Warm Feet

Sometimes you solve a problem and promptly forget all about it, because now everything is ticking along smoothly. I looked around the room a recently on a cold winter's night, and noted with surprise that everyone was wearing a pair of slippers that I had knit and felted.

When I made NKD's and KD's slippers, I left them with felted soles, at their request.

But for DH's and mine, I wanted leather soles. I wrote about how a full length leather sole changed the shape of the slipper and made it hard for me to keep on my foot.  After that post, I removed the leather soles from my slippers and felted the slippers down a little smaller. Then I cut the used leather soles in half. DH used an awl to add sewing holes to the cut halves, and I sewed them to our slippers.

And everyone had warm feet all winter.

 

Legacy Kit: Blue WIllow

I inherited from my sister an unopened (and discontinued) kit made by the Tsarina of Tsocks, Lisa Grossman, who died in 2015. It contained her pattern for Willow Ware socks, and two skeins of her wool/silk Tsilk Tstocking, one in Blue Willow and one in Natural.

I knew right away that I would make it into something for my youngest sister, who is taking my collection of our grandmother's willow ware off my hands when I move, and loves things blue-and-white. But she does not wear wool socks, even when deliciously mixed with silk. We decided on a pillow instead.

We went out for lunch, in the Before Time, and spread the charted patterns across the table, slowly rearranging them into a rough approximation of a square, which we then sketched in time-honored fashion on the back of a napkin.

I went home and made gauge swatches, settling on a US 0 (2.00 mm). I had decided that I wanted a smaller pillow than the last one I made for her. I did math, converted our notes and the separate charts into one single chart, and decided to convert the cuff patterns into a frame for the picture. Fans of willow ware will note that the configuration is missing one bird, which messes with the associated fable, but it's easy to find similar examples:

Tallrik, 1770
CC by SA 3.0

I decided on a simple two-color envelope back, fastened by five buttons. I found the perfect buttons in the Etsy shop GingerMintCollection. Since they came from Australia, they did not make it in time for Christmas, but have since arrived and been attached.

It was not until I was knitting the back that I realized how gently variegated the blue was. When I went back and added the embroidered detail to the front, it was fun to see the color shift on the willow leaves.

before embroidery

after embroidery

And because it fascinated me, here is the back:

Foggy Night

Years ago, KD presented me with some yarn she had spun herself, which incorporated the family's favorite colors. It took a bit of time to figure out the best use of two fuzzy, multi-colored, thick-and-thin yarns, one grey and one black. I settled on a rectangular shawl in Old Shale (also known as Feather-and-Fan). I'm really pleased with the result.

This one shows all the colors best

This one shows the pattern best

Needles: US 9 (5.5mm)
Yarn: 448 yards of KD's handspun in Night and Fog
Pattern: Mary Turley's Feather and Fan Scarf [Ravelry link]

I had just enough of Night left over to knit up two baby balls

to add to my collection.

Cabin Blanket

 

I finished the Camp Blanket! This was just exactly the right year for miles and miles of mindless garter stitch. Thanks to a recently stumbled-upon youtube video, I have mastered the art of invisible garter stitch seams. I deliberately left the edges as is, for maximum stretch when curling up under it.

Needles: US 8 (5mm)
Yarn: Knit Picks Mighty Stitch in Black, Ivy, Navy, Ash, and Bark
Pattern: Kate McLaughlin's 220 Garter Blanket Recipe [Ravelry link]

There was enough yarn left to make a matching pillow, so I tried my hand at the popular log cabin knitting pattern. It took me a couple of tries to get the hang of. Not having enough left to knit a pillow back, I sewed up a pillow cover (with an overlap back; I'm not up to zippers yet), and then sewed the log cabin square to the front of it.

And then I STILL had some yarn left, so I made two little baby hats for The Box.

Needles: US 4 (3.5mm)
Yarn: Knit Picks Mighty Stitch in Ash and Navy, Ivy and Bark
Pattern: Lisa Seifert*'s 1-2-3 Baby Beanie

*Huh. Wonder if we're related.