Friday, May 16, 2008

Bootie boom

Friday already? How the *bleep* did that happen?

It is almost the weekend, it's gloriously sunny, and in general (with the odd hiccup here and there) life couldn't be better. My dad is being discharged from hospital for good tomorrow, I'm finally getting some weekends back, and it looks like it's going to be a very busy but enjoyable summer.

A rather productive one too, if the month to date is anything to go by. I'm part of the Stash and Burn knit down on Ravelry, and between that and ChoreWars, my needles are just flying! Granted, a lot of it has been in the form of smaller projects, but really I think that is true stashburning.

My particular stashy problem has always been the assortment of single skeins of something delicious that I couldn't leave behind. Add to that the large amounts of sock yarn that I'm left with after making a pair in my size, and it can turn into a veritable mountain of .....bits.

I've come up with a solution so simple and elegant, that I'm absolutely proud of myself.





This is a still-to-be-seamed Saartje Bootie. I've made a couple of pairs before, but always out of yarn specifically bought for the purpose. I love these booties. They're quick and easy, and can be made out of practically any weight of yarn. They're easy to size up and down, and are the best thing ever for using up left over bits of skeins.

Not sure what I'm going to do with the potential explosion of booties around the house, but it should be worth it for the expression on OH's face alone *evil grin*

Mitred squares are something that I've been thinking of as well. While I realise that it would take approximately eleventybillion of them to make a blanket or throw, they are fab for sock yarn leftovers. Plus, through some freakish co-incidence, pretty much all of my sock yarn leftovers vaguely match, or at least don't clash.

While it seems like a good idea now, am I just lining myself up for the mother of all UFO's?

In my head, I'd make some squares after each pair of socks, and start seaming them together. Avoiding pooling, however, involves waiting til there are a selection of squares going before starting the sewing. Would I just end up with drawers of squares that will remain unseamed 'til the end of time? After my death, will people still be finding ziplocks of squares in the attic and under floorboards for years? Instead of "crazy cat lady", will I be "crazy square lady"? Or will I just crack under the pressure and lock myself into the spare bedroom, sticking the damn things to the walls, and cackling like a loon?

Who knew that leftover sock yarn could be so damn scary......

2 comments:

Fairytale Frog said...

I appreciate your sock blanket concerns .... I thought about making one myself but my sock yarns are, erm, how shall I put it ... varied? lol so it would take a long time and lot of planning before any sewing would be happening. Plus I hate sewing .... so it may never get finished.

Yeah, I think I talked myself out of it there.

Bec said...

Hi, I'm a fellow knitter and I occasionally read your blog. Just wanted to warn you - I thought the squares idea was good at one time, that time is over 2 years ago now and I have an unfinished patchwork blanket sat in the bottom of my stash bag as a result. Knitting squares is just too boring when there are pretty things to make!