 3 circular (I routinely use the 2-at-a-Time method for socks on one circular, but pattern is written for use on two circulars; could be used with traditional dpn method)

Finished dimensions:  calf circumference = 4.25 inches (unstretched), knee to heel top = 11 inches, back of heel to end of toe = nearly 7 inches

In reducing the overall number of stitches to fit the foot size of a 3- to 4-year old, I needed to make some adjustments to the pseudo-cable pattern that repeats, and to accommodate a knee-high fit, I also modified the length.  You can review my adjustments via this modified pattern link in PDF format (also above) or through my Patterns link on the sidebar to the right.

I’m really happy with how these turned out:  I mean, come on, is Maizy not adorable in the bright-red knee-highs?  And tell me the fingernails in the picture above aren’t the cutest thing you’ve ever seen.  I love my niece, I really do.  She is so stylin’.

They come up right to her knees - bingo, right on target - and appear to fit her very well; tight enough around the calf to stay up.  I made sure to shoot on the long side for foot length so that she can wear these puppies for close to a year (assuming they hold up!).

Sissy B tells me that she’s enjoyed wearing them several times already, tying them in with outfits of all colors, including some (like hot pink) that grown women might not normally pair with red.   That’s my girl:  fashion-forward.

Sizing-wise, if you would like to make any further tweaks to size slightly up or down in age, I used a couple of resources in determining foot length for children of various ages, among other dimensions (length from knee to ankle, calf circumference…this second link is a lot of data, but I’m a nerd, as you’ve already heard on this subject).  If your wee recipient isn’t within reach to do the measurements in person, this info might come in handy.

I like the Huntington yarn (by Valley Yarns, procured from WEBS).  Soft yet sturdy, smoothly sliding down my non-Addi Turbo cheapo needles.   Not splitty at all - very easy to work with.  I’ve already drooled all over the perfect shade of red.

My research prior to ordering the yarn indicated that the yarn could be both machine-washed and tumble-dried (although the latter isn’t on the label). 

I’ll ask Sissy B how the fabric stands up over time.  Although machine-washing will probably be her choice moving forward, she said she hand-washed after Maizy road-tested them for the first time (getting them nice and dirty, like a good girl should).  Maizy modeled the socks for the photos here after that wash.  I noticed a bit of white fuzz clinging at this point, but not pilling.

These nearly made it entirely out of one skein.  You can see here how close to the toe ends my last bit of first skein stopped (in the 2-at-a-Time method, I pull from both the middle yarn and the outside strand to knit each sock on a different portion of the circular needle at the same time).

I used only 10-15 yards of my second skein in order to finish up with the foot length I wanted.  In fact, so eager was I to manage to crank these out from just the one skein (even though the second one was sitting right there) that I finished these socks once with a shorter length (around 6.25 inches instead of closer to 7).  And these would have fit Maizy now, on the tighter side…but given that the foot length is the dimension that will change the most for her in the next year, I wanted room to grow.  Plus there might be some shrinkage in the laundry.  You know.

So I ripped back re-did them to add that extra 3/4 inch.  Worth it.  Happy I did.

Overall, two thumbs up for both pattern and yarn.  Comment away with any questions.

More soon on other progress, which I’m happy to report has actually occurred.  Sheer Poncho was off the needles, as in off off, but a stretchier bind-off is needed…so it’s back on the needles.  Heavens to Betsy, if I don’t have it ready for mailing to Kymber by the end of the weekend I’m gonna be in my own dog house.

The bold red in-your-face knee-highs for Maizy are off the needles, finally.

Official FO post will come once I’ve got proof that they actually fit on the 3-year-old recipient’s feet.  After I’ve sent them off and Sissy B can send me back some glamour shots, I’ll include those with the post, along with my adapted pattern and comments.

I did a Eucalan wash last night and then set these little guys to block.  I didn’t need to pin as it was easy enough to shape to the dimensions to which I’d knit.

After a wash, a few rinses and another wash, the pink water told me that the rinse water might need a smidgen of vinegar to help set the dye.

Did a little research and found nothing terribly convincing one way or the other as to whether this was the right way to go, so I went ahead and tossed about a teaspoon into my (small) bathroom sink full of lukewarm rinse water.

One more rinse and then no color bleed at all in the water.  This fiber (Huntington, from Valley Yarns) is meant to be machine washable and dryable, so I think as long as Sissy B sticks with cold water she’ll be fine.  There’s nothing like a bright red sock in the hot water of that load of whites to ruin your day.

