More Itty Bitty socks

I am loving the speed with which I can turn out a pair of these baby socks, and its using up the bits of sock yarn that were too small to use for other things, or were not the right colour to use for striped socks. Best of all though, they are being totally appreciated. The first pair elicited actual squeals of excitement from the mum to be, so I was completely spurred on to make more of them since she so obviously was genuinely pleased to have hand knitted items.

The pattern is Infant Socks by Evelyn Skae, a free pattern on Ravelry. I like this pattern much better than the one I used for the autumn stripe socks. Its written in a way that works for my brain. Nothing wrong with the other pattern, but this one just seemed easier for my way of working. These are both size 3-6 months rather than newborn size.

The striped pair are made from leftovers from my first toe up socks, which were sock one on the 2011 journey.

The pink and grey pair are actually made from self striping bamboo yarn. I think its Wendy Happy but it was a donated ball so I am not entirely sure. It took a bit of unravelling and messing around to get the two socks exactly the same, but when the first sock came out with a contrast toe and cuff with absolutely no effort or splicing, or even planning, I thought it was meant to be. I had to knit the second sock leg twice, as the first time I miscalculated where I was on the colour change and got a stripe across the lower leg. Second time worked though and I think this is my favourite pair of the three baby socks as its such soft yarn, and its pink.

Although I have no idea whether the bairn will be a boy or a girl, the mum says she doesn't much care about colour traditions and will dress the child in whatever I am willing to knit for it. I may make some little scratch mittens to match in the pink yarn.

Meanwhile, the baby blanket of doom is still on the needles and although I knit quite a lot on it over the last two weeks, the dratted thing isn't really growing very big and I think I will need to buy more yarn, and knit a bit faster. I wish I hadn't chosen a circular blanket. It just feels like I am knitting on the spot, round and round and round, without moving forward.