Instant gratification

(No, the wheel has not yet arrived.)

Y'all are some people with opinions when it comes to the knitting of baby gear. This is a good thing, though, as it turns out that I seem to have run out of decisiveness lately. So I'll just borrow all of y'all's, OK? The vote came down to socks, or a jacket-like object (several suggestions were bandied about, all of them good).

I seriously contemplated hauling out the odds and ends sock yarn stash to think about doing an EZ Baby Surprise jacket. Then I spoke to my friend (the one who's having the baby), and it turns out she's probably going to be induced on Friday. This rather compressed my timetable, so I cast aside (get it? get it? I slay me) Rick's socks in favor of a pair of baby socks. Dudes, talk about instant gratification. I cast on last night, and finished them tonight while Younger Daughter was doing her math homework. Very nice. I'll probably start the second tonight while reading in bed. It has been ages since I had a project which allows me to read while knitting, and I'd forgotten how much I like it. I also found myself unreasonably charmed by the fact that knitting this sock required absolutely no planning, and just about no thought. I spent approximately 30 seconds thinking about what kind of stitch gauge I might get with the yarn, asked Rick to guesstimate the circumference of a baby's leg with his fingers and then guesstimate what the actual measurement was, did a bit of math, and bob's your uncle, I cast on 32 stitches. (Can I just mention that I love the fact that the word "guesstimate" does not set off Blogger's spellchecker? That's cool. Spellchecker does, though. You can't have it all.)

I knitted the top in k2 p2 rib using some of the remaining smidge of Dream in Color Smooshy, and then did the foot plain in some Cherry Tree Hill. The result (in bad nighttime light using PhotoBooth):
I'm in love. I could make baby socks until the cows come home. And I just might. These just take so much less time than knitting Rick's socks! Meanwhile, I remembered that I also had a pair of booties that I'd knitted once upon a time, figuring that I was going to be ready, yes indeedy ready, for this baby's arrival. Alas for the idealistic plans of youth.
These are the 3-hour baby booties from Stitch 'N Bitch. They are on my list of sure-fire, no-fail, get-'em-done-fast baby knitting. I keep some superwash bulky wool around just for these. So, if I can whip the second sock out (and I don't see why I couldn't), I'm hoping to mail these off by the end of the week so they're waiting for my friend when she gets home with the baby. Then I can think about something more serious and indicative of how happy I am to see this baby coming into the world. I'm thinking it's either Baby Surprise, or the DIC baby jacket that I keep seeing. I almost hesitate to ask where one might find the pattern and yarn for that jacket. I'm a bit afraid of the damage I might do to my bank account.

Meanwhile, this new focus will help with figuring out what kind of knitting to pack for the drive up and down the state. The library just got the copy of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix on CD in (we save these for long car trips, and I put in the request way in advance to be sure we can get the next one), so we're good to go; I just need some knitting to do. Obviously, baby knitting. And the rest of Rick's sock. And then I can't decide whether to knit myself a pair of socks out of the happy springtime pink and green yarn I have, or the pair of Marie Antoinettes with the lovely golden yarn Anne sent, or a pair of Acorn Socks (which feel rather fall-like to me, and therefore which might have to wait). Decisions, decisions.