Happy Solstice; Sock Progress

Happy Winter Solstice. The shortest day of the year, and the longest night ... but now the days begin getting a little longer, with the promise of spring and returning light, warmth and life to the Earth.

It's a deceptive little promise, with the worst of the winter still to come. But I'll take it. It's funny how things seem to meld one into the other that way ... the first turning towards the lighter, warmer part of the year comes even before the coldest chill of winter.

I had a setback on the last pair of socks (go figure), but I am still confident. Although I'd only started the toe Thursday night, Friday after work I managed to finish the toe, the foot, and the whole heel. Then looked at it and said, "This looks way too small." I must have a Goldilocks thing going on with socks ... this one's too long ... this one's too short. Where is the 'just right' one?

The thing was, I tried it on, and the length was even too short for me - and I have small feet. I didn't think the intended target, my niece, had feet as small as mine, she's certainly much taller than I am. So I had to put the sock on hold while I sent out an email request to the family in question to find out her shoe size, and judge whether I was in fact way off base or not.

I didn't get a response till this morning, and it turns out she does, in fact, have me-sized feet. Wears the same size shoes. The sock was still a little small, though, so I still ripped back to the beginning of the heel and added a 1/2" to the sock foot. I figured the miscalculation came about because my heel should have been 2" based on my row gauge, but was only 1 3/4". And I initially intentionally planned the sock about 1/4" to 1/2" shorter than the repicient's foot length, to make sure it fit comfortably snug. But after realizing that the length shrinks by a good 1/2" when it's actually on a foot, I decided that was a bad idea.

So I ripped back before the heel, added a little length to the foot, re-knit the heel this afternoon, and it's back on track and measures the right length. I didn't, however, finish the sock today as I thought I should to stay on target. In fact, I didn't even get to the leg or ribbing yet.

I'm not concerned, though ... it goes really fast when I put my mind to it, and I still have all day tomorrow and Monday - whole days, not just the hours after work. So I'm pretty confident I can still get this last pair done before Christmas morning, when the recipient family will be coming to my house. It may be late, late Christmas Eve night, but ... they'll get done.

Okay ... I think I can fit in a little bit more knitting before bed. Fortunately, after 3 pairs of socks in as quick a time as I could muster, I'm still not tired of making socks. Good thing, since I still have a surprise sock knitting treat after the holidays.