Monster Booties Take Over Manhattan!!

These are the completed booties I mentioned in my last post. I told you they were cute! Do you like how I got the Empire State Building in the background? These booties mean business. I gave them to my supervisor today...I never get tired of how people react to handknit gifts. Even those who don't have a grasp of the process still appreciate the effort and quality. I also scored a piece of pink & white cake which I'm taking home to my hubby. I also have some leftover Boston cream pie, which came from my company's Boston office. They bet 100 pies that they would win the superbowl, and my office bet 100 cheesecakes they wouldn't. I felt like a traitor eating that pie! Oh well, I may as well be consoled for my loss, right?

So these booties were knit with Lamb's Pride worsted weight wool/mohair blend. I used scraps of the same brand in pink wool for the detail ties. I believe I used #2 double pointed needles to knit these to gauge...the pattern from Last Minute Knitted Gifts called for #5, but also called for angora which I decided against. I'm broke, so I used what I had on hand. I DID want them to be a little fuzzy, so I held some sort of furry thin stuff I bought years ago in Boston along with the worsted. It's the same stuff I used to knit the airy scarf. The effect is to give them a little white cloudy halo, and also a nice little detail up close. Both yarns are white, so the detail is not quite as pronounced as I would have liked. Oh well. At least they're fuzzy.

The process of knitting these was AMAZING. I was blown away by the techniques. Basically you start with the toe and double knit for a couple of inches. If you have never done this, it's hard to imagine what that means until you try it. My mind blew up when I realized what I was doing. You bascially knit both the top and bottom at the same time - INSIDE OUT. How cool is that?!? While you're knitting, it turns into a little pillow (I wish now I'd taken a picture of that part), then you separate the stitches onto two needles so it can come apart and be turned inside out. I also got to use a three needle bind-off for the heel, which was really fun. I think I've done it before, but I never can remember techniques until I do them a billion times. I had to follow the books very good instructions for both booties - yes I am so stupid I couldn't even remember it from one to the other. I also knit them about a week apart (in other words I was knitting the last blasted bootie last night until 12:30. ARGH.) So my hubby (patient as ever) and I are a bit tired today. The book didn't say anything about blocking (a bit tricky with a tiny 3-D item), but I decided they needed some kind of blocking because they looked very funky, so I stuffed them with tissue paper and sprayed them down generously with water. Overnight they dried and it made a world of difference. I love blocking! Especially when it involves no pins :)

Here are a few more shots of the booties livin' up the city life!