A Theme

Here we are, the first of May, and last night I squeaked my April socks in under the wire.  The Self-Imposed-Sock-Club continues to go really pretty well – I stuck the landing in January, February, March and now – boom. April’s socks were finished on time too. A small confession though – I didn’t pull a bag from the Sock Club for these ones.  I’d done that, gone and gotten a bag – I wound the yarn and everything, and then I was at the DFW Fiber Fest and I was in the Must Stash Yarn Booth and I saw the Ready Player One yarn and then…

Yup. Lost it. I dropped that first yarn like it was moth-ridden trash, and these babies simply fell off the needles. I adore them, and they match my current favourite (store bought) sweater perfectly – which upsets me to no end, because I didn’t knit them in my size.  They’re too big – I have really tiny feet, and as much as I wanted these to be for me, I knew that it wasn’t a good fit. That colourway has 32 stripes, and I know I don’t have enough foot length to showcase it. They’re in the long-range planning box now, and someone will be rather happy come Christmas, I predict.

I didn’t use a pattern, just banged them out as a plain tube, with a half round of waste yarn knit in where I wanted the heel to be.  When I was done knitting the foot, I went back, unpicked the yarn, and knit a heel in. (Well, technically I knit in a toe. They’re the same.) I’d call it an Afterthought Heel, but I feel like if you plan one then maybe you can’t say that. I did rig the heels and toes a little bit, pulling out a bit of yarn here and there to keep the stripes equidistant as the number of stitches in a round changed, because I can be picky like that, and I’d rather weave in extra ends than not have them stripe perfectly, all the way to the ends.

Also, I knit the leftovers into a frock for the bunny and I love it almost as much as the socks. I don’t see this bunny clothes thing really wearing off.

That will be all.

(PS. It took almost as long to take those pictures – dashing from the camera to the chesterfield while trying to keep things in focus -as it did to knit the dress, except for the collar. That was %$&ing fiddly.)

(PPS. There’s a few spots suddenly free at our Strung Along June Retreat.  June is the one we call “Knit, Play, Cook” and it’s a day of knitting classes with me and Debbi Stone, a day of dyeing with Judith MacKenzie, and a day of cooking classes with Chef Dan and his team. There’s details here – drop us a line if you’d like to join us. This is, by the way, the only retreat we do each year that’s for knitters – no spinning skills required, and knitters (and cooks) of all levels will do just fine.)

57 thoughts on “A Theme

  1. So cute! That’s going to be the best dressed bunny ever.

    One of the best things I ever bought for myself was a remote shutter release for my camera. Makes photos like these soooo much easier to do alone!

    • Yes, someone I ring with has an Apple Watch (other smartwatches are on the market) that he uses with his iPhone (other smartphones are on the market) to take pictures of bands after a successful peal or important quarter peal. WAY easier than trying to set up the phone and run around to the group, and he could tell us what we needed to do by looking at the display on his watch. Just putting that out there…

  2. And to think Steph’s just getting started on the bunny’s wardrobe! By the time she’s through, that bunny will have more clothes than Barbie!

  3. ohmigod please find a spare e and put it into the word dyeing here: “a day of dying with Judith MacKenzie”

  4. Somewhere in FutureLand a 30-year-old man sits at his breakfast table with his coffee very early on a Saturday morning. Someone sends him a link. He clicks on it and reads the story again about how his bunny was knitted for him back in 2019.

  5. Aaaaaaaaaaaaaah this post made me unreasonably happy.

    Stripey rainbowy socks and dress???

    PLEASE TELL ME THE SOCKS ARE FOR SOMEONE IN ELLIOT’S FAMILY! Or make him a matching sweater or socks or vest or something with the bunny!!!

    OK, I’ll stop it with the all caps and exclamation points but…

    !!!!!!!!!

    (Whoops, I lied there, didn’t I?)

  6. I HAVE A MIGHTY NEED! Mostly for a bunny with excellent fashion choices, but I might need to break the yarn diet for that sock yarn…

    • Yarn diet! I should go on one of those too, but dang! there is so much cool yarn out there and 2019 LYS tour coming up ……

  7. What an adorable dress! And those socks pretty much sum up my sockish ambitions. (Haven’t made a pair yet, but I want to…) What about a little bunny bikini for the summer? 😉

  8. Just whizzing round in a tube sounds great! Maybe I need to give ‘afterthought’ heels a try. Do they work for high insteps?

