Isn't my little niece adorable? Finally I have finished some slippers that fit her. And after three pairs I am pretty done with this pattern. I made the
newborn size for my cousin's baby,
6 month old size for my niece but she was already 9 months old, and now these.
Here are the modifications I made to the pattern to fit a 1 year old:
- I followed the pattern for the sole but knit it to 3 1/4 inches long before I started decreasing stitches.
- When picking up stitches around the sole, I picked up and knit a total of 77 stitches, 38 on one side and 37 on the other. Added to the 5 already on the needle, I started knitting in the round with 41 stitches on each side. This makes more sense if you go look at the original pattern. I knit it on DPNs so I had 36 stitches on each side needle and 10 on the needle that held the stitches around the heel (and the beginning of the round) for a total of 82 stitches.
- I followed the pattern for the decreasing rounds but knit 10 stitches more on each side before decreasing a stitch. (For example pattern says k25, k2tog, k8, ssk, k25. But I k35, k2tog, k8, ssk, k35).
- I added a round 16 and 17. K22, [k2tog] 3 times, [ssk] 3 times, k22. Then round 17 was all purling. Then bound off all stitches.
My final touch, which I love how it looks, was knitting a 3 stitch i-cord. I recently watched one of Elizabeth Zimmermann's knitting videos in which she says the "i" in i-cord stands for idiot. I never knew that. Nor understand why it is called an idiot cord? It is pretty simple to execute but not so simple that I would say you are an idiot if you can't? Makes me really wonder where that name came from.
After typing that sentence I googled idiot cord (what did we ever do before google/internet?!?) and found this on the The Purl Bee:
"Elizabeth Zimmermann named it the Idiot Cord in honor of her accidental discovery of the simple technique. The I-cord is a perfect example of her attitude toward knitting: let it
be fun, free of needless complications, and full of discovery."
So there you go. The Idiot Cord. But I still prefer the abbreviated name, i-cord, since I don't want to encourage my kids to run around calling everyone an idiot. The Purl Bee has a
great tutorial for attaching an i-cord.
I love how the i-cord makes garments and accessories look complete. It is a great finisher for the edges. It looks good in the same color as the knitted project or in a contrasting color. I fussy cut this cream yarn from a left over self-striping sock yarn. I was so excited when I thought of doing this because I really didn't want to go buy a skein of cream sock yarn for a few yards to make the i-cord. And I really wanted cream colored. The whole project makes me want to go attach i-cords to everything. :)
Labels: booties, Finished Objects, socks
