Knit "Converse" Baby Booties

Now that I've given these to our friends at their shower I can post about them! I usually knit a baby blanket for friends who are expecting but Jenn is a knitter and I figured she'd have things that she wanted to knit so I offered her to pick something for me to knit for her. She sent me the Ravelry link to this adorable Converse baby bootie pattern. 

It's like 8 pages of directions but I couldn't seem to knit just one pair. So they got three. I would definitely knit these again, and it's easy to find and use stash yarn for these, so no need to go hunt down specific yarn (at least not in my world). 

I would definitely knit these again. 

Night & Day Cowl (Is this Ska?)

I'd been eyeing some checker-esque cowls on Ravelry and with Bryan's help finally picked one out to knit myself for my birthday. The Night & Day Cowl by Andrea Mowry was the perfect project to become obsessed with. I'd usually take a little more time knitting something like this but I had 2 or 3 days of being sick which landed me on the couch knitting when I wasn't sleeping off whatever has been going around. Thus, I knit this up in 12 days. 

I had gone to Woven Art to get the yarn for this project and Meg was super helpful with suggestions, as was Bryan. I landed on a Rowan Felted Tweed in black and Berroco Renew for the off white. I bought 2 balls of each but ended up only needing one of each. I almost used all of the white, but not really since I had done a sample swatch with it too. I had plenty left of the black tweed.

When I initially read knitting instructions I feel a little overwhelmed, like, I-cord edge? That sounds hard. It's literally part of the pattern, I just needed to start knitting, follow the, very clearly written out, instructions and it comes together beautifully.

One of the reasons I loved knitting this is because it uses stitches/rows in 4's for the "checkers." I love multiples of 4. Nice even numbers that my brain is drawn to. My favorite number is 4. I try to keep to multiples of 2s and 4s in my own artwork because it's just so satisfying for me. So, this pattern was a dream. 

Lois models it's progress

This pattern isn't true checkers, so is it ska? Sarah says it's ska-adjacent. It's much easier and faster to knit than checkers and gives a nice illusion of them. I enjoyed knitting this so much I offered to knit Bryan one, his is on the needles already. 

Bryan's colors are both in the tweed

I still keep a pair of socks on my needles for when I'm on-the go. The pattern is just too easy at this point and it rarely takes my attention from a meeting, movie or coffee dates so I'm on my 38th pair of socks (which I started knitting when I started going to AA meetings) which I'm thinking I'll wear at the I Voted for Kodos show in Chicago in May. I'm excited about these socks, the pink is black-light responsive...and it's weird being excited about pink. I recently saw a post that said "girlhood is realizing the "I hate pink phase" was never actually about pink" and that resonated so deeply. I like pink, but on my terms, don't you dare get me something pink, especially a pastel pink. It feels like pressure to be girlier and clearly I'm not alone in that lifelong fight. My last tattoo my artist wanted to add pink, and I balked, but let it go because it's his art style that I wanted, we discussed my issues with it and visa versa, he's always liked pink because of the neon pink in motorbikes he's had...so there's some pink in my colored thigh tattoo.  I could rant about pink for forever, so we'll leave it at, this pink I like, especially with the black. 

Pink and black stripe sock in progress

My Secret Little Crop #3; Super-cropped Cotton/Hemp blend

Backtracking to my summer projects...I can't get enough of this crop top pattern by Jessie Maed Designs. "My Little Secret Crop" knits up quickly and I found some stash yarn I wanted to try for a lighter weight garment...I also wanted it shorter to go with overalls. I started and finished this crop top in June and every time I wore it out it got compliments. 

Out at lunch for a date-day:

Waitress:  I love your top
Me: Thanks, I made it.
Waitress: You did? Do you sell them?
Me: No
Waitress: Would you sell them?
Me: No, I just knit for myself, it takes too long to knit to make it worth selling.
Waitress: ...[clearly disappointed tension]
Waitress: Oh, it even has a crisscross back! [walking away]
Me: It's a pattern on Ravelry if you learn to knit...
Bryan: I thought she was going to rip it off you. 

I thought it looked cute with my work pants, 

it was easy to throw on for a totally different look to grab dinner when I got off. 

I have a bunch of small balls of a cotton/hemp blend that I love. I know I used this yarn in red for the red leaf tunic I made years ago, I'm not sure what I have all this green for. Sometimes when I love a yarn I just buy a bunch, which is probably why this has been sitting in my stash. I have been good about not doing that kind of purchasing anymore, I have more yarn than I'll ever be able to use (yet never what I'm looking for so that's when I buy more). Anyway, the green hemp/cotton blend with a pretty Berroco variegated blend turned out really lovely. I wore this top a lot this summer.

Knitting Project: My Little Secret Crop

I was talking to my friend Sarah and she mentioned this cute crop top pattern on Ravelry.  I looked up My Little Secret Crop by Jessie Maed Designs and loved how versatile the pattern is and how she encourages you to use stash yarn. As much as my initial thought was that I have no business wearing a crop top at my age, I decided to ignore that and try my hand at knitting this top. 

I have recently purchased a pair of Levis that are flared "ribcage" jeans which I would just describe as super high-waisted stove-pipes so they allow me to wear a crop top without any unsightly bulges sticking out. I've always loved the vintage 70's look and I think this top, the yarn choices and the pants all make it come together for me. 

I was so proud of myself, I sampled ahead of time and ended up using 3 strands of yarn at the same time to get the correct gauge. The rust colored yarn is a bit scratchy so it took me about a month of knitting in the evenings to finish this without rubbing my fingers raw. I haven't done a burn test on this yarn to see what the content is. I was a little worried that it would be too uncomfortable to wear at the end of the day, but as I used to say "fashion over function."  After washing it I've found that it is comfortable to wear and I love it! 

About this stash yarn. I met Sally through Reach's Not So Silent Night holiday fundraiser a few years back. She has some of my beadwork and I've done some repairs on antique bead pieces for her. She told me she had nice yarn from her mom's estate that she wanted me to have. Last year we finally had a good time to meet when she was in town for me to come pick it up.  I'm still sorting through it, much of it is a little thicker than what I use for my regular (double weave) weaving but I use anything and everything when I tapestry weave.  When I decided to make this crop top, I found this wonderful rust speckled yarn that may actually be from the 70's to use as the base of this top. It has the turquoise and pinks in it so using them as accent stripes made sense. The images of the various top combinations on Ravelry were inspiring and I definitely liked the striped ones over the tops with just one color.

2020 and 2021 is really the first time in my life I've spent a lot of time knitting other people's patterns. From the beginning of my knitting career in elementary school I always preferred to figure out how to make something on my own. Most things were very blocky because I didn't know how to do much. This past year I have been knitting more of other people's patterns and I'm finding it more relaxing (it's all figured out for me), and I'm learning a lot more. The straps to this top are double knit, which has recently come up as a thing I thought I should learn. It's double knit on a small scale but with the pattern showing me how to do so it was a quicker learning process and now I'm letting it roll around in my head as to how else I could use this (and how can I knit it like I do double weave pick up). I also learned how to do a three needle bind off. Mind. Blown. Which I actually needed to do for my next knitted top's bottom hem. It looks lovely and no stitching anything together afterwards. 

I've already worn this top twice and I have a sneaking suspicion I'll be making more of these.