Booties times four

Here's two identical pairs of booties made in my "old-school" five-needle aran-and-lace pattern. Click for larger.

A girlfriend, who hasn't knit in years, whined until I made these for someone she knows who just had an enormous (6 pounds each) pair of twin girls.

Newborn size (like the tiny pair on the far left, in "micro-spun" yarn split down to three plies, on size one needles) would have been way too small by the time these reached the intended wearers.

Since I knew from experience (bitter, bitter experience) that making four identical booties would take me a while, and that there would be a long delay between me getting these to the girl who asked me to make them, to her taking them to the person with the twins, I made these with really fat sport yarn (micro-spun) on size six needles.

In trying to use the same pattern to make a larger bootie, I learned a lot about how tension affects proportions. For instance, if the foot does not start forming a cup by the time you reach the third side, your needle is too big for your yarn. I had abandoned an earlier attempt at an entirely garter-stitch bootie using space-dyed sock yarn because the sides were too tight and the foot came out too small. Now I think I will try again on larger needles.