LIttle Things

Lots of knitting and designing has been happening at Chez Sophia, and I thought that I would have knitting pattern news to share today, but that will have to wait a few more days.

For today, I can show you what I've been doing in between - for something fun and fast to keep me going while the knitting, designing, ripping-out-and-doing-over was happening.

The first is a pair of little socks, called Tiger, Tiger. It's from a child's sock kit that I got at WoolGirl, but I didn't use either of the patterns that came with it. I wanted to do a simple stockinette with this yarn, so that the tiger stripes would show instead of being broken up or obscured. The yarn is incredibly soft and has an angora-like halo. I think the little guy will wiggle his toes happily when he wears these!



For the second thing, I finally used the little 1940's Bootee kit that I found in the antique store! This kit was complete with 4 patterns, a ball of light blue wool, and a set of white plastic (leatherette) moccasin soles with woolly padded soles. For a while I tried to make the bootee exactly according to directions - the patterns were very cute. But they were written so inconveniently! For instance, every single one instructed you to "break yarn" and re-attach it a few stitches away at least four times! and then... the pretty blue wool turned out to be already broken in several places.

I had some really great Fair Isle sock yarn that was half cotton, and would be perfect for this time of year. So I just took advantage of the yarn itself and knit a simple bootee to fit the moc soles.





I love them! They're so cute, and soft and cushy inside. If the moc soles hadn't already had a layer of wool padding, I would have put a layer of wool batting in between the sole and the sock. I looked at modern moc soles in the LYS yesterday, and they are made of suede and have no padding, so that'll be my plan when I make another pair. But the modern mocs start only at size 4 inches, and that's way too big as yet. The vintage ones (size 1-2) are 3.5 inches long.

Both of these socks - the Tigers and the Moccasins, I did top down and here is a bit of a "recipe" for them...

Tiger, Tiger
cast on 48 Sts on Size 0 needles
K1, P1 for 1/2 inch
knit plain for 2 inches
K1, P1 for 6 rows (ankle)
divide sts for heel
create your favorite heel
commence knitting on all 4 needles again
Knit plain for two inches
begin evenly spaced decreases for toe
at 8 sts, thread yarn tail through and pull tight
fasten off and weave in ends

Vintage Style Moccasin
Cast on 44 stitches on size 1.5 needles
K2 P2 for 1 inch
knit plain for 1.5 inches
divide sts for heel
Knit plain on heel sts only for 1 inch
turn heel
pick up gusset sts and commence knitting on 4 needles again
start traditional gusset decreases
knit plain two inches from end of gusset shaping
start decreases for toe, on either side of front
at 10 sts, close with 3-neelde bind off on inside
fasten off and weave in ends.
Use sturdy, contrasting colour thread to attach to sole.

little feet

I had a great find in the charity shop this week for just $4 - The Tuxedo Baby Bootee Pak:





This was a prepackaged knitting kit for baby bootees with soles. I have this 1930's booklet in my vintage knitting collection that helped me to identify the company and the era...



The Tuxedo company specialized in replaceable soles for slippers and apres-ski sock-boots and had kits for all ages. They are no longer in business, sadly. Based on this bootee kit, they had this down to a science! I especially love the soft felt-lined soles:



They even included a little gift card to give with your finished product, similar to what Kim Hargreaves does with her (more elegant) knitted cl0thing knits today.

The kit came with four patterns to choose from and enough yarn to make one of these. The patterns included a simple garter stitch bootee and a pretty shell stitch crochet version, a Mary-Jane sandal pattern, and a tall cabled shoe.





Soles like these, but in suede, (and without the soft attached felting) can be found from Fiber Trends in all sizes. My local yarn store carries them, as does Webs, which has an online store. Leave a comment if you'd like me to post one of these patterns so you can have 1930's baby bootee replica too!