2014:
I blogged about this after getting requests from newsletter readers for the pattern. I’m redesigning it a bit for more stretch and a simpler pattern. (The ribbing needn’t be shaped at both edges of the boot cuff.)

---2012-2013
I started this project while in Illinois for an exciting crochet retreat weekend with the N. IL CGOA chapter. It’s named after the Stronghold Center, where the retreat was held.

Boot covers?: I brought my favorite suede boots with me, and wore skirts and wool tights with them. Crocheted “boot covers” would have been the perfect thing. I’ve never worn them but kept seeing them in Pinterest.

I didn’t need these once I returned to Florida. The whole winter was unseasonably warm (I’m writing this in July 2013.) Got sidetracked with a 4-color version of this project once I realized that the “mock cable” texture doesn’t show up in this brown yarn.

Chose this yarn mainly because of how the color looks with my boots. (I don’t have many brown yarns and not all browns go together.) Love crocheting with this Rittenhouse yarn and it fascinates me that it has 5 plies. Not the best for visible cables. (I edited these photos to make the cables more visible.)

Chose slip stitch rib for a great stretch and look.

Used this project as a way to experience:

• a shaping variation for ss rib,
• a sort of “mock cable”-looking texture (lost in the colors of the yarn though)
• a comparison of how/whether changing the surface texture of ss rib also changes how it stretches.