"Lydia's secret stockings"

This is another thing I began over break, but I stopped partway through.

It's a very complex (and nice) sock pattern from one of the Jane Austen Knits issues (the Lydia referenced is Lydia Bennet, but the made-up backstory is that Kitty actually knit them, both to keep from spilling the secret - of Lydia running off with whats-his-name, Wickham - but also to have a gift for her sister).  You can see the pattern here. (And I don't remember what I paid for the entire Jane Austen Knits issue, but it wasn't terribly much more than the price of that one pattern).

I didn't stop working on the socks because I made a big mistake, or they didn't fit, or I didn't like them. I stopped because I hit a knitter's dilemma: I finished the first sock, really loved it, and then thought, wait, this ball of yarn has shrunk in size more than I'd expect for just one sock of a pair.

Then I realized: oh no, I might run short of yarn.

That's one thing about knitting that can make me totally stall mid-project. Especially when it's a yarn that may be difficult to come by. (This one is Dragonfly Yarn's Djinni sock in the color "Winter Twilight.") So I thought: okay, maybe I have something in the stash at home (I was at my parents while working on them) that I can use to piece out the yarn if I run short. So I stopped knitting the second sock, with the thought that I could maybe incorporate the supplement yarn every fourth row or something, and maybe it wouldn't be too obtrusive. (But it would be, to me. I tend to be a little compulsive that way).

So I thought more. Maybe, I thought, if I can get another ball of the same colorway, even though it will be expensive, then I can piece out the toe of the sock with the same colorway if a different dyelot. I contemplated asking on Ravelry.

And I tried weighing the yarns. But my mom's kitchen scale is an old dial-faced one, better designed for weighing large masses of flour for breadmaking and such, and not smaller quantities of yarn. It LOOKED like the first completed sock and the yarn plus what I had knit on the second sock were roughly equal in weight, but I couldn't tell well enough.

So I gave up on it. And thought of other plans: could I rip back the first stocking (horrors) and reknit it shorter? (No. I rejected that one out of hand. It would be painful to lose that much work, and also, I did a really good job on the first stocking).

So I returned here. One of the first things I did was investigate the availability of the yarn. My usual supplier (Loopy Ewe) was out, but I found a place on line (a shop in Oregon) that took PayPal (I'm leery of letting someone I don't know directly see my credit card number, though I'm sure these folks are totally trustworthy) that had it. So I decided that life is short, I really enjoy knitting, and I want these socks to feel "right" to me, and I ordered it.

It's a slightly different dyelot (I expected that) but it's close enough that if I run short on the toe, it will be fine.

Oh, and after it came? It occurred to me that maybe I could re-weigh my finished sock and the in-progress sock plus remaining ball on my little digital kitchen scale, which is more accurate for small quantities.

Djinni sock comes in a 116 g ball, right? So on my scale, the first sock weighed 53 g, and the in-progress sock plus the remaining ball came in at 63 g.(Which is exactly 116, except for the weight of the bamboo needles - I tried weighing one, and it was too small to register, so I don't think the three I had in the sock added much weight).

So I might just make it, or make it with just a tiny bit of the toe having to be done in the new yarn.

I could go "D'oh!" over this and grumble about the money spent on the might-not-be-needed additional yarn, but I'm actually thinking that it could go for either a pair of long mitts or a hat if I don't need to take much from the ball. I'm just happy I can knit the second sock without "stripes" of another yarn glaring up at me every time I wear them.