FO

Knitters know that I'm not flipping anyone off with the post header- in Knitting Parlance, FO stands for Finished Object, something I don't seem to manage much these days. At least with my needles.

Oh sure, I've been making yarn like a spindle fiend, and I did revise a novel to my agent's satisfaction (a short novel, but still), and I'm nearly done proofing the Kindle file for The Hotel South Dakota (speaking of eBooks- I got my first royalty transfer from eBook sales. It's small, but there is a certain satisfaction to earning money on a book that was first published almost twenty years ago), and I'm deep into getting ready for my two upcoming teaching gigs (NCFF and SAFF), and I've been playing with jewelry making, and of course, there's that whole *new computer* distraction. But I simply have not been doing much knitting.

So, a couple of nights ago, I put the spindles down and decided to get these off the needles. I knew that I was skating on the Not Enough Yardage Edge with the yarn that I spun and plied on the way to and from Michigan last month. It was a one-of-a-kind short-run fiber, and there is no more to be had, for any amount of money. On the other hand, the socks are destined for someone with tiny little fairy feet, so I hoped to squeak by. 

No such luck. See above? I needed one yard- one measly yard- more. No, not even a full yard. 20" would have been enough. And I ran out.

But did I panic? Well, maybe just a little bit. And I cursed the fact that I used that yarn to tie my little hanks-  I'd thoughtlessly wasted at least a full yard. And then I calmed down and hand-plied a yard of the sproingy yarn (shown yesterday) directly from the spindle, and spit-spliced* it to the the remainder of the proper yarn, and finished them off. The wool/mohair is a very pale, mottled yellow. The off-white wool picked up the yellow tone, and it blends in so well that I'm not even going to tell you which sock has the replacement yarn. Well, actually, I don't remember which one has a sproingy tip, but that just goes to show how matchy it is.

I lucked out. And so did the recipient- she avoided something that my Knitting OCD abhors- wildly unmatching tootsies.

*for the remaining non-knitting people who've read this far, spit-splicing is exactly what it sounds like. Gross, but efficient