So if we are talking about foot size.

Youger cub has the smallest feet, then mine, then Bear slightly wider and longer than mine, and then elder cubs are longer again than any one else in this house. Then two of you tell me that Granddads feet are bigger than elder cubs? Really?
So if the KAL socks fit Bear .. they won't fit Granddad?
Really?
Bother.



Bear - do you want another pair of socks? Oh you do? You like these ones and have been admiring them? Oh good, they are yours then.

Slip stitch heel pad and heel flap

So when I made the socks I made them larger for me, which always works for Bear, I kind of knew that my Dads feet were bigger, but thought that they were bigger in the way that Bears feet are bigger than mine. Socks that fit me - fit bear .. but now I learn that Granddad has much larger feet, large enough to require a more generous sock. I could frog and rework the sock, but instead I'm switching who this is for.  Sock number one is done, finished, the ends woven in and everything. The heel worked out beautifully, if the other one didn't need to match I'd play with starting the slip stitches under the heel in a 'V' pattern. Even better the heel flap seems nice and generous.

Slip stitch pattern transitioning into 3x3 rib

The slip stitch pattern is still subtle, or almost invisible depending on how you see these things. When worn and from further away I'd like to think the pattern was more obvious. I'm wondering if I used a more solid colour yarn if the pattern would show up more? I am not sure if the variation in this yarn is camouflaging or enhancing the slip stitches. If enhancing - then in a more solid yarn the effect would be even more subtle.  I did try and work the slip stitch pattern into the ribbing, and I chose a 3x3 rib to work with the 6 stitch repeat of the leg pattern.

Blue felted room shoes with leather sole

The two pairs of felted slippers now have soles (Thanks M!), my pair I stitched on using a slayed blanket stitch. Knowing that I really don't like to repair things, especially things once they are worn and dirty from scuffing around on the floor I stitched the soles on twice. First with a row of back stitches through the holes in the soles, then second with a row of blanket stitches. I figure that if one yarn wears thin and breaks that would still leave a second yarn holding the sole in place.

My first felted slippers, soled and ready to wear.

Bears were stitched first, and on his I worked a standard blanket stitch, and then a round of back stitching. Of course it is summer here and most of the time we are both barefoot or just padding around in socks inside the house .... but come winter and we are ready.

We are also ready for Christmas, the last of the post was sent out today, the sun is shinning so I'm able to keep laundry in check so it doesn't pile up. Elder cub is off earning money with his first paid job (car washing for a work colleague), younger cub is surprisingly calm about the whole idea that Christmas is 3 days away.  Bear has two more days at work .. and they are keeping him busy with lots of last minute deadlines. His present arrived today while he was at work so I've examined it, and wrapped it and hidden it ready for Sunday*. I might go and sort something easy for dinner (Indian crumb chicken with onion bhaji) and then knit some .......on that sock for Bear ....

take care
Stella

*  A fountain pen,  new,  Sailor 1911 mid size Maroon, with a lovely 21kt M nib and a bottle of Pilot Iroshizuku Tsuki-yo Night Sky blue Ink. I do hope he shares the ink, I've read about the Pilot Iroshizuku inks and they seem like one of the luxurys of the fountain pen world. 

Room shoes

Yesterday I attended a 'room-shoe' workshop. There was a workshop earlier in the year but with one thing and another I wasn't able to sign up. This workshop was at short notice ... and coincided with elder cub hosting a sleepover for 5 friends .... so we negotiated. The sleepover had to start once I had returned from the workshop. I'm not sure elder cub agreed but he understood that if he wanted a sleep over - those were the terms. Turns out that he is a good host, he diligently made sure all his guests had sleeping bags and pillows and knew where the amenities were, and he played host all night refreshing drinks, organizing snacks, and suggesting entertainments. That is a side of him that neither Bear or I had seen before and one we are impressed by.

But Room-shoes, these were made for Bear at the workshop. They started life as 50 grams of grey polworth and 70g of purple polworth fibre. Machiko talked us through the felting properties of various fibres - and Polworth appealed as it felts into a smooth dense surface. In her 'other lives' (and like all interesting people she has several) Machiko lectures product design and makes the the sort of jewellery that I want to buy whenever I see it. Machiko provided all the materials for the room-shoes, and template for making baby shoes right up to large Bear sized ones.  I chose to make the larger size of the sizes on offer, as Bear has bigger paws than I, and in the class was a little worried that I had not felted them enough t fit Bear. Once home Bear tried these one and they fitted just right - how cool is that?

