La la la la I can't hear you la la la...

When I started my second Nine-to-Five sock, I had some concerns about my yarn supply. The first sock seemed to have depleted the yarn ball a little more than it should have, but I was fairly confident that I'd make it. After all, I've never run out of yarn during a sock project before. Despite my big honkin' feet, I always- always- have yarn left over at the end, and I have a bag full of sock yarn scraps to prove it.

As I carried on down the leg, my concerns grew. This pattern was eating up the yarn pretty quickly. Nevertheless, I soldiered on. It was at the point of the heel turn that I actually began to think 'Uh-oh. I might not make it'. At that point, I did what any of you would have done in my place: I shoved the yarn ball to the bottom of my project bag (so I couldn't see it anymore) and continued knitting. It was the knitting equivalent of shoving my fingers in my ears and going "La la la I can't hear you la la la.."

Today, as I was working on the foot of the sock, I was finally forced to stop and acknowledge my yarn supply. The yarn had tangled into a knot of epic proportions, and I had to stop knitting and rewind the ball. When I was done, I was left with this:

Disaster. There is no way I'll get half a foot and a toe out of this teensy ball. Here's the second sock laid out on top of the first sock, so you can see what I'm up against.

Normally, when faced with this kind of knitting disaster, I fold faster than Superman on laundry day and shove the project beneath the couch cushions, never to be seen again. But I can't do that with these socks. These are the Tori socks! They must be completed! Besides, they fit perfectly, the pattern is intriguing, the yarn is beautiful and the knitted fabric is soft and warm...

I went to The Knittery site and noticed that there wasn't any merino cashmere sock in the colourway I needed, so I fired off an email asking if I could get a skein custom dyed. (I may have used the word 'begging'. Twice.) Now, I'll just have to wait and see.

Faced with such a crippling knitting blow, what does one do? Why, she casts on a silly hat, of course.
I hadn't forgotten my 'October is for silly hats' vow, and this is the third in the series (well, fourth if you consider my mystery tea cozy. After all, a tea cozy is simply a hat for a teapot). This is going to be the most intricate of the silly hats, and will also look quite normal until the final moments of finishing. It's silliness hiding beneath a guise of respectability. I like that.