Flint Knits

About a year ago, my friend Allison hosted a bitchin holiday party (mulled wine, anyone?), and I noticed that her house shoes (socks + flip-flops) were kind of … well, sad. So I obvs offered to knit her some slippers. I don’t think she recognized the irresistible power of the Craft Challenge when she haltingly asked whether I could, maybe, make the slippers look like elf shoes?

Fuck yes, Allison. I surely can.

12 months later,  I give you: Elf Shoes.

[ravelry link]

Liberate your inner pixie, sprite, jester, imp or grinch! These puckish slippers are knit in the round and fulled to fit. They feature turn-down cuffs, short-row heels, and a curly elfin toe shaped with short rows and i-cord (Yvon of Storm in the Attic invented this super-clever toe construction, which can be applied to any sock or slipper).

The pattern comes in sizes from infant to adult wide. Foot length and cuff height are customizable.

Baby Elf Shoe - photo ©Adrian Bizilia

MATERIALS:

• 1 skein Cascade 220 (100% wool, 220 yards) in Main Color (MC) (Larger adult sizes may require a second skein)
• ½ skein Cascade 220 (100% wool, 220 yards) in Contrasting Color (CC)
• Set of five US size 10.5 (6.5mm) double-pointed needles
• tapestry needle

Would you like to make Elf Shoes for yourself and/or your loved ones?
DOWNLOAD THE FREE PATTERN!

Adult Elf Shoe - photo ©Adrian Bizilia

Big, big, heartfelt thanks to the knitters who tested this pattern and provided valuable feedback; to Adrian for her sweet stump shots and for figuring out the infant math; and most of all to Yvon for her badass toe innovation.

We call her Crush for short.

 She’s a miniature dachshund puppy we adopted this week. Her former family couldn’t take care of her any longer, so she came home with us.

And immediately started wearing sweaters.

pattern: improvised
yarn: Fox Hop 2ply handspun mohair & wool
[raveled]

We love Crush bunches already, and there will obviously be many more sweaters and pictures here in the future. For now, if you like frolicking puppies, please enjoy these 24 seconds of AWESOME.

I don’t love knitting scarves.

They’re tedious, and long, and repetitive, and there’s no shaping to keep my interest. And unlike many simple knits, they’re usually done back-and-forth with some kind of stitch pattern, so I can’t even easily use them for blind movie-theatre knitting. And while there are a plenty of clever, interestingly-shaped scarf patterns out there, for fashion and function’s sake, I usually prefer the long, flat rectangle.

Enter entrelac.

This was, by far, the least dull scarf I’ve ever made.

The squares of entrelac are, as many knitters before me have observed, like little potato chips. You just have to knit! one! more! before you stop. This thing flew off the needles.

pattern: Entrelac Scarf (PDF) by Allison LoCicero
yarn: 4 balls Noro Silk Garden, Colorway 221, bought at Beyond the Rainforest in Flint, MI
needles: US 7 Addi Turbos
[raveled]

The scarf was a gift for my badass sister Kristy, a music teacher who had worn out her last handknit scarf with several years of outdoor marching band practices.

I should admit that I’m so behind on blogging my knits that “Kristy’s new scarf” was “new” back in December, and has already lived through one winter. So, uh, happy summer, all!

First, thanks so much for all the smart, thoughtful responses to my last post. In addition to the great comments, I’ve gotten a flurry of lovely emails from LYS owners and employees, and from more experienced designers who were generous enough to share their wisdom. And they’ve all reaffirmed for me that we need to continue to have some serious conversations about copyright, licensing, and use.

In crafty news, my dear friend Michael turned 30 in February, and I went to Minneapolis for the party (a riot grrrl-themed queer dance party, which, yes please — I broke out my homemade L7 shirt for the occasion).

Michael has been a really excellent friend for a lot of years, and was an excellent roommate for some of them, too. We’ve been through some Real Shit together. So, in honor of his awesomeness, I made my first Real Quilt for the occasion.

I bought a pattern, but was itching to get started before it arrived. So, foolishly, I looked at a finished quilt and figured out what kinds of squares it used, then made those kinds of squares. NOTE TO SELF: NEXT TIME, WAIT FOR THE PATTERN — it has much quicker, smarter, more efficient instructions for how to cut and piece this thing.

After I pieced the top together, I took an embarrassingly long time to just sit back and admire it, and force others to admire it (friends, visitors, the mail carrier). I used a lot of different fabrics, including manymany scraps from my stash, and some excellent jelly rolls I bought from Starlit Nest. But most of the squares include Heather Ross Mendocino fabrics that I’ve collected here and there, which feature sea creatures, merpeople, and fish. AND THEY ARE SO FREAKING CUTE.

merpeople!

fishies! and squiddies!

polka dots!

I’d planned to quilt the thing with plain straight lines, as I had done with the few teensy quilt-like things I’d made before. But someone I live with (who’s never sewn a stitch in his life) suggested that I quilt it in a wave pattern, and I couldn’t get that idea out of my head.

So I did a bit of reading about free motion machine quilting, hit up my more experienced quilter friends for advice, made up some little quilt sandwiches, and practiced for about 30 minutes before I started in on the quilt itself.

And I think the waves turned out okay!

Just add a handmade label (with a little embroidered lobster, obvs)

And it’s done! The whole thing is a good width for a full size bed, but a bit short. If I had it to do over, I’d add another row of squares along the top or bottom edge.

Aaaaand here’s the finished thing, awkwardly displayed on my crooked front porch.

Happy Birthday, Michael!

Happy Spring, all! In spite of the warming weather, I’ve got mittens on the brain, so I’m dipping into the backlog of finished knits to show and tell about.

I knit these mittens for my sister Lisa. I gave her the first one in December 07, and didn’t get the second one to her until December 08. Luckily, she’s really forgiving.

pattern: Bird in Hand mittens, by Kate Gilbert
yarn: Plymouth Galway
needles: US2 DPNs
[raveled]

These mittens have the darling-est details: the wee birds, the blossoms, the braided bits on the cuff. Plus, they’re great fun to knit.

If, like me, the Spring-ish weather hasn’t dulled your passion for mitten-knitting, this is a good day for you. Julia Vesper is releasing her kick-ass Chevron Love mitten kits. In the sea of amazing mittens that was the Great Mitten Swap of Aught Eight (the same swap that spawned my Elinor’s Mittens pattern, Elinor’s Vespergyle pattern, and Minty’s Marion mittens), Julia’s were the ones I couldn’t stop petting. Do yourself a favor and pick up a kit!