Baby Girl is Getting Big and a Sock Fail

So we've switched Evie from 3-6 month clothes to 6-9 month clothes, about 2 weeks after she was 6 months.  We've got a lot less of the 6-9 size, so we went shopping so I don't have to wash her clothes every third day or so.  We had enough we could get by, but as it is I feel like I'm doing laundry all the time.  Eric also wanted some zippered jammies for those middle of the night diaper changes--they're so much easier than snaps in the dark.

 And those socks I started for Eric....they've been frogged.  Again.  I don't know if something is whacked out with my tension by the time I get around to knitting the sole and connecting it to the instep, but I had extra fabric on the sole that made it look a little crazy.  So instead of doing the unusual construction called for, I'm just going to do a toe up sock with the charts.  As long as I get them done before our wool anniversary, which gives me a little over 3 years. 

Which is why I feel quite okay starting another series of projects to alternate with my next design:  a few hedgehogs for some new wee ones making their entrance this year.  Bigger needles+a familiar pattern=progress.  Yay for babies!

The gift scarf, and, A sock a month for 11 months?

First off, here is a photo of the gift scarf while being blocked. It didn't turn out quite as long as I would have liked (apparently I overestimated how far 440 yards would go on size 0 needles). It is definitely wider than I thought it would be as well...thank goodness it came out okay after blocking. I thought it was going to be ridiculously short. It still is on the verge of needing a shawl pin, and I might still get one before it is gifted. Next time I think I'll used bigger needles; maybe a size 2 or 3. Overall I am pleased with the result and am amazed at the power of blocking.

The LYS, Knitty Couture, is having a pair of socks a month knitalong this year that I decided to join midway through February (of course I would, it is the shortest month!). After knitting this sock to the beginning of the toe and deciding that it swallowed my feet, then starting over and somehow casting on one to few multiples of twelve and having to rip this out after the heel turn, I started over on my first sock. On the 19th. My first sock was done on Saturday the 21st, and I finished the second sock just in the nick of time on the 28th. I probably would have been done sooner if I had been able to continue at the same pace, but my hands were hurting and I took a few days break. I can't figure out if my hands hurt because of the yarn, or because I was using dpn. Either way, I love the result.

I just love the rainbow heel. DH picked out the yarn for me, and it is a super happy yarn (Ripples Craft, Carnival colorway). The pattern is the Rib Fantastic from the book Knitting with Handpainted Yarns. I think my sock posing turned out rather well.


Somehow yesterday I got conned into making a pair of socks for my husbands size 14 feet when we were in the yarn shop and he was looking at the blue sock yarn. In order to make sure that one sock is not significantly higher than the other, I am starting my first pair of toe-up and two at a time socks. Right now this only covers three of his toes.


I really love the yarn...it is certainly a lot softer than the previous sock yarn I used. Knitting with this yarn with the two circulars doesn't bother my hands as much either. Thank goodness for that. I don't know if I will do a stockinette foot or start a 2x2 rib on the instep that will be continued up the leg. I do want to try a short row heel, which will be another new experience for me. My goal is to have this pair done within four weeks, so I will have some time to start the next pair (for me) before the end of March. Don't worry, that is allowed. I also want to work on a hat pattern that I would like to submit to Knitty, but I will probably post it here if it doesn't make it. I'm also working on trying to figure out my first cardigan; hopefully some progress will be made before winter rolls around again. So, all in all, there is a lot on my knitting plate. Oh, that I had stayed a monogamous knitter!

Fat Feet, or, Are my arches really that high?

Recently, I decided that I wanted to make socks. This may or may not have anything to do with the twelve socks in twelve months knitalong that the local yarn shop has going right now. (If it is because of the knitalong I am already woefully behind...I started the first sock of the year yesterday.) I had previously made one pair of socks from More Sensational Socks by Charlene Schurch I believe. The book was really more of a set of guidelines based on your foot measurements and your yarn gauge. I had heard good reviews for the Knitting Socks with Handpainted Yarns, and when I saw a demo sock in the LYS, I bought the Best of Interweave Knits Socks (or something like that). I was planning to knit the sock I saw as a demo, but the number of stitches to cast of seemed really small, using the same needles and same yarn with which I had made my previous sock. So I went back and counted the number of stitches that I cast on for my first sock. Definitely 18 more stitches. This is when the measuring tape came out, and I measured my foot circumference.

Since I normally wear US 6.5 or 7, I think of my feet as smaller than average. My foot circumference was 8.5 inches, and my feet are 9 inches long from heel to toe. The pattern I was planning to knit was for a foot circumference of 7.25 inches. Big difference. I figured, maybe it is just the pattern. I mean, maybe this was a kid's sock pattern. And so I begin searching for a pattern that has a suitable foot circumference. What do I find? The patterns that have larger sizes...those sizes are labeled mens. And are longer than my feet by an inch. Apparently my foot circumference is man-sized, and I have fat feet. I have enough issues with the rest of my body without worrying whether my feet are fat. Then I remembered when I was trying to buy boots a month ago; they were tall boots, and I couldn't get my feet into the US 7. The saleslady said I should try an 8. I never wear an 8. The 8 fit, and the saleslady explained that people with high arches usually had to go up a size with this shoe.

So, my feet aren't really fat. I just have high arches.