You're in My Blog Now

Probably, anyway.
Look over there in the sidebar ---------------------------->
I've updated links to include friends I've bullied into creating blogs and friends I've met through my blog.
Wish you were here? Just let me know.

I have the coolest Secret Pal ever!

Wow! I mean, wow! My Secret Pal has truly outdone herself! This is spectacular.
I wanted to tear into this the minute I picked it up from the post office, but as soon as I saw it had a theme, I knew I had to document this. And then blog about it instantly.
A theme!

And it's all neatly wrapped. With labels!

The theme is creature comforts.
This one is "Creature Comforts for your Creature".
It's a whole package just for Worfy! It's got patterns for catnip mice, the wool, the fluffing, and even the catnip to make them.
Here's Worfy inspecting them.

And particularly the catnip. It's even his favorite brand!

You think I'm kidding, but the Cosmic Catnip is good stuff, man. Gooooood stuff.

He was also very interested in the wrappings.
This is a lovely lavender colored knit washcloth, some lavender scented soap, and a comb.

This might be one of those too-pretty-to-use-situations.

Now this is a woman who knows what she's talking about.

And see the mug? It says K2 p2 all over it and then "Ribbed For Her Pleasure."

Tee hee! I'm so taking that to work. And tea. (But tea isn't as funny.)

And she has seriously done her homework - dark chocolate, in the mint and cherry varieties (my two favorite).

And then this is the one I was particularly excited about. The label says "Cozy socks - a creature comfort for your outer sole." It's some lovely yarn and a ton of sock patterns! All neatly bound and such! I love the idea of neatly bound things, but I'm too lazy to actually do it myself. And many are Cookie A!

Thanks, Secret Pal! Worfy thanks you too. That, or he wants more of the catnip. Either way.

Lorna has a blog!

My bullying has finally paid off, and not only does Kate now have a blog, Lorna does too!
Go visit her at the Stitchin' Corral - thestitchincorral.blogspot.com
I'll have to update my links soon....

Fugly Friday

We all miss You Knit What? , but just because they are gone doesn't mean the merciless mocking has to stop.

I bring you- the Travellin' Man Shoe Covers from Lion Brand, free pattern here.



Aparently, their purpose is thus, "These special 'booties' fit on the outside of shoes and protect your clothing from getting shoe polish on it in the suitcase."

Oh, right. That always happens to me.

Now, let's think about this. Men's socks are big enough, but then you want to make them fit on the outside of the shoe?

And let me get this straight. Their purpose is to keep shoe polish off your clothes. You want to get shoe polish on something I've hand knit? Granted, it's only Lion Brande Wool-Ease (two skeins) but I don't think so.
No one needs these. And if they did, it sure as hell wouldn't be something I would take the time to knit. Make the man some damn socks and don't make him think he has to pack these absurd things.

Also, I have some shoes that look a lot like that. They're really comfortable.

Socks, socks, and second sock syndrome

Why am I only wearing one sock, you ask?

Because I caved, utterly and completely, to second sock syndrome. I am not entirely in love with these socks, but they are not bad as a travelling project. I will enjoy them when they are done, eventually. There's no rush really. They're just for me, for fun.

But then there's Panda Cotton. I picked up a couple of skeins of it at the LYS in the Blueberries and Grapes colorway. Very cute, and very appropriate for my wool "allergic" mom. I fondled it for a couple of days, tried to will myself to finish the pink socks, and wound up appropriating the needles for these. I adore them.

I mentioned how much I was enjoying this yarn (55% bamboo, 24% cotton, 21% elastic nylon) on the socknitters list, and Laura asked, "Sarah- what pattern are you using? Will you post pics on your blog?"

Why yes, Laura, yes I will.

I'm using the "On Your Toes" pattern from the current Interweave, which is basically a toe-up tutorial. You could always use the free one on knitty, but I happened to have the magazine anyway. (Seriously, this is a pretty cute issue.) Panda cotton seems especially appropriate to toe-up socks because it comes in rather small skeins, already neatly divided in half for you. And since I'd hate to waste an inch of this lovely yarn, I can just keep knitting the cuff until I run out. This is my first try at toe up, however. I was excited to try the yarn, and I was excited to try a new pattern. Pink sparkly socks are just going to have to wait.

And anyway, I can justify bumping these socks up on the to-knit list, as it would be best if they were done before a certain birthday in June (not that it would belong to any mothers I happen to have).