Anyhoo, these puppies are looking and feeling soft and lovely.  I’ll have some closer-up views of the pattern with the FO post.  Right now I’m trying not to fondle them until they’re completely dry.

I’m deep in Cowl Country with my Sheer Poncho.  I really am very near completion.

See?

The cowl neck is a little constrained by the circular needle in this photo, but you get the picture.  I think I need another 2 inches or so on the cowl, at least that’s when I’ll weave through a length of yarn to hold it and do a final fit.

Another 3 inches or so of length in the body I think will do it as well. 

Maybe tonight will be the night I get this done.  OK, maybe not.

In other news…

The yarn fairy made a visit this week.  Hurrah!  Fortunately it was not a random splurge, but the other kind of splurge:  premeditated (it still sounds naughty, doesn’t it?).

It had occurred to me that another baby-induced deadline was creeping up on me and I hadn’t gotten it together to plan my project.  Upon realizing this, it was a minor miracle that it didn’t take me forever to narrow the shortlist of queued patterns in my head and pounce on the yarn.  I’m getting quicker at these sort of not-as-serious-and-lengthy-as-I-try-to-make-them decisions.

My love affair with Blue Sky Alpacas continues, but at least I’m spreading the torrid affection around in that family.

The pattern I’ve landed on - which I will attempt to keep a secret from the receiver of the gift for now - called for a finer gauge than the organically-grown dyed cotton (4-5 st/in) I’d used for my last baby item, so I was looking for something lighter-weight (5-6 st/in).

I didn’t start out considering Blue Sky, thinking I should try to find something entirely new to me.  I liked the organic approach though, for all things baby, and I wanted to stick with cotton for the summer months.

A Ravelry yarn search for “organic cotton” showed me plenty of choices, but I got distracted by someone’s glowing review of Skinny Organic and it put me right back into bed with Blue Sky Alpacas.

Oh, well - until I’ve tried the whole line, I don’t see the harm in checking out all the different variations of wonderful that they offer, right?  I mean each yarn is unique, right?

So I went for it, although I decided that I’d go for more color than going solely with the 100% naturally-occurring hues of Birch or Clay offered in the Skinny Organic line.  I did pick out a skein of Birch (colorway 30) to use as a trim and selected Pear (colorway 312, a new addition) from the Skinny Dyed collection (organically grown fibers with colors created by low-impact dyes) as my main color.

It arrived this week, and as we all are when the postie drops the care package at our door, I was over the moon.  I love these shades together, and this fiber will make a beautiful baby item.

Here’s a little swatch to tease you.

More deets on on this project as it gets closer to the date I’m ready to gift it.

Over and out.  Starting to get that Sunday-night ick feeling, so I better go eat something to make it all better.

Work has been sucking down my free time pretty hard.

I’m a little down for the count after a busy week on the road. We had a huge meeting, one for which I’d been planning strategy and logistics for months. Once it finally arrived, it was as expected - long hours, little sleep, lots of stress. Mixed with fun - can’t say I didn’t enjoy.

And, I’m happy to say that it went down smoothly - mission accomplished. But you know how it works - being able to sit back and enjoy the peace after this would be too easy.

As soon as I took my foot off the gas, my body reminded me that it had been working overtime to support my excessive demands. Within 90 minutes of wrapping my meeting, the tatters of my immune system raised the white flag.

The flu, or something resembling it, came home to roost.

But so it goes - I guess it’s my turn.

In between squirting that sinus-clearing stuff up my nose and enduring the general malaise of sore joints, I might get some knitting done.

Poor, lost-in-the-shuffle knitting. By the time I finish my projects, both of which are winterish, summer will be here.

I made good progress on Maizy’s socks on the plane back from England a couple of weeks ago. Then I realized I needed my 2-at-a-Time Socks book in front of me to remember the instructions for turning the heel. Winging it resulted in losing more time cleaning up the mess I made of it, so I just put it back in the bag and congratulated myself on finally finishing the length of the sock up until the heel (at long last).

Kymber’s birthday gift didn’t quite get done while I was still with her for her birthday in the UK. I made huge progress on it while I was there, but after a few days of turbo-knitting while half-looking people in the eye through my needles during conversation, I reconsidered.  Better than getting it done in time for her b-day, I decided, was to cozy up next to my friends with a cup of tea or a glass of wine and give our interaction my full attention while I still had the privilege of sitting righttherenexttothem.

