Arr, thar be some booty!

I'm a bit late for Talk Like a Pirate day. But look, booties!
Some of J's friends had a baby girl a few weeks ago, and despite the fact that I really don't know them that well (although they are lovely people) I was so overcome with the urge to knit little cutesy girly baby things that I had to make little Annika some booties for her wittle tootsies! The impetus for this project also partly being that I have been slaving away on some very manly, and hence kind of boring, projects. One being J's sweater (which is about twice as far along as the last picture I posted of it, but what's the point of posting more, the front looks just like the back, boooooring), the other being a mystery Christmas project so even if I wasn't bored with it I still couldn't post any more pictures in the risk of revealing the secret. I was just looking through my closet the other day and thinking that all my clothes are brightly colored (mostly blues and greens) and I should really aquire some more neutral colored clothes, but now I'm thinking I'll have to buy them instead of knitting them, because apparently brown colored things don't hold my attention very well.

Anyway here's some info about yon baby booties.
Pattern was a freebie found here. I have to say this pattern kind of sucks, in that there is no gauge mentioned but it doesn't call for a specific kind of yarn, just DK cotton. But I guess you get what you pay for. It was partly for this reason and partly because I was being picky and indecisive that I ended up making 7 bottoms and almost 4 tops to wind up with 2 useable ones of each. The rosette pattern was another freebie, but a totally non-sucky one. Incredibly simple and took about 5 minutes to make each but I think they turned out really cute.
The yarn for these were from some totally random skeins that I think I got in a dollar bin at a yarn store in Seattle ages ago, actually I think it might have been a bin of bags of skeins for a dollar, so these skeins were probably like 20 cents each, go cheap knitting! The blue is a superwash wool and the pink is 50/50 wool/acrylic. I'm not sure how often baby booties need to be washed, probably depends on how much the baby in question likes to stick her be-bootied foot in her mouth, but I figured machine washable baby items were definitely the way to go.
The booty part was knitted on US size 5s and the rosettes on US size 3s.

Here's Paddington being a helpful model again:

Off the wagon

Remember when I said someone should take my credit card away? I wasn't joking. Why do I feel compelled to purchase yarn at rates ten times faster than I can knit it up? But look how pretty!I went a little nuts when knithappens had a big sale at the end of August.

Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in Buck's Bar. I don't know what Buck's Bar means, but oh how I love it.
What is this strange hold that sock yarn has taken on me? Fleece Artist Merino in Parrot. Tropical bird colors for my feet!
A big ol' pile of Noro Cash Iroha for the Hourglass Sweater that I have been threatening to make for months. It's really much more of a violet-ish color in person. Unfortunately, I ordered ten skeins but the store only sent me 9, I hope this doesn't mean they are out. I was planning on making the size that calls for 9 skeins but it seems like everyone that makes this sweater is running really short on yarn, I was even nervous about getting through with 10.I was thinking of making the Hourglass with a contrast color trim, ala this one. I have this 2 skeins of this baby blue stuff, that I think is some kind of wool-silk blend. It was originally knitted into some ill-fated wrist warmers that are just too big and look silly. So I think it will be happier to take its place as part of a sweater. If I can get enough yarn, that is.

Clapotis

Clapotis is done! This was such a quick, mindless knit, but so cool looking at the end! And of course dropping stitches on purpose is always fun. My denises came unjoined from the cord a few times during the knitting process and my scrambling to keep all those dropped stitches from unravelling seemed kind of funny, when I was purposefully dropping other ones.

I went a little nuts with the pictures since I actually made the effort and braved the passerbys' gawkings to go out to the front porch to get good light, so I have several non-fuzzy pictures instead of my usual 1 or 2 out of 30 or so.

Anyway here it is blocking (doubled up):

Pretty pretty colors (there are several knots in the finished product, one of which you can see here, which is entirely my fault, somehow I ended up making several huge snarls out of my center-pull ball and just broke the yarn instead of dealing with it):

Modeled by the porch railing:And the chair:

And by me!Specs:
yarn - Cherry Tree Hill Merino Supersock - a mill end, so I don't know what the name of the colorway is. I love the colors in this yarn - especially all the blues. And I think Clapotis is the perfect pattern for a variegated yarn, since any pooling is made much less obvious by the big stripes of dropped stitches. The yarn itself is very soft and smooth and lightweight, I think this is the lightest scarf I've made yet.
needles - Denise size 5s

I've started one of my Christmas projects already. Here's a glimpse that hopefully doesn't reveal what it's going to be, since the recepient may be lurking:
Mmm pumpkin. This is Knitpicks Essential in Pumpkin, the color really reminds me more of pumpkin pie filling. Mmmmm...