I'm foregoing the WIP report to bring you this very important announcement.
You know that I have talked about making preemie hats for Gulf Coast Medical Center in Panama City, right? And there are free patterns of my own design on this blog for you to use, especially for charity and non-profit purposes. And one of my Ravelry groups is Beenies for Preemies, which you are welcomed to join. Well, discovery of discoveries, Save the Children and Warm Up America have teemed up--apparently in November so I'm a little behind in making this plea/announcement--to collect handknit and hand crocheted preemie hats for the Save the Children's Newborn and Child Survival campaigns and charities. I think this is a really good thing and you should go straight to your stash and start knitting some preemie hats immediately. (I already have one done.) Here is the link to additional free preemie hat patterns and the submission information: Caps for Good. Here is the link to Warm Up America. So click, knit or crochet, and submit. And the free hat patterns are so cute!!!!! The deadline is February 28th, 2011. If you participate, I'd love for you to email me pictures or send me a note.
If you would just like to make a $10 donation instead of sending in caps, please go to this link for Save the Children.
It was a pretty productive vacation that just FLEW by, even with an extra week of vacation due to the snow storm! Where did four weeks of vacation go?!
As a last-ditch effort to get something done before the back-to-school craziness, I whipped up this little top-down number over the weekend. That's right, I said over the weekend. This was a Saturday & Sunday project. I swear! There's no new pattern, really. I just took my Autumn Shrug pattern, changed the ribbing, deleted the ties, and added a button with an I-cord. The button is coconut shell, which I found at Joanne Fabrics, of all places, on the fly on Saturday afternoon. I used my Christmas present yarn from Honey--the gorgeously soft elsebeth lavold. I used 6 skeins of 82 yds each and had enough left over for finishing. I think it turned out rather lovely for a sweater done on a whim. And if it looks to you like the stitches are uneven … well this is a two-ply, thick-and-thin yarn. It gives the sweater a very unique look to the fabric.
These are my New Year's Knitting Resolutions, and I've crossed off what has been done before I go back to the salt mines.
sweater for me (elsebeth lavold Christmas present skeins) medium Sportsman test gloves large Sportsman test gloves extra-large Sportsman test gloves 2 sweaters for Rocket 1 pair of gloves for Scout 2 that gorgeous blackberry cabled cowl sweater for me Swing for my mom buttercup beret socks, socks, socks! (Groovy in progress; waterfall; monkey socks) Reconstruction Sweater (sleeves not yet done) cowl for a friend another pair of Elegy gloves for me (in progress) 80s Shrug (in progress) cabled cardigan (hibernating) yellow Swing (in progress) Macrame Vest (in progress) cowl for Honey black cherry wool/silk cowl
And the semester begins tomorrow with today's catastrophe, and I'm trying to stay busy to avoid the imminent panic attack and stroke that is sure to follow, the meltdown of the one jump drive that has all of the files of my entire 14-year teaching career on it, including all of the Advanced Placement data for my school which is, shall we say, NOT SAVED ANYWHERE ELSE!!!!! I keep trying to breathe. My Honey is trying to recover my files using his big computer genius brain; but it's a wait-and-see kind of thing with his rescue software. This could be the greatest disaster in my personal history. At this rate, due to panic, the last 4 inches of the Groovy socks could be finished by this evening.
In a pinch, people come up with the darndest things, don't they? Well, needing something for my January swap (and if my swap partner is reading this, guess what you're getting!), the theme of which is "A Visit to the Spa", and given that I have to knit something, I thought I'd make up a soap sock. So, I cruised the patterns available online and wasn't intrigued by lacey soap socks (Who would used a soap sock of knitted lace in the tub? I'd be afraid of ruining all that hard work!) or multi-piece, sew-up-the-seams patterns (raise your hand if you hate sewing seams like me); so I thought "There must be a better way than this!" Guess what! There is! Seamless, anyone?
Front View
Back View
You know I've never actually gotten past the toe of a toe-up sock on circular needles (one of the many resolutions for 2011), but I did learn how to make a seamless toe-up toe. What does this have to do with the soap sock, you ask? Well, that's my sidebar inspiration to the following pattern (which took me less than an hour, multiple interruptions to see Rocket's impromptu ballet performances in her bedroom included):
My Cute Soap Sock Pattern:
I used a US 9 pair of circular needles on a 16" cable--you can use a 24" cable too. Any size smaller than a US9 needle will require a lighter-weight yarn.
Yarn: Sugar 'n Cream 100% cotton 4-ply. This pattern is for the thicker cotton yarn, not the Sugar 'n Cream Twists.) I think I used much less than 50 yards--I probably have enough for one more and an entire washcloth left in the 70.9 gram skein.
Gauge: 5 stitches x 6 rows = 1 inch
Final measurements: 3 inches wide x 5 inches long
Directions:
Using Judy Becker's "Magic Cast-On For Toe-Up Socks"--thank you Persistent Illusion for the directions--, (you will have to click if you don't already know how to do this (there's a cast-on video below, too, but it's just for the confusing cast-on part, not for the knitting/increasing part), CO 10 pairs of stitches.
Round 1: Drop the tail and turn the needles so that needle 1 is on top and needle 2 is on the bottom. Pull the cable through the needle 2 stitches. Knit the stitches on needle one (just leave the tail dangle--you can tighten the end stitches after you've knit the entire circle of stitches), then turn the work and knit the stitches on needle 2. This takes a little practice if you haven't done it before, and my best recommendation is that you pull the yarn tight every time you turn the needles to go around the "end" of the circle--really tight. The stitches will even out later--you'll see. You want to avoid that ladder look on the edges of the circle.
Round 2: * K1, Kftb, K to last two stitches of the row, Kftb, K1. Turn the work. Repeat from * down second needle.
Round 3: K all stitches.
Round 4: Repeat Round 2.
Round 5: Repeat Round 3.
Rounds 6 to 35: Knit all stitches.
Round 36: BO if knitted stitch.
Finishing: I tied off the top so that there was no opening between the beginning BO and the ending BO. Then, I wove the remaining tail into the KNITTED SIDE OF THE FABRIC. I did the same for the original tail. THE KNITTED SIDE IS THE WRONG SIDE FOR THIS PATTERN.
* Flip the sock inside-out so that the purled rows show. I wanted a rougher surface for this item so that it was a little scrubby, a little exfoliating.
* Braid three strands of the same yarn used for the sock and weave them into the fabric of the sock about 1 to 1 1/4 inches from the BO row. Pull tight and tie in a bow. This way, you can remove the soap to wash your sock in the washing machine AND, when the soap gets down to a chip, you can replace it. So many sock patterns want you to sew the soap into the sock. I like things to be re-usable, you know?