I blanket stitched around the opening tightly with sock yarn to reinforce the edge and stop it stretching. The largest sharpest needles I had on hand were bookbinding ones and they worked well for this.

Today I decided that the best way not to forget how to make room shoes was to make another pair, so I did. Once the extra boys had been returned to their respective families. Perendale in apple green on the inside and Gotland bright blue on the outside.

I've trimmed the opening, but not yet bound it. I like the idea of binding this with fabric but probably will just blanket stitch with sock yarn like the first pair. Because this pair were for me - I adapted the template a little, cut it narrower and shorter.

Both fibres felted beautifully, and now they have to dry. The weather is windy and threatening to change, so that may just happen inside near a heater tonight. The plan is to finish both pairs with leather on the soles so they are durable. Even just wearing felted shoes inside is enough to wear the soles thin  - so it makes sense to add a more durable layer.

One of the best things is there is only a teeny tinny bit of left over felt once the foot opening is trimmed. I brought the scraps home from the workshop and put them in the compost, and will do the same with these scraps .... I won't be able to do that with the leather scraps, as leather is pretty durable stuff and not the best thing to add to a compost. I like this method of making slippers or Room-shoes, its physical but only takes a few hours, far less involved than knitted clogs.

Meanwhile younger cub has already requested a pair, and Bear has seconded that she could have a pair and even gone so far as to suggest they be in purple .... so it sounds like there may be  a few more pairs made over the summer holidays .. if only we can find a source of leather for the soles. ...

take care
na Stella

and the clog colour was .... (drum roll please?)

...rusty wine, with a rich deep dark chocolate sole. Can you tell I am writting this while hungry? Today the clog report, the fair isle baby blanket update, I discover finishing the blanket poses some should I/shouldn't I needle purchase questions, and I introduce the large blue folding 'thing' currently taking up a lot of floor space in my small living room.


So back to the clogs, they are not white any more. I was aiming for a deep plum purple - but this rusty grrape is fine. I didn't have any more blue food dye at hand, so this is it. And the dye pot pretty much exhausted, with only a pale blue almost clear liquid left after 12 mins at a bare simmer. The mock stitch effect where I picked knit together the dark sole and the light instep disappeared in the felting and the dying - remember I had wondered if it would remain?

And the verdict, warm soft comfy. I feel like a momma bear padding around the house. But - next time I will knit the small womens not the med womens, even though I have size 9 feet. I wonder if using 9mm not 10mm needles prevented them from felting? But the 9mm were the largest I had. Overall verdict - Will knit again, a size smaller, and probably again, these could be my only slipper in the future.

Fair Isle baby blanket update,
Marina reminded me knotting was fine, that knots have a very valid place in knitting, and I do trust her. There are some 'rules' in knitting about weaving in, no knots and such - and we all know rules are just guidelines that require breaking to achieve wonderful results some times. I also liked Marina's other suggestions - for joining the yarn. What I like about my knitting, is every project teaches me something, either I try something new or I realise that there are different and often better ways to achieve some things. Also I love there are so many wonderful people out there who share their knowledge around - selfishly. I did notice much less change in the background colour of Marina's beautiful colour work - being a novice I seem to have made it more complex than it needed to be.

I am close to finishing, only one more pattern repeat to go, and then the boarder. I have been thinking about what needles I have to knit the boarder with, I have 2 3.25mm circs (Addi turbo of course) and the knitpics, with a 40 inch cable - so could do a sort of a 3 needle version of a 2-circular needle thing. The facing is stocking stitch, so I need to make sure there is no ladder, I could put the junctions at the corners maybe?
Or I could buy a new extra long 2m Addi turbo in 3mm, and knit the facing slightly tighter. I have contacted some on line addi retailers and asked about ETA for the extra long 2m 3mm circ, none seem to be in stock and I don't want to order and have the needle(s) back ordered with a baby due date looming. Would I use this needle again?
Or I could buy two 1m 3.25 circs. I have given this some thought - but have not made any progress as to the 'best' option. I might also ask around and see if I can borrow a long circ, I do know some Dunedin knitters who invested heavily in Addi's for their shawls and lace - could be worth a try.

