Little Things

The first friend in my circle of acquaintances is having a baby. It is the time in one's life where you realize that most of the people you know will eventually have progeny. It is a little scary. Well, with some of my friends anyway...

It's a good thing then that this first friend to get pregnant is my best friend. I've known her for over half of my life. I am excited about the baby, already nicknamed Zebulon by the way, but I may be slightly more excited about knitting stuff for the baby. Little things! Oh the cuteness!

For my first project I chose this darling little sock pattern called Cozy Little Toes by Judy Kaethler. Judy did all the math to resize a normal sock pattern for baby feet so you don't have to. Yay! I can cheat and not have to think.

That was the plan, anyway. Grab an odd ball of sock yarn, needles, and knit away. And then I screwed it up. A pretty moment, as the Knitmore Girls would say. And then I screwed up again. These socks were an exercise in how well I could screw up little socks.

Screw up count:

1. Rib pattern on instep not centered = asymmetrical gussets. In other words, the right and left sides of the sock look different.
2. After knitting the 12 rounds plain rounds for the foot of the sock and knitting the toe, I set them down and looked at them from far away. Too long. They would be good for elven children with freakishly long feet, but not normal baby feet. Was my gauge off? Ripped out the toe and took out 3 rows from the foot of the sock.
3. Toe decreases on one sock are one stitch off = kitchener toe is a little funny looking.

How much do all of these little things matter though? Not much. The baby will surely never know. No one will really know, and any knitter who stares at the socks and dares to comment will get a baby sock on their nose before they can sneeze another word out.

 
It is really hard for me to let these little things go, to accept imperfection. But I must. The socks are actually quite beautiful. I look forward to making more Little Things, for the little one, with little mistakes that show my humanity and are a demonstration of unbounded love.