Flip Flop Sock

I know that there are people who cling to a small-minded aesthetic opinion against the wearing of socks with sandals. I imagine such people live in warm climates and have hearty circulatory systems. Or maybe they were scarred with mortification in their childhood years when their fathers wore black dress socks at the beach, with sandals made from old tire tread and black leather. Perhaps I am just a fashion permissive.

I'm not the only sock lover on the internet, knitting for sandals. At any rate, my latest work in the sock genre is this flip flop sock which I made for Vigo. To find out how to make them, click on "Continue Reading."

I'm first going to give the pattern for the exact socks that I made for Vigo and then a general recipe which can be adapted to any size. Both of these instructions assume that you have already knit a basic sock before. For example, instead of describing how to turn the heel, I just write "Turn heel." For instructions on how to turn a heel, check out the basic sock recipe.
Child's size 8-9 flip-flop sock
Use 6 size 0 dpns
lightweight yarn.
1. Cast on 56 sts
2. Double Rib 11 rows
3. Knit 20 rows
4. Seperate half of the stitches onto one needle and the other half onto another needle. One set will be the heel, the other will be the instep. Keep the instep sts on the same needle until the sock is finished.
5. Knit a square for the heel.
6. Turn the heel. The last row of the heel should be knit, not purl.
7. Pick up every ohter stitch on the right side, knit across instep, pick up every other stitch on the left side. Knit around one time.
8. Decrease for the gusset. Decrease every round, not every other round.
9. Double rib 22 rows.
10. Knit 3 rows.
11. Begin decreases on left side for left sock or right side for right sock. Knit two rounds, decreasing on only one side each time.
12. Seperate the big toe stitches from the rest of the other toe stitches.
On the right side of the left sock or the left side of the right sock, take 8 sts from the insole needle and place them on a new needle? Take 8 sts from the sole needle and place them on their own needle.
13. Starting from the end of the 8 insole big toe sts, pick up one st, cast on 6 sts, then pick up another st right before the first of the 8 sole-side big toe sts.
14. Knit around the big toe 7 or 8 rows. Begin decreases on both sides of the big toe. When you get down to 2 or 3 sts on each needle, close the hole like a simple hat.
15. Tie on yarn inside the sock on the insole side, near the big tos/other toe seperation point. Use this yarn to knit around, continuing the decrease on the side. (the last three needles on the insole side k2tog, k. first three sts on sole side k, slk2)
16. When you get around to the big toe, knit the hole together, pick up six stitches along the between-toe, close the hole on the other side, and knit around.
17. Now, decrease on the side only every other round.
18. Knit 7 rounds
19. Begin decreases also on the center of the between-toe part.
20. Continue decrease until there or only 2 or 3 sts left on the between-toe needle.
21. Close toe.
General Recipe
Knit the top of the sock and the heel normally. Decrease for the gusset.
Knit around one row.
The sock has a ribbed foot, to help it stay up better. Start your double ribbing now. Continue the ribbing until the sock foot reaches just under the ball of your big toe.
Knit around until the sock foot reaches about a quarter inch below the in-between of your big toe and the next toe. Begin to make decreases on the little-toe side of the sock.
Knit until the sock foot length reaches the between-toe.
Look at your foot and estimate how much of your toe-width is your big toe. If it is a third, take a third of your instep stitches and a third of your heel stitches to make the big toe. If it is a quarter, take a quarter of the stitches, and so on.
Cast on for the betwee-toe as many stitches as are on each of the other big toe needles.
Knit around until the big toe holder is almost as long as your big toe. Begin decreases and close like a simple hat.
Tie yarn onto the inside of the sock on the instep side, at the toe divider.
Use that yarn to knit around. Continue decreases on the pinky-toe side only every other round.
Pick up sts on the between-toe and knit around the rest of the toes. When you get almost to the top of the toes, begin to decrease at the center of the between-toe, to make a nice, rounded shape.
Close toe.

How about a New Wardrobe.

I've photocopied the A-line skirt pattern for all the Pins and Needlers, and I'll bring it tomorrow night. Maybe we can set a date for our sewing party.

For inspiration:

Lots of pictures of the Paris Prêt-à-Porter show. The text is in French, but it's not that interesting anyway.

Design your own clothes. Sort of.

Novel Materials

My latest Goodwill trouvaille is a series of Time Life books on "The Art of Sewing," published in 1973. There's some genuinely great stuff in them, along with a few really kooky howlers. Halfway in between, we have this "campy but tasteful conversation piece," featuring circles crocheted onto kitchen sink drainers. This is from the volume entitled "novel materials." They aren't kidding.

