Belatedly tangled

Leftover Mitts

So a little while ago the Yarn Harlot posted a lovely pattern for a bulky-weight cabled hat, which she called the Unoriginal Hat.

I saw it and thought, I bet that Rowan Big Wool that's been languishing in my stash for a year now would work!

I knitted up the hat on the flight to Weatherwood last weekend (yes, it's that fast of a pattern). But it only used one skein of Big Wool, and I had two. Hence, the armwarmers in the picture above, and featured in the picture below.

They're as easy to knit as the hat, and use the same yarn, same needles, same gauge, even the same amount of yarn. (I had 4 yards left from the first skein after my hat. The mitts used all but 7 yards of the second skein.)

Pattern and notes under the jump.

Little slippers, with pattern

So I'd seen lots of people talking about the new Cat Bordhi book, and about how she says you can put the gusset shaping anywhere and it will work out okay. I knit up these little slipper socks for Miss T. while I was waiting for my copy of Cat's book to arrive. Yes, there is a gusset to go with that heel flap, but the decreases are tucked into the purl ribs; you go from 2/3 rib to 2/2 rib very gently. I ran the ribbing down to the end of the toe, too.

While the gusset shaping ends up being similar to one of Cat's architectures (Cedar, in particular), the rest of the sock is actually based on Charlene Schurch's toe-up-with-gusset design from More Sensational Knitted Socks.

Mostly I wrote up a pattern because I wanted to try writing up a pattern. They are cute little slippers, very quick to knit, very satisfying in the hand, very pleasing to the recipient (who spent a morning wearing just the first one; she wouldn't take it off, even though the mate didn't exist yet) but in the end the fit and finish on a 40-stitch sock are going to be less than ideal, especially on such tiny feet.

(If you made them at 8 st/in, they might be great newborn booties, though!)

I am sort of happy that the pattern is self-contained---I'm going to knit up something from Cat's book (just as soon as I finish the 80-stitch Gentleman's Fancy Socks that drove me to sport weight toddler slippers in the first place) but when I do I'm going to keep track of just how many different pages I need to turn to in order to finish one simple pair of socks.

Please send me any comments or corrections you have on the pattern!

Download Streamline Toddler Slipper Socks

UPDATE, NOVEMBER 2007: See sarakate's comment in Punk Rock Knitters (at Livejournal) for a rewrite of the first few toe rows. I expect that everything she says is true (especially given her discourse on increases), and I'll go through the details and update the pattern when I have a chance.