Irish Hiking Floozie--brown

As a fundraiser each classroom at my school and the staff is compiling a basket for silent auction at our school picnic. This year the staff's theme is relaxation. I wanted to knit something. I tried soda can cozies, but my heart wasn't in it. Then I came across a UFO. I had begun a pair of felted slippers from the book, Knit 2 Together (Rav link) I had finished one and the sole of the 2nd. I know that I stopped because I had a bit of trouble with the number of stitches to pick up and plus also I got distracted, too. So I finished them last week, but of course they turned out kind of different from each other, since I couldn't quite remember the modifications I had made on the first one. For once, my photo shows them to be much nicer than they are. Since they look somewhat woggity, imagine how bad they really are. I'm going to throw them in the washer and dryer a few times more and then at least maybe I can get them down to my size.I went back to the thought of a soda cozy with the some of the leftover wool from the slippers. It was Boku, which I thought would look very nice in cables, but cables would not work very well for a soda can/beer bottle cozy. I knew there would be wine in the basket and just one cozy seems enough for a wine gift, but soda cozies ought to come in sets. Bonus. I hiked off into Irish Hiking territory where so many have hiked before. It's a nice, smoodgy looking cable, but simple. It would be good insulation without needing to be felted. After only (for me) a small amount of experimentation, I settled on double stranding the yarn and casting on 48 stitches. I thought it was a nice fabric and I didn't rip out and start over one last time when I wondered if one strand with 60 stitches would be better. Are you proud of me? At some point, I realized I would probably not be able to find the other 1 or 2 skeins of brown Boku that I have in stash. That's when I thought that for the neck I'd better increase to 60 stitches and switch to a single strand. I had already decided to rib that section in the hope that it would pull in, which it did, but not that much. Therefore I made eyelets and a short I-cord to pull the top snug. I had not constructed a bottom, thinking that I would pick up all around the edge and knit one on later.I had already learned from my experimentation with soda cozies that it was easier to make the bottom flat if you added it after making the sides.

I remembered a some felt I had made out of a piece that I was making for a vest that I had abandoned when I kept having counting problems. (Counting=The hardest part of knitting) The colors would be perfect. Just like my father before me, I knew that it would come in handy some day! I cut out a circle and marked my centers and quarters and pin basted with plastic safety pin stitch markers because who the hell knows where the real safety pins are, then sewed it up using embroidery floss, all six strands. I would have used yarn, and I did save just enough, but this yarn is a single and not strong enough for this function. A contrasting yarn would have been nice also, but I didn't have any good colors to hand. I used quarter inch stitches and allowed the knit edge to flatten on the felted base. I wanted to sew a bit in from the edge because I didn't think it would be wise to sew right on the cut edge even though this base is very densely felted. It only took a few minutes. I am quite pleased with the finished object. No doubt that it is the last minute, but it is done!

I'm not much of a wine drinker, so here it is being modeled by a half a jar of 3-year old dry roasted peanuts that I found behind a lot of stuff in the cupboard that is probably just as old or older. It will look better with a wine bottle to hold up the neck. The Irish Hiking Floozie is quite a fun project. I think it's quite handsome. Why I want to make another one, I can't say for sure. Why don't I want to knit sweaters like other people?

Danny--A soaker is what hippies use for cloth diaper covers. The wool breathes yet
acts as a moisture barrier (I guess).