Book Review - Tiny Treads

I was recently asked if I would do a book review of one of Cooperative Press' latest offerings entitled Tiny Treads by Joeli Caparco.  This book is full of patterns for wee feet!  All photos are copyrighted and borrowed from their website.

I must say I had a lot of fun looking through this book.  Not only does the Author share my love of knitting socks for her own minions, I love reading through patterns and taking notice of different techniques and preferences, especially if they are different from my own.

The table of contents contains thumbnail photos of the patterns for easy reference and there is also a chart contained in the Introduction depicting US/UK and European sizes along with their average foot lengths.

After that, the author jumps into her 12 patterns (11 sock patterns and 1 legwarmer pattern), starting with 2 basic sock patterns - one is cuff down and the other is toe up - and I LOVE that she included instructions for multiple sizes AND multiple gauges for both basic sock patterns.  I don't know how many times that I have gone to knit a quick pair of socks for the minions and had to figure out how many sts to CO depending on the yarn I was using...


I'm sure you are curious, so here is a wee sampling of some of the patterns.

Little man was especially interested in the gold and black pair while little miss initially gravitated towards the lacy pair.  Both minions found several patterns that they want added to their sock drawers.

I should mention that all of the patterns are pretty gender-neutral.  I was happy to see that there weren't a bunch of "girl" patterns and a bunch of "boy" patterns; she has made it so any of the patterns could be made for either :)

If I had a critique, it would be that I am a photo hog and would like a few more pictures.  I like how the socks were photographed in their natural environment, but there was a few instances where I would have liked to see what the heel flap/turn looked like in the actual sock or to see a closer shot of the detail.  That is just my own preference though.  Overall I thought the patterns were easy to follow, both the written instructions and the charts, so go check it out and get knitting!

Happenings

Between the hubby and the minions and work and my knitting and the countless other mundane details of daily life, I find that I can work myself into a little tiny area where I am focused on the immediate and not the big picture. When this happens, often times it takes a big something to knock me flat on my arse so I can say "Wow"! Kristiina is one of those big things, or in this instance, person. I have been hunting for a particular knitting book - THE Knitting Book - for quite some time. I've mentioned my searches in past blog posts and my family can certainly vouch for my frustration in not being able to find it. I am happy to report that I HAVE FINALLY OBTAINED A COPY OF EEVA HAAVISTO'S KNITTING BOOK!! The Publishing Company, WSOY, recently released a copy of Eeva Haavisto's Book, Sata kansanomaista kuviokudinmallia, and I was able to obtain a copy through the lovely Kristiina.I was still so shocked about the whole thing that when the package containing the book arrived I didn't open it right away... I just kept looking at it. Eventually my curiosity won out and I opened the package to find, not only THE Knitting book, but a wonderful handmade knitting pouch and a very helpful Finnish to English translation list of the colors used throughout the book :) Kristiina, I can never thank you enough!

It's been a little while since my last post and I wish I had oodles of knitting projects to show you, but I don't. I was going strong there for a while, whipping out pairs of socks and market bags but I seem to have lost my stride. I did finish the pair of Molly's Monkeys for my Aunt M and I also knit the first Dublin Bay sock for Mom.The second sock is on the needles. The time that I had been spending with my knitting needles has been spent in the kitchen. Spring is in the air and last week I took the minions to a couple greenhouses in the area. Little man is such a nature-guy that he was in heaven. Inspired by some of the flowers that I had seen, I thought to myself, why not start dyeing up some of my own yarn? So I did. I had been meaning to start dyeing a while ago now so I happened to have some skeins of natural wool just waiting to be dyed. After viewing one of little man's favorite flowers, the Hibiscus, the hibiscus colorway was born - both in sock and in worsted weight.Another one of little man's flower choices was the Dahlia. Once I finished my first skein, I found that the dyeing process is very addicting! Here's Ratatouilleand my husband inadvertently named these next skeins "Bruised" when he mentioned that that is what the skein looked like as it was drying. Here it is in Merino/Tencel Sock yarn and in Worsted Weight Superwash Wool. A friend of mine, Jen, made the cutest little dragon with the Worsted Weight skein :) Such fun. Little man wanted to "dye" one of his own so I gave him complete control over the colors... this is his skein Reef.He hasn't decided what he wants me to make with it yet, but he'll let you know that it is his skein!

We've been having some decent weather lately and the minions have been enjoying quite a bit of outdoor time. They like to "help" Daddy mow the lawn with their bubble mower.It's not all fun and games though -- with only one bubble mower one of them is not happy at any given point in time.Visions of those unhappy faces don't usually last too long though; there's plenty to explore.The hubby has even had time to enjoy playing a little basketball.During this past month, we found out that our Ophthalmologist thinks little man needs another surgery on his eye to bring it back into alignment. His eye muscle wasn't as strong as he had thought it was which is why his right eye is usually deviating to the right side. No one is too happy about this, especially my family... As of now, his surgery is scheduled for late June. Speaking of little man, did you know he was such a Man of Expression?He requested that I take and post a picture of his Big Wheel tire. Little miss is doing just fine! Her vocabulary is astounding as is her little attitude... :) Supposedly she gets that from me, but isn't that what they all say?

Are you wearing your green?

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!! St. Patrick's day has always been a favorite holiday of mine. Lucky for me it comes around every year :) While many people are claiming to be Irish today, I actually do have a bit of it in me courtesy of my Father's side of the family. And since my grandfather passed away on St. Patrick's Day, every year my family goes and gives him and his parents a shot of whiskey and then do one ourselves as a sort of salute. I'll leave the bar crawling to the other folks and sip a beverage of choice this evening at home :)


So far it's been a great day though! I started off my morning with an acupuncture treatment for various issues and I can't even begin to describe how much better I feel! It's wonderful, if you've never been I highly recommend it.