In short: the Sheer Poncho is still not freaking done, but it has become more fabulous by the inch.

Since this photo, I decided to pull through a yarn stitch holder along the bottom of the poncho so that I could go ahead and knock off the cowl before continuing with more (possibly superfluous) length. It’ll be easier to tell how long it needs to be once the cowl is on, I think.

Or maybe I was just bored with the body and hungry for the more frequent increases of the cowl.

I think I’ll have plenty of yarn, but I’d rather finish the cowl with confidence that I can make it as bulky and swishy as I want and not worry about how much I’ll need for the rest of the body length.

So. Er, I guess that’s it on the knitting.

In the absence of any other knitting progress, I’ll post a few photies from my vacation.

First, I was in the north of England with Kymber and her blossoming fam (you’ll remember the recent addition of Little K, the recipient of Curlicue). In spite of the general chilly drizzly weather at this time of year along the northeast coast of England, we had some beautiful days of walking. The area near the Scottish border has lots of places to explore - castles and rocky coastlines and sea-hugging little villages.

One of these is a tiny island called Lindisfarne - complete with just such a village and a castle that were fun to take in on a sunny, crisp winter day. This is a tidal island, meaning that you can access it only by driving across the sandy strip around it from the mainland when the tide is out. No bridge. Just a tidal table that tells you what time you won’t get stuck.

It’s also called Holy Island - a place rooted in religious history beginning with the founding of a monastery there in 635 AD. The ruins of a comparatively new-fangled priory that was built in 1150 stand there today.

We meandered around and made our way out to the castle. I accidentally wandered a little too close to a few sheep who freaked me out with baa-ing and dirty looks, but I guess it could be interpreted as me freaking them out first. I’m not good with animals - there, I said it.

We embarked on what really should be coined a Sticky Toffee Tour while in the North. Pretty much every meal needed to end with sticky toffee pudding. If there was a chance that the restaurant or pub we were considering for lunch did not offer such goodness, well, move it along, folks. We’ll take our bulging waistlines to the next place until we’re satisfied.

On top of the sticky toffee, I consumed a whole lot of cheese and chocolate, not to mention the wine and Irish coffees.

Oh yeah…I brought home a little extra jiggle with me from this holiday.

Before I left England I swung through London to see my pals there, and it was so lovely to see them.  Frankly, though, what I’ll remember most from this visit will be the snow. Not that there isn’t a smattering of snow from time to time in London, but it’s very rare to have inches and inches fall down and stick.

I was walking back to the neighborhood where I was staying on the last night there when the snow that had flurried earlier in the day started to pick up. Even after I popped into a pub for an hour (oh joy, a pint, my laptop, my knitting, and happy pub-goers chatting around me - does it get better?), the snow kept coming.

After a gratuitous parmesan-filled dinner at a little Italian place, I emerged on the street again. Soft, heavy snowflakes that stayed on my nose and eyelashes, just like Julie Andrews likes them. What fun! Even the locals were snapping pictures; flashes were coming out of flats all the way down the street as people stuck their heads out windows to watch the happenings below.

I’d taken a few pics earlier when the snow started accummulating, but by the time dinner was done it was even more important to capture for posterity. Too bad my camera battery died and I didn’t snap as many more as I might have done, but the memory of the thick flakes piling up all over - so outside of their natural habitat! - will stay with me.

In the morning, I was still happy but the natives were restless. It was beautiful, to be sure - nearly six inches on top of everything - but the fun had stopped for much of London. Nothing runs quite the same way with this kind of “adverse weather” (as the Voice of God making announcements in the tube called it). It was nearly impossible to get to Heathrow, but I did manage to sleuth my way there to try to catch my flight out that day. Much of the airport was closed altogether, and most of my day was shot with travel delays…but it was worth it. The snow was just so cool. Cold, even. Ha.

OK. Enough blogging. Back to knitting. Wish me luck finishing something.

I’m attempting to thwart that icky I-don’t-wanna-go-back-to-work Sunday-night feeling with a blog post. 

Very similar to the strategy employed in high school in lieu of doing homework on a Sunday night:  write a 4-page note to at least 2 BFFs about the boy who doesn’t even know who I am, then fold the notes into tiny shapes and shove them into my backpack for later distribution.

