October 27, 2008
Baby Socks that Hop
If there is any project that works up faster than baby socks, I have yet to find it. Even with the little smattering of two-color knitting and the picot cuff and a little extra finishing it's not too hard to knock out one of these little socks in a distracted evening of television watching. These socks are made of Sock Hop (handspun sock yarn from Crown Mountain Farm) and Shelridge Farm Ultra Touch -- leftovers from other sock projects. The socks were knit toe-up starting with a magic cast-on. They have a short row heel and a picot edging at the top. Aside from the fact that they are rather smaller than the socks I normally knit, they are otherwise pretty much the same general pattern as I use for my "standard sock". What's more fun, though, than knitting them, is watching the baby be excited about them. Z had been watching me work on the first one, and both John and I told her that the socks were for her. When I finished binding off the first one, I handed it to her and she walked all over the room, playing with her toys, refusing to put the sock down. Normally it's a fight to get her into socks, but this afternoon, when I showed her the socks we were going to put on, she smiled and made it easy for me.
This is my first mobile baby sock photo shoot. It was too cold this afternoon to go outdoors with bare legs, so I let her run around her room and did my best with my new camera. 
I think I was mostly just lucky that I got good pictures of the socks from both the back and the side (from the back you can see that I avoided the whole "jogging" issue in the colorwork. I figured just placing the start at the back of the sock would be sufficient for a pair of little socks.
Z is getting better at listening to me when I ask her to look at me when I am taking pictures. Actually, she's just exploding with words lately, and it's clear that her comprehension of both Polish and English is just blooming. Every day brings more new things. Not to mention the inevitable toddler use of "No!" and "Mine!"*. It is very clear that she thinks of these socks as "mine".
Clearly I have another recipient of hand knit socks who really appreciates my efforts. *She's applying that "mine" word to a lot of things. Tonight, I went up to John to give him a hug. She walked up to us, grabbed his leg, looked at me and said "mine" and then tried to push me away. Clearly we're going to be having words about who found Daddy first...
said:
You aren't kidding! She is very much her own person in what she wants and thinks -- and it's clear that the more she can communicate the happier she is.
Gorgeous socks on most gorgeous feet ! Sweet Z is growing up so fast, and is so bright and beautiful.
You do know that she'll always be Daddy's girl now, don't you ?! ;0)
said:
She's been Daddy's girl since the very beginning! But I knew that was coming. I have a Daddy I'm very fond of myself!
Those pics have to be a TEN on the 'awwwww!' scale. Thanks for the morning smile!
I think it's awesome that you're speaking Polish to her. My grandfather was the child of Ukrainian immigrants who were big on "Our son will be an *American* boy," and now I have nothing of my heritage at all.
said:
This is exactly who my Lithuanian grandparents felt. "You're an American, speak English" was what I heard growing up. My dad understands some Lithuanian, but that is about it, in spite of the fact that all his older relatives spoke it fluently. I feel lucky that attitudes have changed and that Z gets to spend three days a week with her Polish-speaking grandmother.
What a little cutie pie! I have found that children have been the most appreciative recipients of my hand knit gifts. I knit elbow length fingerless gloves for my almost teen great niece & double thick hats from sock yarn (free Elann pattern) for her 2 younger brothers for Christmas & was amazed at their excitement. Her eyes just glowed & the boys put the hats on & ran all around the extended family Christmas party showing everyone what I had made them. Last week, when I was at my daughter's house, I noticed that my oldest grand was wearing some socks I knit for him last year (knit a little long with the hope that they'd still fit this year). It was that cold rainy day last week so I asked him if he liked to wear the socks because they were warm & toasty on such a dreary wet day. His response was, "I like to wear them because you made them for me." Awwwww - guess what I have on the needles right now. Hoping to finish them in time for his 7th BD which is Saturday. Even in his size (he is quite small for his age) children's socks are pretty fast to knit.
ohhh that's just adorable
Those pix are great! The key to good pictures is taking lots and lots of crappy ones. Then show only the one or two good ones.
I remember my younger brother doing the "mine" game - a lot of things were "his"!
It looks like you did a great job on knitting and photographing the socks.
hi, sorry this is a bit unrelated to this blog but i had a heck of a time getting the comments to come up, i also had to click around a lot to get here in the first place so i forget where i came from! wherever it was you had mentioned your dad was going to try tackling making you some needles...sounded so interesting i just wondered how that turned out...happy knitting
Oh, what a wonderful little personality she is! Amazing how well she knows her own mind - even at this age.