How often have out ended up with a new WIP (work-in-progress) due to the unfortunate yet commonplace Second Sock Syndrome, where the thrill of sock knitting wanes when having to knit up a duplicate to the first sock? Well I may have a few (8, maybe 9?) single socks hanging around in project bags with give-or-take 50g of matching yarn, needles and a patterns dappled throughout my house. It doesn’t help that we only ever showcase ONE sock for in-store project samples, but the truth is, picking up a second sock WIP is actually a nice low-commitment to a finished-object win!

Every year on my birthday I set aside all of my current fibre arts commitments to start up on a new sock, using one of my prized skeins of sock yarn that I know would be a joy to knit. Guess how many of the afore-mentioned WIPs started out this way?  Well this year I gifted myself a single sock project with a yarn that always makes me happy: Area 51’s self striping sock yarn, and this time in her Bacon & Eggs colourway. I already knit one for a shop sample, and it was time to make its match and gift myself a complete new pair of socks! Low commitment, high reward and happy birthday to me! Sitting in sunshine I enjoyed the rhythmic knit of one of my go-to fav sock patterns (Harris Tweed Socks by Ali Green) as I whizzed through the leg.

But that afternoon I came to realize I did not have enough yarn to finish this sock. I could count the upcoming stripes and I was exactly one stripe short. How is this possible as I usually end up with about 30g of leftovers on socks I knit for myself? Only one possible answer: I am knitting a THIRD sock to this set. Whoopsies! I know I had one sample floating around Baaad Anna’s and maybe at one point at Baaad Rabbit, but I haven’t seen a sample in either store recently. AND my sock’s match was right here in my project bag.

Well, in my previous WIPs post I may have mentioned that often my works-in-progress lose steam when I come across a hurdle. If I’m in a rhythm with a project often instead of taking the breather needed to come up with a solution to a stumbing block I just quietly put it in its project bag and promise to get back to it when my head is clear. And then I move on to the next shiny project. For this issue there were two possible solutions: I could find a matching colour for the heel to make up for the missing stripe… OR…

And here’s what took me three additional months to get around to putting in place: the dyer of this yarn always sends a sample of each colourway knit up into a sock blank as each dye lot may end up slightly different. So I had a few possible soloutions: (1) check the stores and my house for the missing completed sock — NOTTA, (2) check my stash for a matching bacon-coloured yarn — NO GO, (3) find the dyer’s sample and frog back one stripe repeat so I would have enough for this third sock! And TA-DA! I have recovered from this bout of second- /third-sock syndrome and have a #baaad24in24 completed project #6!

So I challenge YOU to pull out any second-sock syndrome WIPs (and these of course include mitts, leg warmers and sleeves all of which require some commitment to finished a matching pair!) and celebrate a win with me this February!

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And an update: I did in fact finish my problamatic WIP from my previous 24in24 post, here’s my third finished object for my #baaad24in24 which I will post more on Instagram later in the week…