Inspiration and the Effect

One can be inspired and then motivated in the most interesting ways. A few weeks ago I purchased some cute little buttons and they have been on my mind since then. They are shaped like cartoonish butterflies done up in cheerful colours. Miss M just must have something made that puts these butterflies to their best use. Meet the motivations:

Miss M and her Movember tomato soup mustache

The buttons that just wouldn't let go

There are a few things on needles right now that really should be completed first; a shawl just begun, the Jeweled cowl and finally the ¨O¨ scarf needs to be finished. But instead I searched my stash for a yarn or yarns that would showoff those buttons and found leftover Malabrigo Duo in pinks from last year's West Desert hood.

Additionally I needed to find a relatively small project since there was less than 50 grams of yarn left. I decided to knit a toque in a toddler size in a simple design that would allow the butterflies to shine. Barley from Tin Can Knits fit the bill. It will be a slouchy toque with butterflies on the front.

And this is the result:

A closeup of just one of the buttons

It took only a few hours to complete this version, but now I can focus on the other WIPs because those buttons have an appropriate home.

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Anatomy of a Sock

I've been knitting socks for a relatively short time. One of the disconcerting things for me as I started following patterns for socks is the pattern designer assumes the knitter (in this case that would be me) knows all the parts of a sock. So I thought I'd devote a post to improve my own knowledge about the anatomy of a sock and maybe some of you will learn something about the humble yet necessary sock as well. Here's the names of the parts of the foot as I know them. #49 ankle, #50 heel, #51, instep, #52 ball, #53 big toe, #54 toe, #55 little toe, #56 toenail. There are some parts more important for this discussion; first the heel of a foot is generally used to refer to the entire C-shape from the ankle to the instep. Speaking of the instep, it refers to that curve near the bottom of the foot. And what seems to be missing in the design above is the sole which generally refers to the bottom of the foot in total or plantar aspect in more technical terms...

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What is a meme, you may first ask? Well Dr. Richard Dawkins, an evolutionary biologist, came up with the idea in the late 1970's and stated something like: a meme is to a society what a gene is to a human. Both are an element or unit that can be replicated or passed from one individual to another. During the Internet age memes can be easily shared, replicated or otherwise passed on to another. Recent examples can be found on Gawker . Memes can include piano playing cats, a honey badger, the Call Me Maybe phenomenon and so on. The political campaign in the U.S. helped fuel memes using some of the most unusual statements like, "binders of women" and "you didn't build that." A few memes have staying power but most have a relatively short life span. Gosling's meme related to knitting has been around for some time; so when I again saw another post about him recently, it was time to figure out the origin. Ryan Gosling is a Canadian actor born in Onta...

Yarn Usage II: Crochet vs. Knit

All four swatches were made. Each is 6.25" or 15.875 cm square; each prepared with the same sized yarn and needles or hook. It took 25 stitches to get the appropriate width for the knit swatches and only 20 stitches for both of the crocheted squares. That already says something, but I'll get to it in a minute. (Don't know what I'm talking about here? Check out this post first.) Unfortunately, you'll just have to trust me that four swatches were prepared and that they were all the same size. In the excitement to get to measuring and weighing of the swatches, no photographic evidence was taken. Luckily for me the results of this research doesn't have to be reviewed by a jury of my peer. This blog post will be the sum and total of where this information is published. The remains of my four swatches What can be shared, however, are the balls of yarn rewound after the weighing and measuring was completed. You will note the size ...

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