How not to knit

Well, it was a good job I didn't hold my breath when it seemed like something might happen with the house the other day. Unsurprisingly, nothing happened at all (except various parties revealing their incompetence, but there's nothing new in that). I'm resigning myself to staying in our currently house for the next ten years at the rate we're going. 

So let's put all that aside for a little while and talk about knitting. 

For the last few months, on and off, I've been knitting a couple of pair of socks for a couple of friends. I wrote about the first pair back in October, and finally finished them and started the second. I was absolutely thrilled to come across this stripey wool in a charity shop, it was almost a full ball, and knits into a glorious riot of colour and speckles. 

I was delighted with the first sock. Look at it! What fun! 

I had a brief moment of do-I-really-have-to-knit-another-one-the-same sock tedium, and then embarked on the second. Which went well - until I realised that my 'almost a complete ball of wall' wasn't quite 'almost complete' enough, and that I didn't have enough wool to finish the second sock... 

Most vexing - if I'd have realised earlier, I could have made the leg part shorter and then I might have made it, or made the cuff a different colour. At this stage though, without unravelling the whole lot and starting again (which I didn't want to do as these were meant to be a Christmas present), there was only one thing for it - I'd have to make the toes a different colour on both of them. 

I started with the painful task of unravelling the toes on the first one, which gave me a bit more wool to add some to the second one. There was no chance of me finding an exact match for this wool without an awful lot of messing (it didn't come with a label), so I decided to use something else that I already had. Sadly, most of my stash is in boxes in the cellar, so my choice was limited. 

I settled on this blue, green and brown stripey wool, which looked at least like some of the colours might vaguely match. 

They do - kind of. But the stripes are a lot thicker and darker, and I'm not convinced. 

I'm reserving judgement until I've finished the second, although I've been informed that as it is now February, I really should just finish the darn things and get them sent off, especially as they're going to a different country and may take a while to get there anyway. 

I'm not one for matching the stripes on my socks anyway. I'm lazy, and prefer an element of chance when it comes to sock colours. Next time I'll definitely be wary of using charity shop wool though (unless it's definitely a full ball) - and I might even weigh these ones before I send them just to make sure I know how much wool they use. 

​Still, whatever they look like, they are cheerful and cosy and will hopefully get a good reception. I'll post pictures if I ever finish the second one (and don't start unravelling the first again).