I will caution you, that if you do not watch this yarn, it might untwist or split on you. However, it is all a matter of yarn mastery, and it is a small price to pay for the delicious feel of this yarn. You can see some slight pooling, but I would rate it "minimal." I already talked Kate into buying it, and she's glad she did.

What's This?

No, I haven't gotten religious on you all of a sudden. This is a new swift, by means of Lorna (who needs a blog). She came in to one of our weekly(ish) knitting meetings with one of these and we were all jealous. This is a particularly clever little swift. Those little pegs are movable dowel rods to expands to fit your skein size and detach for easier storage.

It has little pads on the base that keep it from walking across the table, and the tension can be adjusted via that shiny little screw in the center. But here's the best part. Her dad goes out into the forest, cuts down the tree by himself, and does all the expert woodworking and finishing. And he does this for a mere $30 plus shipping. This is a hand-made, solid oak swift, people.

Here it is helping me wind some yarn for my Bohus.

Basically all the ladies from the knitting group bought one, and we're trying to talk the LYS into carrying them too. If you want one, and I assure you, you should, email me, and I will forward your info on to Lorna (because she doesn't have a blog).

There have been other stash enchancements lately, but this is all you get for now.

In consolation, please enjoy this gratitous picture of my cat.

That fuzziness peeping out is part of the fun fur cat bed I made him. At least he actually likes it!

Kate has a blog!

I've been bugging her about this for a while, but now she finally does.
Go visit her at accordingtok.blogspot.com/!
You might know Kate, she used to work at the LYS and kept up their blog for a while. For some reason, she has decided to go back and be a doctor instead of working at the LYS. Silly girl.
She also has the cutest dog ever, whom she totally needs to post pictures of.
And the knitting, of course...

Tagged Twice

On the same meme, no less, by Madalyn and She'saCrafyOne. I guess I'm obliged...

Each person tagged gives 7 random facts about themselves. Those who are tagged need to write on their own blog those 7 facts as well as the rules of the game. You need to tag seven others and list their names on your blog. You have to leave those you plan on tagging a note in their comments so they know that they have been tagged and to read your blog.

I did something similar a while ago, with knitting content. This one is all non-knitting content.

1. I'm a secular humanist. Check us out at the American Humanist Association website. For a while I just considered myself "not religious," but it turns out that what I believe matches up with humanism quite well.

2. I love bad daytime TV. Dr. Phil, People's Court, you name it. I even went to a taping of the Jerry Springer show.

3. I have no rhythm, epically, tragically so. I could not find a beat with a metronome. When attempting to dance, I have to focus very hard and watch the people around me.

4. I have a serious caffeine addiction, particularly in the form of Diet Coke. I have no intention of changing this.

5. I match my underwear to my outfit.

6. My apartment is a disaster area, but there are certain regions that must be in complete control. My DVD's must be alphabetized, and my clothes must be organized by type and color. I have no explanation or justification for this, but it's my apartment, so that's how it goes.

7. I am compulsively early. Tell me to be there at 10, and I will be there by 9:45. I will consider myself late if I am not there by 9:55. Aparently this is an oldest/only child trait.

Now the tagging other people part. I have to find the people who haven't been tagged yet, which is always tricky.

We'll try:
Amanda (and see if she actually does it)
Carrie Penny
E
Jamisyn
Jess (who seriously needs to let us know what she's been doing with that new spinning wheel)
Kristine
Vicki

Also, Lorna and Kate, if you had blogs, I would so tag you. Get with the program here.

Zapped!