Odd weather though. Last week we experienced a bit of a warm up, noticed some buds and other signs that Spring was coming and this morning there was snow on the ground again. What are you going to do?

In knitting related news, I was cruising along getting close to completion on a couple of my projects and then I went and got sick. Knocked me on my rump for a good week. Although I didn't knit in that amount of time (probably because the minions were sick right along with me) I did receive this in the mail.
So lovely. I made a vow to complete my WIP's before I begin any new project though, so I better get twirling! The best part is that I got Knitting Marvellous Mittens for retail! Hee hee. And, I have two of them now! Back in November I found the original (for retail) and then it didn't show up and didn't show up and I would receive "two more weeks before delivery"messages... so I sort of wrote that one off and went in search of another copy. Evidently I shouldn't have written the first off. SO... if anyone happens across this post and is interested in a trade, say for a copy of Eeva Haavisto's book Sata kansanomaista kuviokudinmallia or something else that is fun, let me know :)

I did manage to crank out another sock creature though. Meet Sig aka the original (on the left) and Hans (on the right). Little man seems to dig them. I would also like to take the time to point out that I am currently ahead in the 2007 NCAA Division 1 Men's Basketball Championship pool that I have going between the hubby and little man. I usually end up losing so I thought it was rather funny that I was ahead by a point this afternoon. It really doesn't make much sense for me to even fill out a bracket though. While sports of some sort can usually be found on our television, Basketball is just one of those few that we don't really get that into. This then causes a problem when I go to fill out my picks because I generally know absolutely nothing about any of the teams. Every once in a while I get lucky and pull out a victory though. In those rare instances I typically force the hubby to watch a movie of my choice -- some chick-flick that even I can only handle once every two years just to really let it sink in that I was the victor. Ha ha. Poor little man though, I went through the games and let him pick his winner and he was going for Gonzaga -- to win the whole thing. The other night I was rocking him before bed and he kept going "Go Yags Mommy, Go Yags!". The hubby and I let him modify his bracket in the morning though when he found out that his "Yags" lost to Indiana.

Little miss is all over the place now and loving the freedom. She tends to follow little man wherever he goes and he is really good with her which is nice. Little man is becoming more adept at using the potty. Both minions are feeling better which I am very happy about -- it's one thing when I am sick, but when I am sick with two sick children... it was a rather looong week. Well, there goes my victory this year. I was just informed that Maryland lost which puts a dent in my bracket. I knew I would jinx myself. Oh well. I picked them for their mascot, what can I say?

The time has come

Greetings! It was brought to my attention that I have not posted since January 21st... that I needed to make time to update... well, here you go.

So up until recently (until I had my first CO) my passion was for books. To this day I still believe that one can never have too many books and as a child I even fancied being a librarian when I got older so I could be surrounded by them every day. "Why is she telling me all of this?" you may be asking yourself. To answer that question, I have been on a quest for quite some time now which combines both passions quite nicely. I was holding off posting partly because I have so many WIP's going right now that it didn't make any sense to take more photos and post them, and partly because I was hoping to post a rather triumphant entry where I could say that I finally found it!!!!!. That entry will not be happening I am sorry to say. The book that I have been referring to is Sata kansanomaista kuviokudinmallia by Eeva Haavisto. It is written in Finnish and published in the 1940's and 50's and has a plethora of beautiful charts. I must have this book. Back in November, I was rather frustrated by the fact that I have not yet obtained this work of art -- I have my name on several lists, have utilized online translators and written several letters to the publisher, I have even given serious thought to learning to speak Finnish.... Then it dawns on me. Hello! You used to work in a library, why not find it that way through ILL and at least you could make use of it temporarily while continuing to search for your own copy! Brilliant! So I set off, happily, thinking that this may be the key... It turns out that only a handful of libraries in the country have this book and after going through multiple libraries and actually calling the libraries that do carry the book and hearing "We can ILL it to you no problem!" I received yet another phone call a few days ago telling me that they too are unable to obtain it for me. All together now: SIGH. So. The time has come to admit that I cannot do this alone and to ask for help from the wondrous knitting community. If anyone happens to stumble across this blog and can help me out, or if you have say a great aunt once removed that happens to have a copy that has been sitting on a bookshelf for a few decades now... it doesn't matter who or where, I would LOVE to hear from you. Okay, enough of that for now. The wound is too fresh!

Lets see. Knitting. I finished the first Delicato mitt and the first footie for Grandma. I finished the hat portion of the hat/scarf combo for the hubby's aunt in Chicago which is rather tiny in the following photo (not the best I know, but it was the most accurate representation of color that I could get on my monitor so I am going with it), and I am making progress on my other WIP's, I am just waiting to take photos. Soon. I promise!!! :)In minion news, little miss is all over the place now. Not crawling so much as dragging her body across the floor... but at least she's going forward :) And little man's vocabulary is improving every day. They are keeping me busy! Ever since we moved the computer downstairs (which severely limits my access and thus decreases my posts) I can't seem to get on the computer when I have a post brewing in my head and whenever I am able to get on (like now) I try to remember everything that I was going to post and end up forgetting most of it until later when I can't get on.... It's a vicious cycle. Unfortunately I seem to be caught in it yet again. I will leave you with more little man as he has entered into a "cheese" phase where he can't seem to get enough of himself, photographically speaking. Enjoy as I am off to make dinner and knit.