The Perfect Bath Mat v2

You may recall that I had made the "perfect" bath mat previously.  Well, it turns out that it wasn't that perfect. 😢  Apparently, I had bound off too tightly and it "ruffled" a bit.  It ruffled even more as I used, washed and dried it.😭  Then my poor Giri no Chi Chi (義理の父) came over and used my bathroom. I had found my bath mat completely scrunched up (he's a shuffler) and that was my breaking point. He could've slipped or caught his foot up in the ruffles and tripped in my bathroom!😱😬😵☠️ That was it! I needed to fix my bath mat and take out those annoying ruffles!😤

I washed and dried it one last time as the old bath mat; as soon as it came out of the dryer, I looked for the "end". I found an "end" and started unraveling; oddly, it wasn't really unraveling - that because the "end" I found was actually the beginning!😶 So, off to the other side of the mat to find the "true" end. I must be some kind of amazing finisher because I had a heck of a time finding the g** D*** end! 😤😲😱😵😫 I ended up accidentally breaking the yarn and eventually found the "end". It took me a good six (6!) hours to rip out my old bath mat and rewind it.😒

Now that the yarn (and I) has relaxed a bit, it was time to reknit this baby. I decided that to avoid my previous problem, I would reknit the bath mat vertically (my initial bath mat was knitted horizontally) and with a longer cable so that it would be harder for me to scrunch up the stitches (i.e. less stitches to cram onto a cable as well as have a longer cable so there's more space!) so that it would reduce the likelihood of binding off (once again) too tightly. On that note, it also gave me an opportunity to change the stitch pattern on my bath mat. So, it was off to my stitchonaries to see what I pattern I should try out. I knew I needed to cast on at least 54 stitches to achieve the "height" of the bath mat and that I would need to make about 81 rows. I ended up using the imitation lattice stitch pattern. Here's what I did:

1. Cast on 55 sts (this is the height of the mat).
2. K
3. Imitation Lattice ( 24 row repeat)
4. R1: k2, k5, *p5, k7*, repeat * to the last 10 sts, p5, k5, k2
5. R2 and all wrong side rows: k the knits, p thr purls
6. R3: k2, k4, *p3, k1, p3, k5*, repeat * to the last 11 sts, p3, k1, p3, k4, k2
7. R5: k2, k3, *p3, k3*, repeat " to last 6 sts, p3, k3, k2
8. R7: k2, k, *k1, p3, k5, p3*, repeat to last 2 sts, k2
9. R9: k2, k, p3, *k7, p5*, repeat * to last 11 sts, k7, p3, k, k2
10. R11: k2, k, p2, *k9, p3*, repeat * to last 12 sts, k9, p2, k, k2
11. R13: repeat R9
12. R15: repeat R7
13. R17: repeat R5
14. R19: repeat R3
15. R21: repeat R1
16. R23: k2, k6, *p3, k9*, repeat to last 9 sts, p3, k6, k2
17. R24: repeat R2
18. Repeat R1-R24 5 more times
19. K (2 rows)
20. Bind off.

And here's how it turned out:

It took me a whooping six (6) days to finish this. It's nice to have a (soft and squishy) bath mat (again) in my bathroom. 😍

My Sissy's House Booties (Gimai No Uwabaki (義妹 の 上履き))

I was cruising around the web when I saw this pattern: Walk in the Clouds.  I was soooooo cute!😍  I thought it would be a great Christmas gift (for next year) for my cousins and girls.  But, to test it out, I needed a guinea pig.🤔  Luckily, I have an awesome sissy who lives somewhere cold and is always willing to be a knitting recipient!😍🤗  So I watched the accompanying video and went to town on her house booties!  It took me a whooping six (6!) days to finish both booties (It didn't help that I messed up the cuff on one side and had to rip it out (twice because I wasn't paying attention and couldn't count if my life depended on it!😵😱) and that I had to redo the seam of the first bootie after I learned how to make a nicer seam on the second bootie😶).  And here's what it looks like:

My sissy helped me pick out the buttons ... the finishing touches (like buttons) are always the hardest to do 😵😬 - do I pick this button or that button?  Is it too big or too small?  Is this button too retro?  Too gaudy??  I scoured all my (own) buttons and discovered that I had a buttload of small/tiny buttons!😨😱  So, I scoured through my mother-in-law's button stash and found the right ones!😊  Good thing I asked my sissy about her opinion on the buttons - I was going to pick buttons that were really bright against her booties; she suggested that it should be a monochromatic look (I wouldn't have thought of that 😳).

It'll be couriered up to her in a few weeks so I hope she enjoys them! ❄️☃️🌨️

UP-DATE:  My sissy loves it!😍

She said it was just the right height and feels nice and cozy ... Perfect when the weather turns cooler. 🍁❄️  She's looking forward to to using it this falls nd winter.  I'm looking forward to how well it'll wear and hold up! 😉