Okay, so here's why I don't blog about works in progress.
Remember those socks? Those awesome really cool space invader socks?
About one and a half socks in I decided, hey, why not actually try them on the boy?
(I think you can see where I'm going with this.) They singularly, spectacularly do not fit. The fair isle portion (which if I do say so myself, is a particularly well done fair isle portion) is still too small to fit over his heel.
This I don't understand. How can the boy have such a big heel? They will absolutely fit around his ankle if he could just get them on. But...he must have the biggest heel in the world. We tugged, we pulled, I had a brief image of the fair isle snapping and spilling space invaders everywhere. It was to no avail. I tried them on over bulky socks to approximate the size of his foot, and they were still easy to get on. He just really has a big heel. And to think he's gone his entire life without knowing how serious this could be.
So now, here I am, one and half socks in, asking myself, and the socknitters group, "Now what?"
The correct answer of course, that all the sockniters tell me, is to reknit. I find this concept horribly painful. Reknit two entire 6" fair isle cuffs and one large foot? I just...I don't know if I could force myself to do it. The thought of ripping all that work petrifies me.
There's still a problem with re-knitting. I can't just make them bigger. If I make the cuff big enough to fit over his gargantuan heel, they'll fall down on his normal-sized ankle. That clearly won't work. I have thoughts on how to fix this, but consider my other crazy idea.
The crazy option that I am entertaining is to steek them. Do people seriously steek socks?. But if it goes bad, I'd be no worse off than re-knitting. Well, I'd be down one skein of sock yarn, but after all the work I've put into those socks it would be worth it on the off chance it works.
And whether I steek them or not, when these things finally get reworked, I think it's going to have to be with ribbed panels. I can't think of any other way to get it to stretch over the heel without adding serious width to the ankle.
What does this have to do with blogging? Well, if I hadn't already put it out here, I could hide it in the corner for a while. You should see all the hideous, half-attempted projects I'm hiding from you. Also, a few decent ones. But now that I've blogged, I'm forced to confront my problem right now. I can't cover my ears and go "la la la," right now like I usually would. I guess it's not all your fault. The boy is really excited about the socks and wants them as soon as possible.
But...steeking? Ribbed panels? Can I do this? I don't really know what my other options are.

Is it Friday already?

Seriously, for a minute there I wasn't sure what day it was. I've been working 4am- noon, and it's really messing me up. But it is, in fact, Friday, and I would not want to disappoint.

Don't be distracted by the cuteness of this baby.

This headband is really unfortunate. It's the Angel Baby Headband from Lion Brand, free pattern here. I quote, "Make this festive headband and let everyone know just what kind of angel that baby is!"

What kind of angel? The kind that is going to wear this headband for about 3 seconds?

It's made out of not one, but two, strands of fun fur, in gold and pink. I'm disgusted already. I suppose you could mix up the colors if you wanted too. Why not make a devil baby in red and black? That might be the kind of angel that baby is.

And apparently, this is made simply by casting on a bunch of stitches, and then binding them off. There is no knitting involved. This is a headband, that you expect a baby to wear, and you are using the least flexible stitches involved in knitting? Shouldn't there at least be a little ribbing?

It's just not sane. But that is a really cute baby.

Hmmm

I don't know what to think about this.

This is a sock I started in Fortissima Colori Disco sock yarn from Schoeller + Stahl in color 5. That's not glare, it's really got a strand of something silver and glittery. But somehow it looked cuter in the skein.

I thought it would stripe better, which seemed like fun, because I hadn't used a self-striping yarn in a while. I think this must be designed with children in mind, because some of the stripes only go halfway around my moderately sized ankle.
But seriously. Who doesn't need sparkly pink socks?
Now I'm not sure I'm entirely in love with this sock. I still want sparkly pink socks, but I don't absolutely love how it's coming out. What should I do?

Happy Mother's Day!

Eh Bonjour, mes amis! 'ave I got juste zee ting for youuu....
It's the Mademoiselle Jacket from Classic Knits by Erika Knight. It's a little Chanel-inspired jacket in Rowan Natural Silk Aran. I had been looking for an excuse to use that yarn for a while when this pattern popped up. I am a fan of this design, and of this book in general. Almost everything is very wearable in public, and doesn't look homemade. My only complaint is that nothing is knit in the round, and I think that is rather inefficient. (If you click on the link and look at more images, you can see it in the original pink.)
At any rate, this is the secret I've been hiding from you for a while. It's a Mother's Day gift, of course. Knitting was done at least a month ago, but of course I didn't finish it up till a few days before.

I had the hardest time finding the right ribbon for the detailing. It is not this shiny irl, but it could still be better.
Now of course, I had to include a matching top, and since I had a little ribbon left over, I trimmed it up too.

I threw in some sparkly bangles, and wrapped it all up in a coordinating photo box.

I try to wrap gifts in something that's useful, whenever possible. I think this is particularly appropriate to the sweater.
She has a couple of extra gifts besides, but this was the one with the major work and knitting involved.
In summary:
Pattern: Mademoiselle Jacket from Classic Knits
Yarn: Rowan Natural Silk Aran (73% viscose, 15% silk, 12% linen, a nice summer blend, 71 yds) 11 skeins for the medium size
Needles: a comfortable size 7 (4.5 mm)
Time: about a week to knit, about 6 weeks to finally finish
Cost: it's a gift, we're not going to talk about that

Beaded Bag

Look at that beadedness.