So much easier - and less heart-wrenching - to just type away here and then click on “publish”.  And knitting is just less stressful than boys.  At least the scary ones I shed tears over knew.  Or wanted to know.  You know.

Couple of new WIPs going now, I’m happy to report.

Like clockwork that doesn’t work quite right, the gifting instinct came a wee bit late for me this year.  This is supposed to happen before Christmas, but I feel less Grinch-ish now and more susceptible to the knitting-gifts-for-others bug.  So people I love will be getting little knitted things now instead of then.

Not now, but soon.

Sknitty got me turned on to Thermis, which I cast on last night and tore through like a bandit.  Something about that thermal pattern mixed with the cowl and then the buttons - Amy likey.  I’ve just got the second buttonhole and a bit of ribbing left and then this puppy will be off the needles.

I do like the Cascade Rustic yarn I picked up for this.  Never even heard of Rustic, and when I saw it in ye olde LYS, I become entranced by the pretty soft grey mix.  Seventy-nine percent wool, the rest linen, which is why the color has such a distinct variation, I think - the two fibers pick up the dye differently.

Normally linen and I don’t get along too well, but I really liked the feel of this yarn. I figured I’d go for it since this is a cowl that’s meant to drape nicely around the neck and probably won’t be prone to lots of wrinkling.  I let the visions of creased pants and skirts float away and just bought it.  Very proud of myself.

Once I cast on I could see that although hitting stitches-per-inch gauge would be easy, the fiber was plumper in row height than the suggested Patons Classic Wool, so row gauge would be off.  No worries - I made a few mods along the way to accommodate.  I still like the way it’s looking.  Will share the modifications with the FO post.

I do have my eye on making another one of these little Thermis guys in a lighter neutral tone. We’ll see.

At the yarn store, along with the grey Rustic, I picked up some Berroco Ultra Alpaca to make handwarmers for my aunties, who tend toward chilliness, even in Arizona.  I hope to get going on those soon as well.

Next, a pair of knee-high red socks as requested by Maizy.  Found a nice little mock-cable pattern that I adapted to a child’s size. 

I had Sissy B run some covert measurements while Maizy was napping, but given my desire to get this right without bothering her with fervent texts about calf measurements again, there are still a few particulars I’m guessing a bit on. 

Sad to say, I actually Googled “child calf dimension” prior to breaking down and asking my sister the first time.

As for my Google endeavor, after finding not much, I did land on this kind-of-freaked-me-out research article reporting the optimal way to measure kids prior to designing and standardizing crash tests for cars.  And I proceeded to use the resulting charts and graphs in sketching out the sock adaptation - uh, is that geeky?

Anyway, here’s hoping they fit her!  Will see Sissy B and the girls next weekend, so I’m hoping these two are FO’d by then.

Sheer Poncho - absolutely no progress.  Maybe soon.  Stockinette, don’t take it personally.

That’s it for now.  And would you look at the time!  Looks like sleepy time - no time to catch up on those work e-mails I’ve been ignoring for the better part of two weeks.  Darn.

Consider the top-secret BFF note folded into a triangle and slid into your locker.

I’m still a relative newbie to knitting things that are tiny, so it’s not surprising to make new discoveries at this point.  But I gotta tell ya:  these #2 Addi Turbo Lace needles are rocking my world.

In order to get started on my practicing for 2-at-a-time socks, I needed a 40-inch set of circular US 2 needles.  I moseyed down to my LYS to pick some up.

I love browsing, of course, so even though I had only a few minutes to get this errand done, I got stuck in the first set of shelves I passed that contained yarn.  I lingered there, mindlessly petting the yarn, sniffing the fiber-scented air around it (freaky, I know). 

I was jolted back to my needle mission by the voice of a happy-to-help store person.  Nervously, I looked around, found a few needles hanging nearby and said, “Uh, I’m just looking at these needles here.”  Unfortunately those needles weren’t the needles I needed (it was the bamboo-only section, who knew?) and I was led (sulking slightly) over to the Addi section.  Just before I said, “Thanks, I’ve got it from here,” the nice lady whipped a set of Turbos off the shelf.  “Here you go.”

They were gold.

I’ve used Addi Turbos in the big-ass sizes, and they were always silver.  I had been envisioning silver - what’s up with the gold?  Thinking she was steering me toward a more expensive gold-edition type or something, I waited until she walked away and then spun the circular display around to find the silver ones.  I found them, 40″ number twos, and clutched them triumphantly.

