knitting footwear

At Christmas I participated in a yarn swap over on Ravelry. My partner sent me two skeins of alpaca/silk sock weight yarn in very yummy colors. A trip to the library resulted in scoring a copy of Charmed Knits (projects for fans of Harry Potter) which just so happened to have a pattern for jolly striped socks.

I cast on during a plane trip to TX, and the flight attendant was most impressed. If you're out here Wonderful Jet Blue Flight Attendant, I hope you were brave enough to cast on those circular projects and knit those hats! Anyway, one sock flew off my needles the second quickly following suit - but OH NO! I ran out of green yarn 25% of the way through sock #2. Nearly out of pink yarn as well I hit the internet looking to pick up a couple of other skeins and nothing. I cannot find this yarn! Here's hoping my swap partner is able to score a couple of extra skeins for me.
Project #2 are these footies that were a request from a friend. Over the years she had been the recipient of heaps of these style slippers from the grandmother of a roomate, she requested a pair in black so that she could wear them on the plane during her frequent travels. Done in Wool Ease, she can throw them in the washer without care.

A pretty quick knit, however the pattern she supplied was not without it's challenges. There was a long stretch of alternating rows of K9 P11 K9 and K10 P9 K10 -- and I could not keep it straight. Each footies had to be ripped back 10+ rows because I messed up. Each row I found myself counting bumps from the row before to figure out how much I had to knit for that row.