That is my new beaded bag. I bought the kit at the secondary LYS, but you can find it (and others) at www.mybagatelle.com.

It was super fun, and the knitting itself went rather quickly, even on size 0 needles with perle cotton (that's embroidery thread). The finishing took forever, of course, because I'm lazy. And to be honest, this isn't entirely finished. It still needs a lining, but you can't see that from here.

Now I just need another special occasion to use it with. It's small, but not smaller than your average fancy dress purse. It's enough to fit ID, cash, a thin cell phone and some lip gloss, which is all you generally need at those fancy occasions.

I had done a tiny bit with beads before, but this is my first major attempt. This clever little bag incorporates both "bead knitting" and "beaded knitting," and while that may sound like a small difference (and actually, it is) people get very bent out of shape if you say the wrong one.

For the record, bead knitting is when you slip a bead (or several) and then knit a stitch. Beaded knitting is when you start to knit the stitch, then slip the bead and finish the stitch. Now you know.

In summary:

Pattern: Shell Bag kit , $40

Yarn: Perle Cotton ie. embroidery thread, about two mini skeins

Needles: Size 0, purchased for the occasion

Time: About a week of real knitting

Cost: about $50 if you count the needles, about $40 for the kit

Fugly Friday

In continuing homage to the late, great You Knit What? , I bring you this latest offering from Crystal Palace yarns:

Free pattern here.

I don't know where to begin. First, I don't like vests in general. This is personal, I know many people who do. Some of them look decent. This does not.

Why would you put a fur collar on something that goes below any reasonable bustline?

Why would you display it over another sweater, in a color that doesn't even coordinate?

And even if you did, why would you make that sweater so much higher quality and more attractive?

But then, why would you do something like this at all?

Can we please, as a knitting community, declare fun fur over?

Guess What

Guess what this is.



If you guessed a Bohus sweater kit, you must have been there last week.
But indeed, it is the infamous Bohus sweater that the Yarn Harlot knit. (Go read about the history of it. It's very interesting, but I'm not going to repeat it here.) At first, I thought she was really nuts. Why would you knit such a sweater with such tiny needles? It seemed designed to fry your brain. Such thin yarn! Such little needles (US 1.5)! This was too much, even for her. And then I went to go see her talk, and she was wearing it.
Oh my god.
It is beautiful. The color work looks like a halo had somehow forgotten where it's supposed to go and taken up residence at the neck. I pet the sweater. It was so soft, I thought my hand might pass right through it. It was divine. Some day, I thought, I could aspire to this.
And then she scared us. The woman who makes all these wonderful, historically accurate sweater kits is old, and has no apprentice. These are a limited time item! I must have it! Now!
As it turns out, the price is quite reasonable and shipping is quite fast. It costs about what you would expect a hand knit sweater kit to cost, and I got in about a week and a half. I want to start it instantly, but I'm holding back.
Although the Yarn Harlot's sweater is lovely for her, it is definitely not my colorway. Luckily, there is the beautiful Forest Darkness option (scroll all the way down).
Here are the instructions.

Just kidding. They all come with English translations too. But I assure you, that does not make it significantly easier. This is a hard core pattern, one that should have a giant red sign flashing "Not for Beginners" on the cover. This is going to be a challenge.

Oh, but it's so going to be worth it.

Look at those colors. If only you could feel the wonderfully soft wool/angora yarn.
I'm trying to convince myself to finish some of the other project I've got going (although one will definitely be done this weekend, wink, wink) before I start this. I make no promises.


I think I'm going to make the cardigan version, as I am far more of a cardigan sort of person, and it makes it useful as a light jacket.
Now I have to debate the same questions the Yarn Harlot did - to be historically accurate or not. The lovely lady who compiles the kits suggests that it would be possible to steek the cardigan, but I don't know if I'm that brave anyway.

