The Power of Not Learning

As always, it started so well...

So, for Pair O' Socks Number 3, I went to my modest library of knitting books (mostly given as gifts from well-meaning, supportive, NON-knitters) and this fantastic book:

I love that I somehow managed to give the model redeye.
Here's the pattern site on Ravelry

It really is a good book of cute and classic accessories. Useful for my purposes was the couple of sock patterns. Growing up in a house with dedicated ballet dancers, and marrying into a family with dedicated ballet dancers, the bright and adorable Tutu slipper was too apt to pass up. I bought a dusty purple yarn on sale at Hobby Lobby on Black Friday (seriously, who goes yarn shopping on Black Friday?) and got going.
Now, the great thing about toe-up socks or slippers is you can try them on as you go. Remember how I estimated  my foot length on that last pair of socks, completely negating the great thing about toe-up socks? Uh huh. I distinctly remember getting towards the end of the foot part of my first slipper and thinking, 'Huh, I should try these on and see if they fit. Well, I don't know of the heel shaping is going to add any length to this, so I better stop a bit short in case they do.' *facepalm* I did the same thing while knitting the strap that goes over the top of your foot. I was in the back seat of a small car in January with 3 coworkers. I did NOT want to take off my winter boots and heavy socks in order to try on the slipper and test the length of the in-progress strap. Nor did I want to stop knitting. So I guessed. Again.

I do still like the color.

The left one is at least done being knit. I looked up the magic loop-y cast on thing-y in order to get the seamless toe. I found out that this kind of heel, probably a short-row heel, does not add any length to the foot. I discovered that I had knit the strap too short, but could not fix it due to having finished the picot edging. Dear God, picot edging is so boring.

Cute, but it takes forever. 

The slipper is very open, so it will not stay on your foot at all without the strap and a ribbon that is supposed to gather through the eyelet row, just below the picot edging. So the left slipper just needs some finishing touches to be complete.
I tell you though, nothing is as depressing and project-completion-stopping as finding out you knit something too small and that it would take AGES of frogging to fix it. Seriously. The edging is all one piece around the too-short strap and to lengthen the foot I would have to take out the whole heel. This project sat dormant for quite a while. I finally decided to just make the other slipper and figure out the left slipper issue later.

See!? I totally cast on the second slipper...

Uh huh. I did just try on the other slipper and have decided I can make it work. I'm thinking about snipping the too-short strap and doing a thicker coordinating ribbon strap instead of a knit one, because I'm lazy and don't want to have to reknit 3/4 of a freaking ballet slipper and that bloody picot edging...
But back to the right slipper. Remember how a few posts ago I was bemoaning the human urge to reproduce? Yeah. I was already getting Second Sock Syndrome with this project anyway and then I realized how many freaking people around me were having children. It has also only gotten worse. I decided to make a final count of the ones I know about:
4 coworkers, 1 having twins, 2 with their first kids.
3 cousins, 2 have already delivered(probably out of luck on the new knitting then), and 1 with his first.
2 in-laws, both their firsts, 1 already here and 1 very long awaited and hard-worked-for.
1 friend, second kid, high risk.
11. Freaking. Babies. Dear. God.