And this is a christmas prezzie from last December, from me to me. Thats the one way I make sure I get something I really wanted. This is a folding 'shopping' basket from Kathmandu.They have an outlet shop in Dunedin with amazing sales, half price on most ex-season stock. It is huge, holds heaps, and at the moment it is holding my fair isle baby blanket yarn stock. And did I say huge, we have a small lounge and this is parked semi permanently on the floor while I knit the blanket. Usually I use a folding tapestry knit bag with a wooden frame, that is holding Pomatomus right now. And Tapestry has a much smaller foot print.

see? Its big, but great, I just fossick around for the next colour change every row or so and they are so easy to spot in there. Like fish in a barrel? I've also got room to keep the Blanket in progress (BIP?, usually folded flat on top), plus the magnetic chart board, snips, the ball bands, my Pinnochio tape measure, and the swatch.

Want to see something really really scary?

This, a mass (or is that a mess?) of yarn ends which have not been woven in! Imagine having that job awaiting at the end of a knitting project!
So in today's post, I'm back to knitting the baby blanket - and I show you the inside view, there is a Pomatomus update, and those slippers which distracted me? Well lets just say felting in a 'gentle action' washing machine is a very time consuming experience. For now those slippers are warming by a fire after a simmer in in a dye pot - and I promise photos soon.

So those yarn tails, I have been knotting the tails together. I had to, after discovering loose stitches for a few stitches either side of any yarn colour change. Using a steek 3 stitches wide means lots of loose stitches around the rounds 'join'. Knotting the yarn ends prevents that and in the final those knots will be cut away. Using knots is not a problem here - it is almost essential. If I was knitting this colour work pattern in a sweater - well I think I would use just one background colour, or one back and one foreground - and switch them to reduce this yarn ends problem.

And this is the inside of the fair isle baby blanket tube. Quite attractive with the floats forming a cool chevron pattern on their own.
I am pleased with progress, the blanket is growing still and no sign yet of project fatigue. You know, project fatigue - when you are board of knitting the same thing and just want to start something new. I'm up to 16 inches or40 cm , which is around 2/3rds of the way. Right now I am aiming at around a finished length of 60 cm of Fair Isle, and a 4-5 cm boarder around so it will be around 70 cm long. Thats to fit a 90 cm long baby bed. The geeky fact this time is that should be around 54 096 stitches - assuming I don't drop any! I have a weeks leave starting tomorrow so lots of knitting time to look forward to. And steam blocking relaxes the yarns, the narrowing of the tube is a result of crimping of the floats not any changes in tension, a relief.

And just in case you were wondering - this is what the 3 stitch steek looks like from the outside. in a just knit - not steam blocked section. I guess in a real sweater knitted in the round it would pass as ok under the arm at the side seam location, if you were not to fussy. Though you would have to weave in all those ends. Instead I would probably plan some design element to eliminate the loose stitches and jog between colour changes. Something like a narrow checkerboard or stripe to hide the jog.


and Pomatomas? well - I have put it down and picked it up without thinking a little to often of late, and got myself a little lost in the lace repeats. There has been some frogging - a half repeat or so to remedy some errors made earlier in the knitting. But for a novice lace knitter, I am surprised at how easily I have found it to frog, pick up stitches without a life line, and sort out where I am in the chart. I still think the ribbing lace is an ingeneous invention for socks.


And the felted clogs?, they were placed with care in an old pillow case, using a rubber band to close , and in the washing machine they went. Well after the first wash, there was not much evidence of felting, so I rounded up more jeans and sent them round the wash cycle again. More felting but again not a lot of shrinking. They still fitted like buckets, very large roomy buckets. Remembering how well the swatch had felted by hand, I resorted to trying to hand felt the clogs in the kitchen sink - and talked Bear into some active squeezing and twisting when my hands and arms ached. But unfortunately there was still not a lot of felting and shrinking to show for it.