The instructions for making these is under "read more" in the form of jpg images scanned from the book. I know there has got to be a better way to do that, but I'm not sure yet what it is, so for now, try not to strain your eyes.

Spark Survey

We've been to Spark. Fill out a survey for them, and enter a raffle to win a gift certificate.

Don't do it for the gift certificate. Do it because we would all like for Spark to become the kind of place in which we might enjoy hanging out. Also, it's our most conveniently located yarn supplier.

Cat Socks

After working on the baby booties, I thought it would be neet to use the leftover yarn from Vigo's socks to make a tiny pair of socks, which I thought might fit Jobie's freshly born baby. Those freshborns are really very tiny. Unfortunately, as you can see, I went a bit overboard on the tininess and made a pair of socks which in fact are just about the right size for an adult housecat.

I did get to experiment with a spiral ribbing on these, though you can't really see it in this picture.

Lawn Bowling, anyone?

Sacco's seems to have been taken over on Wednesday nights with bowling leagues and teenagers and will probably be pretty crowded throughout the summer, according to Matt (young, sarcastic Sacco's employee, not old cranky guy). So we were thinking about lawn bowling for the summer, maybe at the field on Holland Street. Or switching nights to one that is less crowded. What do you all think? Parasols and knit bikinis?

Itty Bitty Baby Booties

While I've been mostly off line for the past month or so, I have been playing around with the sock knitting recipe (scroll down). These booties, which I knit for Jobie's baby shower present, were based on the sock recipe I used to make Vigo's socks.

I knit them on 000 size double-pointed needles, with mandarin Petit brand 100% cotton yarn color 4300, which I got in the sale basket at Mind's Eye. (They're having a sale next week.)

I ribbed the foot, thinking that might help the booties stay on better. I also closed the toe by making three decrease points rather than two. I found that for the gusset of a child's sock it is best to decrease on every round rather than to knit around every other time.

To see the pattern, read more.

Itty bitty baby booty
needle size 000
manderin petit brand cotton yarn, fingering weight
gauge 3.5st per cm.
Cast on 36 onto dpns
knit 8 rows
knit 10 rows of double ribbing
seperate half of the sts onto needle for the heel
and the other half onto needle for instep
knit a square for the back of the heel.
turn the heel
Purl to the middle of the row. (If you have an odd number of stitches, purl the middle stitch, too.)
Then, p1, p2tog, p1, and turn.
Slip 1, k back to the middle, k1, SSK, K1, and turn.
Slip 1, P back to the middle, p2, p2tog, p1, turn.
(You should be doing the p2tog across the gap created by the slipped stitch.)
Slip 1, k back to the middle, k2, SSK, k1, turn. (SSK across the gap.)
Slip 1, p back to the middle, p3, p2tog, p1, turn.
Slip 1, k back to the middle, k3, SSK, k1, turn.
And so on, until you reach the edge of the heel. If you haven't finished with a purl row, then turn your work and knit across
Pick up stitches on the side of the heel -- 1 stitch for every 2 rows.
Knit across the instep stitches that you set aside earlier.
Pick up more stitches on the other side of the heel (the same as on the first side of the heel).
Knit one row around in order to get things moving again.
Re-arrange stitches on your dpns
The round now begins in the middle of the heel, and instep stitches should be kept on their own needle(s): 1 needle if using 4 dpns, 2 needles if using 5 dpns.
Knit the Gusset and Foot
Now, decrease away the extra stitches.
Starting from the middle of the heel, k all the way up the side of the heel and K2tog the last two stitches at the side of the heel.
Knit across the instep needle(s).
SSK the first two stitches on the other heel needle and finish
knitting the round.
Continue until you have 36 stitches again.
Knit 10 rows of double ribbing
knit ten rows
Toe decrease
Rearrange the sts on four needles so that you have nine stitches on each needle, as if making a square with one side being the instep, another the bottom of the foot, and the other two the sides.
round one
on the first needle:
knit two together, knit until the last two stitches, ssk
on the second needle:
knit two together, knit until the last two stitches, ssk
on the third needle:
knit two together, knit until the last two stitches, ssk
on the fourth needle:
knit two together, knit until the last two stitches, ssk
round two:
knit around
repeat the two rounds until you have only three stitches on each needle. Close the toe by cutting the yarn about 20 cm from the bootie, then with a yarn needle, slipping it through all the stitches and pulling it all together from the inside like a drawstring. (the same way you close a simple hat).