Another thing I'm excited about (heh, nice segue) are my Monkey socks. I bought the yarn - Colinette Jitterbug - at the stylish and fancy yarn store Knit Cafe a few months ago. I think it cost $21/skein. I didn't think anything of it at the time - I mean, I had heard fairly good things about Colinette and the colorway was beautiful and the yarn very soft to the touch. Sure, it was a bit more than I would typically spend on a skein of yarn but I considered it a yarn indulgence.
I cast on last week and knitted up the first sock in record time. I think I finished it in just over a week . . . and I'm not a fast knitter at all. But as I started the second sock, I looked at the remaining ball of yarn and became . . . concerned. It seemed as though I didn't have very much yarn left - not enough for another whole sock. I squashed that voice in the back of my head and continued knitting. Then a few days ago I read on the Tall Knitters group on Ravelry that another knitter had issues with Colinette and every time she knitted a pair of socks she ran out of yarn. Today I ran across a thread on Ravelry about issues other knitters have had with the yarn - everything from yardage problems to multiple knots per skein to dye-lot changes in a single skein (now that just seems crazy!!). I tried to create a link to the thread but unfortunately couldn't figure out how to do it. Run a search in the forums under "Jitterbug" and you will see what I mean! My skein of Jitterbug didn't have any problems in terms of knots or dye lot changes but my fears where confirmed about the fact that I'd probably run out of yarn.
So this is what I am dealing with:
It's probably hard to tell from the crappy picture but that's the second sock .. . I just finished the gusset and have five pattern repeats to go before I get to the toe. I'm estimating that I have enough yarn to to an additional three pattern repeats - but it's hard to tell.
So, what do I do? I'm considering a few options....
1) Rip Rip Rip and make the leg shorter or make them ankle socks.
2) Rip back to the heel and use a contrasting color to reknit the heel and toe of each sock. I have some Lorna's Laces in a stripey purple that might work.
3) Buy a second skein of yarn and hope I can find a similar dye lot . . . right now this is my least favorite option. Seriously - a $42 pair of socks!?? I heard a rumor on Ravelry that it might be possible to purchase a half skein. I haven't done any research on this though.
4) ???
Curses!
