Vauvan Sukka

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Keeping to the recent almost-theme, this is Vauvan Sukka, Finnish for something pretty close to “train socks.” The pattern is attributed on Ravelry to Kerttu Latvala,and is posted by her daughter Terttu Latvala as a free pattern. First Kerttu and then Terttu have gifted hundreds of pairs of these baby socks to all the babies they can.

The story of how the gifting started is explained this way by Terttu, as translated into English at Teakat Translation, where the free pattern is also available.

“In early 1939, Terttu Latvala’s mother Kerttu Latvala was evacuating ahead of World War II battles along with her 2-month-old baby daughter. Her train trip from Vaasa (coastal Finland) was delayed due to a section of the railroad tracks having been destroyed by bombings. A fellow passenger, a retired needlework teacher, took pity on the un-bootied little feet of the baby girl, and during the delay, unraveled yarn from her own white hand-knit sweater, and used it to make the baby a pair of socks.”

Once again, knitters show people at their generous best.

My train socks are knit in leftover bits of Wollmeise superwash “pure.” The bands of Quaker rib should make sure that these will stay put and not be easily kicked off.Here is my Ravatar modeling them.

trainsocks

Baby boots

I_bootiesI have it on very good authority that Frankie Brown’s Baby Boots stay on Isaac’s feet. Brown makes the pattern available free on Ravelry and I’ve taken to calling them iBoots.

Isaac’s first pair has been a big hit and so I made two more pair. These four boots are definitely part of the defense-against-the-cold-feet team, though they don’t exactly fall into pairs. Here’s a few other views:

ibooties3

Ibooties2All Brown asks is that we consider donating to the UK non-profit “Children’s Liver Disease Foundation.” You can follow her fundraising effort here. More than 7000 pounds and still counting.

These four boots took 43 grams of Schoeller+Stahl Fortissima Colori Socka Color. Here’s the Yarndex entry for it. Great yarn, in an easy care 75% wool/25% acrylic mix.

While I was thinking cold feet, I decided to knit the cuffs for a quick “cheater’s” infant boot. I used Boye Starting Points boots, which I purchased many years ago and located during my holiday yarn-stash reorganizing. The boot has a tape sewn into the inner part of the fabric cuff so all you have to do is knit the sock-top and sew it to the tape. Couldn’t be easier and quite a nice effect.

boye_boots

Tincanknits’ Barley

bluebarley2This is the hat, Barley, in tincanknits’ free set of patterns designed for beginning knitters and the rest of us drawn to straightforward, easy knits: The Simple Collection. Don’t confuse Barley the hat, with Rye the socks, Wheat the scarf, Malt the baby blanket, Oats the Cowl, Maize the fingerless mitts or the sweaters Flax and Harvest. It’s a wonderful collection, complete with special on-line tutorials to help the knitter over any bumpy spots.

My blue Barley is knit in Lion Brand Martha Stewart Crafts Extra Soft Wool Blend. Here’s a few more views:

bluebarley

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All the patterns in the collection include sizes infant through adult. Egad! And all are free. Here’s an infant-sized Barley knit in Berroco Comfort, an easy-care acrylic with a wonderful range of colors.

greenbarley

I even tried a Barley variant (that’s my story and I’m stickin’ to it), where I substituted reverse stockinette for the garter stitch insert and made the insert a few stitches wider:

barley

And, all together now….awhhhhh!

melanie_isaac_lowres

Wiggle Wrap

wigllewrap2This is Sally Brandl’s popular pattern: Wiggle Wrap. I used the yarn the pattern calls for: Effektgarn Kauni. I might have managed to find the only two colorways that don’t play super nice together. Where I was shopping didn’t have much of a selection of the yarn left. The shop thought these would look just dandy. To be fair, I thought so too.

Wiggle Wrap began as a 437 yard, 100 gram ball of EK:

Kauni_yellow

And a same sized ball of ES:

Kauni_denim

All similarities to maize and blue are disavowed. Here’s another look.

wigglewrap3I knit the wider version of Wiggle Wrap (148 stitches, which turned out to be 21.5 inches wide) until I ran out of yarn at 55 inches. Being a human of shrimpy height ( 5′ 3″), I thought this length would work and so I didn’t invest in 4 balls.  It could have used the extra length. I’m getting some wear out of it, though.

Despite being dunked in Soak for softening, it still unfortunately feels like I’m wearing a knitted Brillo Pad. Lots of folks find that Kauni softens up nicely when washed. So far, not my experience. Maybe it needs a bath in some hair conditioner.

wigglewrap

Teeny leg warmers

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These are Tic Tac Toe by tinkanknits. Try to say that three times fast. And then do the same for “buy a box of biscuits, a box of mixed biscuits, and a biscuit mixer.” And then “rubber baby buggy bumpers, rubber baby buggy bumpers, rubber baby buggy bumpers.” Oh, but it’s cheating to read it. You have to make the words come out your mouth without first stuffing them through your eyeballs.

Where were we? Tic Tac Toe by tinkanknits, available for download on their website or on Ravelry. Though it’s part of the designers’ 9 Months of Knitting ebook/pamphlet, the bonus is that it’s sized from newborn to adult. This was a fun knit with interesting but easy cables. Just the thing for tiny legs trying to stay warm indoors when the temperature outside dips, as it has here in Michigan recently, to seventeen below zero Fahrenheit.

Here’s my Ravatar modeling Tic Tac Toe:

tictactoe2

Here she is, without her bonnet, wearing New Zealander “Emily Jane’s” Super Simple Little Legwarmers. This is a very straightforward ribbed pattern. I dressed it up a tad by using Reynolds Swizzle, a superwash sockweight yarn, discontinued long ago.  The pattern is available free on the designer’s blog and on Ravelry.

swiz_legwarmer Here’s a closer look at super simple:

swiz1_legwarmer