Who Needs Gold Toe?

Here I sit, knitting away ... trying to finish up as many projects as I can. Problem is? Everytime I finish something, all of my unfinisheds seem to have multiplied. At any given point, I'm working on at least two or three projects and lately that seems magnified. On the needles right now, I have a pair of socks (my own plain vanilla sock pattern), the Cobblestone Pullover by Jared Flood and a Tunisian crochet scarf. Last night at the LambShoppe, I volunteered to make a beaded scarf (Gilda by the Twisted Sisters) as a sample. (It seemed like a good idea because it's a small project and a free way to try beaded knitting. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.) I'm also still half-shopping around for yarn for an afghan for Dear and I, not to mention my multiple spinning projects.

So I have to stay pretty strict with myself about finishing a project before starting another one. I have to remind myself that it's just as rewarding to finish a project as it is exciting to begin a new one. As much as I dislike weaving in ends (it's a necessary evil), I don't dislike it enough to let a project sit around because I haven't done the finishing steps for it. Sometimes I get a finished project that is not quite what I had in mind in the first place. With that in mind, I give you the Orange Toe Socks.
I started these for Dear because I hated hated hated the Noro Kureyon I was using for the first pair I started for him. I purchased two balls of Ambiente by Schoppel Wolle in what I thought was a very appealing fake Fair Isle pattern (I just love that fake Fair Isle patterning sock yarn). I noticed the small yardage (135m per 50g) on the ball but figured I always end up with leftovers so I should be fine. As I knit happily along, enjoying watching the patterning reveal itself, I realized that I would be short by quite a bit. Like, the entire toe. I explained it all to Dear and he voted for the orange that was a dyeing mistake I made a few weeks ago that he fell in love with. The first one turned out so that only the toe was orange ... the second one fell even shorter by about an inch before it was time to start the toe decrease.

Both balls of the same yarn, same dye lot, purchased from the same shop on the same day. What a freaking rip off. These are a Men's size 11 and I fell FAR short of a full pair. I wear a Ladies' 11, and would also fall far short of a full pair from two balls of this (not cheap) yarn. As much as I like the pattern that comes from their yarn, I am not planning on buying this yarn ever again.

I promise I'll have pictures of other projects up soon ... in the meantime, have a great weekend and happy knitting!