My first dive into Deep Stash back in July was when I cast on for the Twists and Turns socks with Cascade Yarns Cherub Collection 4 Ply, in green. This pattern by Adrienne Fong was the first sock for the 2016 Tour de Sock Competition. The entry fee for Tour de Sock is used to benefit Doctors without Borders, and the competition coincides with the Tour de France bicycle race. There were a handful of other sock patterns one's entry fee bought, but Twists and Turns is the only one I made. I think that's because I got a little burnt out on socks, having made several over the prior year. I didn't pick up my skinny needles for another pair until December.
For several years, my husband and I have exchanged stockings as our way of giving each other Christmast gifts. Among the goodies in my stocking, I always get a tin of Altoids. For the last two or three years, he's gotten a bar of some luxurious shaving soap from me. This year, he got a pair of handmade socks, too.
This is the first pair of socks I intentionally made for him. He got the first two pairs because I knitted the feet of them just a touch too long for me, but just right for him. Turns out, he likes colorful socks (one of the pairs I messed up is orange). So, I dug out two skeins of Regia Cotton Color in the creative colorway name 5433 and worked up Ann Budd's On Your Toes pattern, a toe-up and ribbed sock. He wore them just after the appropriate length of time admiring them on Christmas morning. This man is knit-worthy.
Case in point: His brand-spanking-new Felted Clogs.
For his birthday this winter, I finished the slippers I had started for him in honor of our wedding anniversary over a year and a half ago. I can't remember if we'd replaced our old washer by then, but I know when the time came to replace it, I tried to pick out a model from the modern generation of top-loaders (all sans a central agitator) that might still be able to felt a willing wool.
As you can see, the clogs felted down, but it took all. night. long. The yarn I used, Patons North American Classic Wool Merino, is a tried-and-true felting wool for me. But, even with a full load of sheets, then blankets, then quilts, those suckers shrank slowly. I lost track of the loads of water that had to go through a full cycle of washing before I could start another load all over again. My old washer, before it quit, could be stopped mid-cycle and restarted at the beginning without pumping out all its water. Change in technology is not always an advancement.
Anyway, the rest of the projects, for the top of the human body, are for babies--newborns who are either going home right away or in the hospital for a longer stay and in need of some cute warmth.
These and the purple hats below were made from Morgen Stamate's LCD Basic Hat Free pattern. The heathered red hats above are knit from a remnant of Berroco Comfort, and the purple hats are from remanents of Caron Simply Soft.
These are my first pom-poms, thanks to the Clover pom-pom makers. The purple hats went to Kansas Children's Service League, for their Period of Purple Crying hat drive. This program distributes purple baby hats as a visual reminder to parents of newborns that they should not take out their frustrations on their baby during its sustained bouts of crying.
This baby Citrus Hat is made of Serenity leftovers from my Saqa sweater. It and the red hats above went to a local hospital's NICU.
And now for the yardage tallies:
Twists and Turns socks: 297.6
On Your Toes socks: 298.7
Felted Clogs: 666.9
Red baby hats: 065.1
Purple baby hats: 272.4
Baby Citrus Hat: 067.0
Deep Stash Half Marathon 2016 update:
Total yardage from this post: 1,667.7
DSHM current yardage total: 13,180
DSHM yardage remaining: 9,892.5
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