Internet gods

Well, the internet gods have decided to favor me again, and I was finally able to read Cookie A's post about Fringe.
Yep, that's the one with me in it.
I am jealous of her camera and her l33t photography sk1lz (that was cool in the 90's, if you recall). She makes me and my sock look good!
And she really does a good job of showing off the yarn. It's pretty stuff.
The socks I'm doing are actually in the Dream in Color yarn too, I just got Veronica to dye me a special batch of black. (It's always good to be friends with the owners of your LYS, especially when they have a dye studio in the back.) I hadn't used their sock yarn before, but it is smooshy (as the name might suggest) and I like it a lot. It's mostly solid, but it has very subtle variations. It's like when you're visiting your mom and she says, "Those blacks don't match," but you pretend not to know what she's talking about. You know what she's talking about.
I am into the foot of the first sock now, but I tend not to blog about works in progress, as progress has a mysterious way of stopping.
In summary, buy Dream in Color yarns, knit Cookie A's socks.

Fancy Parties with the Boy

Now there's evidence.

Computers, and Why They Hate Me

Lately, computers have been doing everything in their power to thwart me. I don't know why, but this is something more than just ordinary bad luck. My luck is bad enough with computers that several senior physicsts have declared that they will never go to Vegas with me or sit next to me at the horse races. Just in case it comes up.
Clearly, this is not a question of karma, or anything like that, as some have suggested. It's not like I walk around clubbing baby seals. I'm vegetarian, after all. Isn't that a get out of karma free card?
At any rate, I keep managing to have computer disasters that make the veritable experts chuckle and say, "That's a good one!"
I will spare you the details of my physics problems, but the latest one is particularly irritating. I was trying to read Cookie A's blog, and I can see in a google search that she mentions me. Me! I'm instantly excited, I click on the link mentally composing the cool thing I'm going to blog about getting blogged about (I guess it's just like that in the blogosphere).
It doesn't work.
I can see the preview in google, I can see my name. But the link? Not there. I can get to every other website in the world, except the one I most want to read. The one about me.
Do not, I repeat, do not go to Vegas with me or sit next to me at the horse races. Just in case it comes up.

C is for Cookie...A

Did you know you can set up an RSS feed to find out anytime someone blogs about you?
Cookie A does.
Oops.
So I did drop by the LYS during my lunch hour, to try to get a pattern signed by Cookie A. (See, I bet she's reading this now. Hi Cookie!) She was very nice and friendly, and her hair does this really cool color-morphing thing that I wanted to ask about, but didn't.
She had, in fact, noticed that I had blogged about her the other day.....that I had blogged about her like a stupid, giddy schoolgirl. She only teased me a little. I still can't believe that some stores didn't even know who she was, and she said some were even rude to her. She's a knitting celebrity!
At any rate, the owners were very nice to her, started carrying her patterns, and showed her around the dye studio. (The LYS dyes Dream in Color yarns.)
Here's her taking a picture of me...taking a picture of her...taking a picture of me.....fun with recursion.

They sent her off with a few skeins of sock yarn, with everyone hoping for a wonderful combination of pattern and yarn as the result. And she got free sock yarn, so bonus.
I hope this works out. It would be the coolest thing in the world if she used that yarn in one of her patterns. I have my worries, though, because most of her patterns tend to be in a solid color (a feature I actually really like), but the yarn is quite colorful (as the name might suggest).
Of course, I had to get her to sign a pattern for me. I couldn't decide, so I asked her what her favorite was. She said her favorite was actually Millicent , but it didn't tend to be too popular. I guess she's right, because that's not one of the ones the LYS had chosen. I picked Twisted Flower (other contenders were Gothic Spire and German Stocking). It scares the crap out of me, but the socknitters are very helpful with their suggestions, so I'm sure I'll get through it some day.
She told me that someone had asked her to sign a pattern at Stitches, and told her to write something "Cookie-esqe," but the only thing she said was Cookie-esqe was "Yo!".
And she signed mine.

I think she was a little weirded out by having a fangirl there, but she was very nice about it. Once the space invaders are done, I'll give my autographed pattern a try.

Damn socks. The other knitters tried to warn me this would happen, that I would want to keep knitting socks constantly, but I didn't believe them. (At least it's only knitting. It could have been zombies. )

Fugly Friday

Now, this is not actually a fugly bag. It is not a bad bag at all. It might get a little boring, you might not like the colors so much, and there are certainly better yarns you could use. But it would be a nice project for the beginner on a budget.

But for the love of all that is holy, will someone please think through the names of these things?

This is the Vibe Tote from Berrocco.

The Vibe Tote.

Yes, it is a tote. Yes, the yarn used in it is called Vibe. But THINK THIS ONE THROUGH.