So over the next 2 days the clogs joined every wash load we did. Then I gave up and dried them in front of the fire. They were still to far to big. I tried to give them away to my big footed Dad, but he needed indoor outdoor soles, and refused to take them away. So today I gave it one more try, I zipped the clogs into a lingerie wash bag, and sent them around another jeans wash - finally hooray, the clogs were near the size of my feet. So feeling on a high - I found more jeans (we now must have the cleanest examples of jeans in the city), and did another wash - more success - clogs the size of my feet. I celebrated by soaking the clogs in acid water, and boiling for 10 minutes in food dye. I was secretly hoping they would shrink a tiny bit more - the pattern says to fit them tight, as they do stretch some with wear. The felted, fitted and coloured clogs are now drying before the fire as we watch Mansfield Park. Photos next time, and you will just have to guess what colour.

I am easily distracted ...

Today, I confess the start and near finish of a new project (if it takes less than 3 days does it really count as interrupting my current WIP's?). I reverted back to a previous knit style, combination knitting, with a different wrap technique, but for very good reasons, and my LYS had a yarn for $2 sale - so I was tempted.

So first up, a knitted swatch using three strands of 8ply naturally coloured sheep yarn from Clifton wool'n'things, before and after felting. Felting you say, yes felting, I finally knit me a pair of them Fibre Trends Felted Clogs. I suspect I might just be almost the last knitter in the Knitterverse to make these slippers, just about all my favorite bloggers have posted clogs at some stage, and with the snow it did seem timely. Thats it - I'll blame it on the cold weather! And thanks for all the nice comments on snow from the much warmer climates - it is nice to know in the depths of winter that the sun shines warmly somewhere else.


And here is the reason I switched to using combined knitting purl for these clogs, rowing out - or a marked and visible difference in gauge between the purl and knit rows when knitting stocking stitch. First I discovered how hard knitting chunky yarns is, it is hard work for hands used to fingering and sock weight yarns and finner needles. I did not need to wrap the yarn around my first finger, it just created to much tension, pretty much stopping the yarn in its tracks. I also found that knitting in my usual style resulted in rowing out, a problem I had last encountered in knitting the first take on my cabled powder blue zippie cardie.

That was when I started investigating other forms of making a purl stitch. For some reason with the crepe yarn - the combined knitting method created rowing out in that cardie. The first two thirds of the pre-felted swatch were knit in my usual style, and the last third in combined knitting - and look so even. Still hard work to knit on size 9mm needles, but even. And so cute, white soft and thick when felted. Really thick, nearly 5mm thick - see?




So These clogs knit up fast, around a day and a half, Monday was another snow day, so I took annual leave and knit first one clog, and then another. I realized early on that knitting white clogs was not a very clever idea, Oh I'm house proud in a working mother with 2 kids kinda way, but you wouldn't wanna eat meals of my floors on a daily basis. And I shuddered to think what gunk they would collect on the soles and show up over a week or so. I toyed with the idea of dying, but in the end added a naturally brown sole. That was faster - as in I get my slippers faster that way. This last photo was just before I finished both soles and attached them. I know you are instructed to knit both sole layers in the contrast colour, but I decided not to go pure white to late to follow the instructions to the letter.


Adding on a dark brown sole resulted in a little row of mock stitches where the two layers were knit together - lets see if that lasts as a feature once felted. Sorry no pictures of that yet - but I will show finished clogs as soon as I can. So these are on the large size for my standard sized feet (25 cm or size 9), with a clog un-felted length of over 12", as you can see there is more than a little toe room to spare. The term buckets comes to mind. I knit the womans size medium, on one size needle smaller than instructed (9mm)- it was the largest I have. At present they are in the washer agitating themselves smaller. Quite exiting.



....and the new yarn, well as mentioned my local LYS had a sale, with some stock from $2 a ball, so i fell for this, a 14 ply bulky wool - labeled Hummingbird, and I bought enough for one more set of adult clogs, or 2 child sized sets. I know these clogs would be great in fun colours and here I am knitting all natural type yarns - I do have a graduate student who is doing a project on the enviro cost of wool yarn. We ran into one another in the yarn shop Monday, and discussed the pros and cons of superwash wools for babies kids clothing and the environmental cost of making it superwash. Sobering stuff, did you know they use chlorine to superwash the wool, and chlorine is a pretty nasty chemical. That much I remember from my swimming instructor days, we all had to have hazard certificates to deal with chlorine spills and leaks - it was clear the building stuff it if escaped. I'm not sure if her investigations are clouding my judgment - but it sure made me think.

Any way - I'm off to check the machine for felting progress. Knit night tomorrow, and Poppy has a school visit to the big school. Big day planned.