This is a pair of nearly finished socks.  I would already be done with both of them, except that I decided to go back and rip out the cuff of the first sock.

To refresh your memory, here is a photo of the first sock before I ripped out that cuff.  Even though the sock was done and I could have just left it alone, I didn’t like the way the ribbing started too high up on the leg.  It created a weird bulgy effect when I tried on the sock.

So I ripped out the cuff in order to adjust the length of stockinette and ribbing.  Now I am trying to match the cuffs to each other and hoping both socks will be about the same length.  The stripes don’t match up at all, but I’m beyond caring about that.  I just want to make sure I get these done before Minneapolis.  And in a few days, I’ll tell you why, I promise.

I mentioned before that Sean and I will be going to Minneapolis this week.  We’ll be attending the AWP Conference at the Minneapolis Convention Center and flying out of LAX on Thursday morning.  Which means that I will be working only two days this week:  tomorrow and Wednesday, and after I put in my 10-hour day on Wednesday, I’ll be leaving San Luis Obispo and driving the 150 miles back down to the Ventura homestead, in order to get on the road to Los Angeles first thing Thursday morning and make our flight.  Wednesday and Thursday are going to be loooong days, I already know.

I spent today doing the laundry, packing, and trying to remember everything I will need for the trip.  Knitting helps me think, and I was able to finish this sock.  With all the traveling ahead of me this week, I should be finishing at least another pair of socks.  Thank goodness they’re so portable.

After leaving work early yesterday to go home sick, I knew I would not be very popular among my colleagues if I showed up for work today.  So I called in sick and spent the day resting and breathing through my mouth, because apparently now my flu symptoms have revamped into a cold with a stuffed-up nose.

You may remember that I was knitting this sock a few weeks ago:

I was making it for my old college roommate Kim.  She told me what size shoe she wore, and she was going to send an outline of her foot to me.  In the meantime, I kept merrily knitting along.  I even turned the heel of the sock without waiting for Kim’s foot outline to arrive.

Then a couple of things happened on the same day.

First, I accidentally stepped on one of the sock knitting needles and broke it in half.  I didn’t have any other circulars in the same size, so I had to go online and order a replacement.

Second, I took Kim’s foot outline that had just arrived in the mail, and I glued the piece of paper to a piece of cardboard.  I waited for the glue to dry, and I cut around the outline of her foot.  Then I took the nearly finished sock and slid it onto the cardboard foot template.  The sock stretched tightly across the width of the flat cardboard, which told me one thing:  I had knitted too narrow a sock for my friend’s three-dimensional foot.  And also, it was a little too short.

It is a good thing that the neighbors on either side of my house are retired senior citizens who are slightly hard of hearing, because I spent the next few minutes screaming in frustration.

After I calmed down (one day later), I decided I would set that sock aside and save it for someone else with a narrower foot.  I couldn’t bear to think of unraveling the whole thing.  I figured that it would be easy enough to go on eBay and just purchase another skein of the same yarn and start over.

I went to eBay, typed in “Lion Brand Sock-Ease Yarn Red Hots” and quickly found a whole slew of listings.  I selected one that was listed for a Buy-It-Now and completed the purchase.  I waited several more days.  My new, intact knitting needles arrived.  The Lion Brand Sock-Ease Yarn in Red Hots arrived.

And this is what I got:

Yes– same color, different dye lot!!!

I checked the labels multiple times and even held them together to compare.  My eyes were not deceiving me.  Both were indeed skeins of “Red Hots” sock yarn.  Except one was black and orange, while the other one was red and pink and orange.

I knew Kim had fallen in love with that pink and orange yarn.  I knew she would be crushed not to have her socks in those colors.  I couldn’t disappoint her.  I had to unravel the first sock and start over.

So being a good friend, I did, and this time I tried to knit the new sock a little wider than the first one.  And this time I guess I was paying more attention to the width of the sock rather than the length of it, because by the time it occurred to me that I needed to start the increases for the gusset, I realized I’d made the foot too long.  The sock needed about an inch and a half unraveled from the bottom.

Augh! This sock would fit Sean, not Kim!

So it was at that point that I quit.  I didn’t want to work on that sock for a long time.  I switched over to crocheting.  And that whole sorry story of that sock is partly what made me stop knitting.  (Look at that:  alliteration.)

Anyway, I think enough time has passed that I’ve forgiven the sock and feel ready to start a fresh relationship with it.

At least it didn’t give me the flu.