Second Slipper Syndrome

You can say a lot of things about me, but suspecting me of second sock syndrome is not one of them. That is what it is called if knitting a second, in most cases an identical, sock to form a pair is too much. For some knitters this is so boring, they end up with several, lonely, single socks. Imagine the heartbreak in that.

The socks I knit for myself are never a problem since I wear them instead of slippers. With these homey socks I am eagerly awaiting the moment they get off the needles and on to my feet. Often the socks of a pair I knit aren’t identical, and therefore less likely to be too boring to knit. I have made socks that are different, but symmetrical, and my latest pair is with one sock knitted top-down and the other – in the same pattern – knitted toe-up.
Recently I have been knitting baby booties and it looks like I am suffering from second slipper syndrome. After finishing one, I dutifully cast on the next and start working on it. But after making a cup of tea getting back to my knitting, I rush to find another set of needles and a different yarn to start a completely different little booty. What happened to my so disciplined self?
Baby booties were the first knitting patterns I designed. I wanted to knit a pair for a friend and had three patterns to work with. None were to my liking so the three morphed into one. After I gave her two pairs she thought them so useful I made more and her daughter ended up with enough knitted slippers to have a different pair for every day of the week. With the hectic life of being a first-time mother, my friend confessed that the baby sometimes ended up wearing two different booties at the same time. The poor kid, what kind of mother would do such a thing?!

The solution to this would be to knit the same slippers from the same yarn in the same color over and over again. That simply won’t do, it is unthinkable even, considering it would imply third slipper syndrome, fourth slipper syndrome, fifth slipper syndrome… I can’t cope with that. I really can’t.

The pattern for the baby booties is for free on Instructables and can be found on Ravelry here.

For those who enjoyed this story, you might want to read these at well: Beeautiful seasons or Lazy Gnomes.

If you want to read my next article as well: don’t forget to sign up for the newsletter on the right!
And you can find me on Twitter: @Fleurtje_Eliza.

This post is also available in: Dutch