However.  I still had the gold ones in my hand.  Curiosity took over and I read the labels on both.

Regular Addi Turbo, in a nutshell:

• fast needles: yarn slides easily on nickel-plated brass
• soft cord: smooth transfers, yarn won’t snag

Addi Turbo Lace:

• sharp tips enhance lace and sock knitting
• soft, pliable cords with smooth joins
• hollow, coated brass tips

Although they sounded similar, I had to admit the sales lady might have been on to something.  Skeptical as I’d been, and as much as I wanted to be loyal to the silver - I mean nickel-plated - ones for which I’d already developed such a fondness, I thought I’d better investigate the gold - em, brass - ones.  Sharp tips sounded a little scary, but since I was new to tiny things, sharp might be good and I just didn’t know it.  And the bright red, allegedly supple cords looked and sounded sexy.

Then - alas, my reverie was broken.  Bidie-in and Squeezer walked in from their perch on the sidewalk, meaning my time was up.  I bought the gold lace ones and hoped for the best.

Well.  I tell you, these things are like butter.  I mean like buttah, Babs.  They feel all smooth and creamy on each other as stitches slide from left to right needle.  It sounds dirty to say it like that, and maybe it is.  But it’s true.

I know Addi Turbos are meant to allow faster knitting, as I had experienced before, and these needles didn’t disappoint.  However, it wasn’t just about yarn moving quickly on a slick surface.  Now that I’ve done a little research, I know that the aforementioned coating on the brass tips is “a fine resin for added control”; in other words, a coating that provides an ever-so-slight bit of drag to keep the tiny stitches from flying right off.  I think that’s the origin of my smooth-like-buttah feeling.

Then how does the knitting feel so fast, if the coating creates drag?  It’s because of the pointier points (I saw these termed “aggressively tapered” somewhere).  It feels like magic as the tip end comes up clean every time after every stitch, even after speeding up, without any splitting.  None. 

It makes me feel very professional to see my fingers flying and little stitches bulking up in the wake of my right needle.  Splitty yarn doesn’t get splitty.  Thank you, Addi Turbo-people, for making me feel so special.  I’m sorry I was wary of your gold-looking brass needles at first.  I really really like them.

It is worth mentioning the sexy red cord between the needles, too, because it’s as sexy as I’d hoped in the store.  Well, done, Addi - the cord looks like a thin string of luscious red licorice, except you can see through it, you can fold it over on itself and pinch it and it won’t break, and you can’t eat it.  It’s softer and more malleable than the regular Turbo cord. 

The super-bendy but not breaky part is especially nice for my 2-at-a-time sock effort, since this is kind of a required feature for the needle, to bend sharply in a loop.

So I’m off and running with my practice socks, which are being in made in two colors so that I don’t confuse the socks in following the directions in the tutorial. 

I’m not going to lie to you (in fact, I’ll post a pic to show you) - they’re a little rough around the edges as I get my head around this method.  But I’m getting better as I go, and even the cuff ribbing that’s fraught with loose ladders at the turns will probably block out and stretch to look OK on a baby’s foot.

Yes, this pair will probably go to E-dot, since she’s about the right size for them.  Of course she might not get them until she’s too big for them since I’ll have to make these and then another set of two (one green, one tan) to match.  Wait a second - didn’t I embark on learning this method so I didn’t get second-sock syndrome?  Hmmmm.

In other knitting news, Bidie’s clamoring for his Fisherman’s Sweater - yes, my little creation will become his - which is coming along.  He refers to this project as either “The Big Project” or “Project #1″ and gives me the stink eye whenever he sees me working on something else.  Last night he pointed out that E-dot-sized socks did not look like Project #1, which is a true statement.  In any case, I’m knitting it up on US 11s, so there’s no excuse for not forging ahead to polish this puppy off.  Maybe this weekend. 

Speaking of weekends - oh joy, I have happy plans to spend time with someone special this weekend.  Hurrah, AJ is coming to visit from Arizona for a few days.  She’s my mom’s sister, which makes her my aunt, and also my friend.  We’re going to do relaxing girly things and other genetically-bred nerdy things like sitting around engrossed in our laptops and figuring out how to work some new software she has.  In between all that, I’ll sneak in some knitting and it will be fabulous.

Ciao, bellas.