the blue blog archives: barefoot at last

On our thirteen hour drive down to DC (we had to stop to run the kids every couple of hours, ya know), I did a whole mess of knitting! The kids were so good that my knitting was only interrupted by occasional requests for juice boxes and Joe-Joe's cookies. And so I finally started the tank top from the cover of Barefoot Knits.

I've been wanting to make some barefoot knits for a while - my latest two knit skirts for wee one were a warm up to doing some things from the book. And I've had this mango colored rowan handknit dk set aside for a summer knit almost as long. The only bump in the road was that I'd fallen in love with the ruffle on wee one's little red skirt so much that I'd decided to work the same ruffle at the bottom of the tank top instead of the simpler garter stitch in the original pattern.

That, however, required casting on hundreds of stitches and counting decreases for ages, which I couldn't bear to do at home or at knitting group. But being confined in the car for hours made it conceivable, even enjoyable. And my reward for getting through the ruffle... miles and miles of stockinette in the round. Perfect! I could even knit while resting my eyes.

Now that the ruffle is behind me, I'm on track with the original tank top pattern. And I even have a couple of knitting students working on the same project with me. I swear I could spend the whole summer making cute knits from this book!

posted by alison at 2:45 pm | in summer knits

Comments

Oh, Wee One will love that top - it's so summery and ruffly.

Posted by: Amy at April 23, 2009 4:50 PM

Thanks for the reminder! I now have a copy on its' way to me. I had forgotten about it until this post!

Posted by: Donna at April 23, 2009 4:50 PM

The tank top does look very pretty with the ruffly edging. I loved knitting that tank and my daughter wore it for about 2 years. I love the mango color. I cant imagine having to take 13 hours to drive somewhere in the car. The most we have done is about 7 hours which is a long time too.

Posted by: sue at April 24, 2009 3:16 AM

I love the sweet top! It's so bright and cheerful without screaming girly girl (I am definitely not a girly girl). I wonder how hard it would be to make a tank for myself with a similar ruffle from one of my favorite patterns....

Posted by: Seanna Lea at April 24, 2009 10:06 AM

It will be adorable with the ruffle! Car knitting is so relaxing and makes the time fly by. My kids know I enjoy this so much that before they ask a question, they will ask if I am at the end of my row!

Posted by: trixie at April 26, 2009 8:19 AM

Bless you for all that driving with little ones. We live in a DC suburb, and drive north to the Boston area a few times a year. It can be a real drag - with traffic being dreadful through the cities. We now go through Pennsylvania -- a little longer, but much less stressful. Let me know if you're interested in our route..

The skirt is totally adorable!!

Posted by: Wendy O'C at April 26, 2009 5:35 PM

Hi, could you give this to your friend Thea from Babycocktails and Knitting it's a webpage for knitting graphs. She made a comment about how the scarf pattern she just wrote would be best on a graph. I can't seem to send it to her myself thank you and have a great day.
Michelle
innaz.com/cgi-bin/makechart/makechart.cgi

Posted by: michelle at April 27, 2009 1:12 AM

I was just looking at my baby knitting books and realized that my little one isn't so little anymore. I need some little kid knitting books and that looks like a good one.

i love the sunshiney color you chose for the tank top. It's really summery!

Posted by: Casey at April 27, 2009 1:52 AM

Oh, that ruffle is lovely!

Posted by: emy at April 27, 2009 3:59 AM

I love the color and the skirt. It is super cute.

Posted by: silverarrowknits at April 28, 2009 1:32 AM