and where is all the sewing content?
the yarn banner is because i liked the yarn, and i liked the picture, and i was tired of the old banner, but the sewing-type banner i had tried to make just looked stupid, and this banner looked cool.
and the sewing has been on a mental health time-out. i really really meant to sew this summer--i had planned to build myself an entire new wardrobe out of dust mops and dog chow bags--but alas, my sock drawer needed my attention.
for example: ella has been having a little trouble with her piggies this summer--nothing serious, but enough that she can't wear closed-toe shoes. so being that i have had socks on the brain, naturally i thought she needed socks for her open-toed shoes, AKA flip flops. so i worked out a pattern for something that is more or less a tube with a strap to protect the foot from the flip-flop thong. i made up a pair for myself first, to test them out, and this is what i came up with:
they seemed to do the job so i made a pair for ella, and she doesn't like them. she wants her piggies covered--she doesn't want anybody to see her "boom-booms", AKA owies, boo-boos, or wounds, so now i have three sets of these lovelies and nobody in the house is wearing them--ella wants her piggies covered, and i want my piggies and the rest of my foot free.
in case your piggies need a pair, here is the pattern:
i used "sock weight" yarn and size 0 needles. if you use other yarn or needles, adjust accordingly. i knit with 5DPN's and the instructions reflect that, feel free to adapt to your method/needle count of choice.
to fit my size 9, medium width but very flat foot: cast on 52 stitches or however many it takes to go all the way around your foot snuggly. knit four rows of K4P4 ribbing, then knit in the round 20 rows, then knit four more rows of K4P4 ribbing.
now--knit 5 stitches, bind off 29, knit 5 stitches, bind off 13 (i'm sorry, you will need to do the math yourself if you use a different number of stitches--basically you just knit 5 stitches and bind off the rest needle one, bind off all stitches on the second needle, bind off the third needle to the last 5 stitches--knit those five then bind off the fourth needle. clear as mud?). when you get done with this part, you will have two needles with 5 stitches each. you will knit 5 of those stitches to make a strap, and graft to the other five.
to make the strap:
row 1: K1, P3 K1
row 2: K5
repeat these rows until the strap is long enough for your foot, then graft to the remaining live stitches.
for ella's (size 11 shoe) i cast on 48 stitches, ribbing for four rows, knit in the round 10 rows, ribbing four rows, bind off as above using 4 knit stitches instead of 5. strap is 10 rows long.