    Those little stripes on the bunny sweater are just Too Cute! What happens if Elliot gets jealous of his bunny’s glam wardrobe and wants Elliot-sized copies of everything?

    • My problem also; big feet and high instep. I was just reading a suggestion to use more than 1/2 of the total stitches for the heel, maybe 2/3.

  9. Oh no you are hooked now….I made a toddler size Flax light in pretty stripes then a matching tiny size for a small rag doll, using half the newborn size instructions.
    The matching gift was a big hit

    • I did that too long ago for a friends son…isn’t it funny how the teeny matching sweater is a bigger hit than the baby one!

  10. I would like to suggest that some patterns borrowed from Latvian mittens on a dress or perhaps a Bohus yoke on a sweater made on teeny tiny needles would make a lovely bunny outfit. Also, bunnies get very lonely without other bunnies around… I believe that they are born in groups of… what? Nine or so? Besides, bunnies like to swap clothes… you could, ummm, go down another rabbit hole…

  11. I hope you keep knitting bunny clothes. ❤️ I think I have an addiction of looking at them on Pinterest. Lol.

    • That was supposed to be just “them.” I remembered the gender neutral part after I typed him. It seems to be a whoops kind of day.

  12. It never occurred to me that having big feet could be advantageous when it comes to striped socks. Yay, big feet! Also, I think my 18-month old great-niece may need a bunny…

  13. I’m not usually into stripes, but those socks are so dang sweet! As is the bunny frock! Port Ludlow looks like so much fun… wrong side of the continent for me, sadly.

  14. The dress for bunny just totally brought me back about 60 years. My beloved stuffed animal was named Bunny and I loved her so much she was literally threadbare and my mom had to sew dresses for her.(She was not velveteen and I did not have scarlet fever.) I hung onto “bunny” well into adulthood and I wish I could find her now.

  15. I love the stripey socks. I may have to knit a pair. BTW, EZ called that an afterthought heel, even when it was planned. for a couple of years I did a lot of them. She also did the ones where you just knit 2 tube socks, then when you are done and have decided who they are for, you measure to the correct length ( foot length minus 1.5 inches) and snip a thread in the middle of the row. remove the snipped yarn one st at a time, putting the live sts on 2 dp’s until the count on the dp is 1/2 of the total round on each side. Tie on yarn and pick up 2 sts in the corners. Begin going around for 4 rows, then begin heel (same as toe ) dec. I do a Russian lace maker’s join at the toe, since I hate to Kitchner.
    I think the bunny needs a hat with a wide, floppy brim and holes to pull the ears thru. Flowers on the hat band also good.
    Julie in coolish San Diego

    • Natalie from Remembraces Pottery called them forethought heels in her Bee Whisperer sock pattern that I test knitted.

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  17. Current issue of Interweave Knits explains the difference between “Afterthought” heels, and “Peasant” heels. The Afterthought heel is placed anywhere, with a snip of the yarn; the Peasant heel has a piece of waste yarn to hold the placement. I just read this last night!

    • I heard/read about those points some time ago. It makes sense that a peasant would need to plan a heel that they could remove and replace.
      I learned from Cat Bordhi how to be brave enough to SNIP!

  18. I saw that the bunny as a Sheepy Dress pattern too. That alone makes me want to knit a bunny. I adore Elliott’s bunny and all the clothes it is getting.

  19. I almost fell out when I saw this yarn at Must Stash’s booth at DFW. I’m currently knitting this same yarn into socks for a co-worker. His feet are huge, but he will have huge perfectly striped socks!

  20. How big do your feet need to be?! I just preordered this yarn and now after rereading this post, I’m worried! I think of my feet as average. Size 7. I really wanted socks for myself.

  21. Love the socks and the frock! Nice, nice yarn! I will wait to see the next bunny outfit. How much fun can a knitter have making fun stuff? Whole bunny of fun!
    I am working on my 3rd pair of socks for the year. Every 2 you knit I knit 1 pair… I am getting faster, just more stuff that is not fun.

  22. I admire just about everything you knit but these socks in particular are fantastic. That yarn is beautiful. I have big feet…… just saying’ 🙂 We had a bunny phase for my daughter as well, they are just so cute!

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