Knit Picky: I Married Bigfoot!

"properly practiced, knitting soothes the troubled spirit...
and it doesn't hurt the untroubled spirit either."
~elizabeth zimmerman

Tuesday, February 06, 2007

I Married Bigfoot!

Not in the sense of the super-hairiness. Or even the excessive height. No, it's just that The Boy has feet that just don't suit two skeins of Koigu. No way, no how.

We reduced the length of the cuff on the socks I'm making from 7" to 5-1/2" to save yarn. Why did it not occur to me that a) ribbing eats yarn like mad, and b) he has ginormous feet and 175 yds was just not going to cut it?

So (and this counts toward my YFC07 update, I think), I had no choice but to buy yarn. Darn. I headed on down to the not-so-much-immediately-L YS where I got the Koigu at a trunk show. And they were out, naturally. BUT. They suggested contacting the woman who I buy the Koigu from when she's in town, Merilyn from Foxyknits. (If you don't know La Merilyn, get to soon. She's marvelous and generous and has AWESOME customer service). So after caving and buying myself two skeins of Lorna's Mixed Berries sock yarn (I am weak; so, so weak), I headed home, contacted Merilyn and lo! she had one more skein in the exact same dye lot and color. [Edited to add the date of my 'free' yarn buying day used: 1/21]

So after eking out as much of that first skein as I could, for as long as humanly possible, I reached precisely the point at which I would begin the toe decreases. Then I took two days off knitting the socks to knit my step-grandmother a hat*, and then the Koigu was there, and I was able to finish the first of The Boy's socks.

Please ignore the nipple-like toe. This is my first round toe. It looks better after weaving in the ends.

I'm using the Oak Ribbed Pattern from Nancy Bush's Knitting Vintage Socks, but I had to modify it for The Bigfoot. You know, to make it bigger.

Here's my petite little foot modeling The Bigfoot Sock. See where my thumbnail is? That's the very tippy end of my big toe. That's how big Bigfoot's feet are.

So now I'm working on sock #2 but it may get worked on simultaneously with a baby sweater (cotton) for my soon-to-be-born second cousin. I'm not so good with the project polygamy, but I'll give it a shot.

*Finally, I'm sad to say that my step-grandmother's cancer has come back. Just last year she miraculously conquered StageIV cancer and went into remission. But the bastard is back. So she asked for a new hat to wear to chemo (I made her two last year), and this time she was particular about her colors--she really wanted fall colors. I dug through my stash and found four balls of Tahki-Stacey Charles Dazzle in color 003 that I got from elann a few year's ago. It is the softest 100% new wool. And in person? Check it out!

So.Beautiful. I adore the colors. They look like candy to me. (And yay, I have three more full balls of the stuff.) The ball band said 108 yds, but I have a bunch left over. In fact, the yarndex site I linked to says 183 yds per skein. Hmmmm.

The doctors are not optimistic at all for Teri (my step-grandmother). Our sincere hope is to get her into City of Hope. Hope is our watchword, just now. My parents are wrecks and I'm sad. So, if you're so inclined, would you send Teri your good wishes/vibes? We would all appreciate it!

Thanks you fabulous knitty community!

[One more edit: Gwendolen, I would love to chat with you! You can email me directly at conchobara at yahoo (dot) com. I will look into adding this link to the blog so if anyone ever wants to reach me without going through comments, you can.]

4 Comments:

I guess I'm going to have to break down & buy that Nancy Bush book because those socks look GREAT! You're SO LUCKY though that you got a skein of the same dye lot! DA-YUM!

Sorry to hear about your step-grandma. Cancer Sucks! I love the hat you knit her though. She'll be stylin!

By ~Kristie, at 10:55 PM
Oh I'm so sorry, when we get in the chemo caps for the YFC, I'll send you a picture of all of them and maybe we could pick out one or two to send to her so she'll have a variety.

Wow! That's a lot of foot!

By Anonymous, at 9:29 AM
Sorry to hear about your step-grandma. Sending good thoughts her way.

Bigfoot indeed. He is lucky to get socks made for him.

BTW, I'm your YFC pal.

By Anonymous, at 1:20 PM
My guy doesn't have bigfoot issues, but wants unbelievably long cuffs, so I, too, have to buy THREE SKEINS of koigu for him. grrrrrrr ah well.

Best wishes for Teri, I love the hat!

By Christine, at 11:01 AM

4 Comments:

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