Silly Pants

We raise Shetland sheep here at our farm. They are small and give lovely wool in lots of different natural colors. The climate of the Shetland islands is similar enough to our Pacific NW climate that the sheep don't need much in the way of special care.

Recently a relative visited the Shetland islands and brought me back a small bag of DK weight yarn. This is the real deal - Shetland yarn from Shetland sheep from the actual Shetland islands - not the Pacific NW. There were five balls of yarn, each 25g, and each a different color.

I wasn't sure what I could do with 125g of yarn in five different colors other than hats. Then I thought of Charlotte.

Charlotte is our friends not-quite-two-year-old and she is a hoot. She loves to wear outrageous outfits (her mom likes to dress her in them, too) and she is quite a ham. I've been wanting to make a pair of Elizabeth Zimmermann longies again (I've made one pair for my own daughter when she was a not-quite-two-year-old), and thought that I could make a silly pair with lots of fair-isle type patterns.

Off I went - changing colors and patterns at a whim. What fun! I did knit both legs simultaneously (using both ends of the balls - a bit of a challenge) as I do have a tendency to be a single-sock-knitter and I was afraid that if I didn't knit both legs at the same time then I'd get one done and put the project aside.

I started it around December 26th and finished them today, January 6th. I didn't work too much on them this week, just finished the cuffs. Charlotte's mom helped by weaving in the loose ends (I told her honestly that, faced with all of those loose ends, if I had to do them all then Charlotte might well be too big for them by the time they were all done). I offered to split the job, but she did them all (I wove in about four of them - not even a drop in the bucket).

After weaving the crotch the only part left is blocking. I'll do that tomorrow so that they will be dry by Monday.

The Ravelry link is here: Silly Pants