There is one, and only one, thing that I would assume that would go in something called a Vibe Tote.

I can't be the only one that thinks that way.

And....putting that in something wool? Ick. That does not sounds sanitary.

The Other Cool Thing That Happened Yesterday

So I was helping out at the LYS yesterday, as I am wont to do from time to time, and in general, I was doing pretty crappy things. Mostly labelling things, in fact, and answering the phone as it rang off the hook. But one of these rings was very exciting.
"Fringe: A Knitting Salon," I chirped. "This is Sarah. How can I help you?"
"Hi," answered the voice on the other line. "My name is Cookie and I design sock patterns."
I probably cut her off at this point and gasped, "Ohmygod, are you Cookie A?"
Cookie A, in case you do not know, has designed some of the coolest socks on the planet. I have not knit any of them yet, as I'm still relatively new to the whole sock thing, and they are very complicated. Nevertheless, I assure you I have my eye on them. You might know her from knitty, as she has designed Pomatomus, Monkey, and Baudelaire, among others, as well as other really popular patterns that you have to pay for. She also hobnobbed with the Yarn Harlot at sock camp. On the socknitters list, someone mentions one of her patterns at least once a day.
This, in the land of knitting, constitutes a full-fledged celebrity.
As it turns out, she is originally from this area, and was calling up all the LYS while she was visiting. Excitedly, I gave the phone over to Nancy (one of the owners) and they set up a meeting on Friday.
Nancy told me later that we were only the second shop she had called that recognized her, which I find surprising. She probably needs a bona fide book to hit real celebrity status, but the internet is abuzz with her patterns. I will be very, very cranky with the shop if they don't start to carry them there.
I'm trying to find a way the politely crash the meeting and meet her. She seems like quite a character. She achieves a level of design in her socks that I could only dream of. Seriously, go look at the pictures.

The Mail

Things that are not fun to get in the mail:
1. Bills
2. Junk mail
3. Notices that your rent is going up
4. Bills
5. Papers to grade (don't ask)

Things that are really fun to get in the mail:
1. Netflix
2. Things you have ordered
3. Yarn
4. Cards and letters from real people

5. Magazines
6. Yarn that's a total surprise and you didn't even pay for!

Thanks Amanda!

After getting all of the things on the bad list in the last few days, I also got something on the good list!
I had a hint I might be getting something (#4 perhaps?), since she emailed me asking for my snail mail address, but I wasn't expecting this.

That's 330 yards of a brand new yarn! I hadn't even seen this one before, but it's called Andes and it's 100% wool in green and purples. It looks like violets growing under a canopy of trees (okay, so I went to the Arboretum the other day). She included a lovely card that said she saw this at her LYS and thought I could make something beautiful out of it.

But no pressure.

PS. Blog-stalking is totally encouraged.

Jaywalkers, or Hopping on the Bandwagon

As if taking up knitting socks weren't enough, I have knit popular socks from the internet.

These are Jaywalkers by Grumperina, and everyone and their next door neighbors have knit them. Her gallery is rapidly approaching the 1000 mark, and shows no sign of slowing down.

To be honest, maybe there's something to it. The pattern is easily memorized, but really fun to knit. Look at that zig-zaggediness.

My only complaint is that they seem to want to fall down. If I made them again (which I might someday, actually), I would add a bit more ribbing at the top. Otherwise, they fit very well.

I made a few small modifications - I opted for an eye of partridge heel instead of the regular heel flap. I am absolutely in love with this pattern now. I think the little spikiness of it goes well with the peaks and points of the pattern.

I assure you it looks much better in real life. The camera is being poopy today.

Also, I did a three-needle bindoff on the toe because I'm too lazy to get the needle. They're for me, and I can't tell the difference when I'm wearing them, so :p .

All in all, I am a fan. These took entirely too long to make, because they got put to the back burner while I was making more time-sensitive projects.

And I broke far too many needles before I learned the rubber band/ dpn trick. Still, I am very happy to have yet another pair of super comfy socks for my little feet.

In summary:

Yarn: Cherry Tree Hill (100% superwash merino) - jewel tone potluck color, 1 skein

Pattern: Jaywalkers by Grumperina, with eye of partidge heel and three needle bindoff toe

Needles: Size 1 dpn, with much abuse

Cost: about $20

Time: Around 6 weeks, with little to no attention paid to them for most of that.