One's Done - Second Has a 50/50 Chance

There's the first of Paula's Hydrangea Socks all finished. Doesn't look so bad with the homemade cardboard sock blocker tucked inside it, except I had to stuff a bit of paper towel into the heel pocket to fill it out some.

I've started the second sock - I'm about half finished with the ribbed cuff. They say the way to fight Second Sock Syndrome (an affliction that sock knitters come down with when they finish one sock and are loath to start the second one) is to cast on for the second one right away but unfortunately in my case that's not true. I always cast on for the second sock, usually within minutes of weaving in the ends of the first, but twice now I've gotten all the way to the foot of the sock and then put it aside in order to cast on for a different pair. It's worse than that - I get halfway through the foot of the second sock - I'm literally within a day or two of finishing - before putting it aside to be finished later. It's a wonder that I finished the pair for Poppy. Getting it in the mail to her is a completely different problem.

Looking back over my actions I have found what's throwing me off. It's not whether I cast on for the second sock yet or not. It's whether I have picked which sock yarn I want to knit next and what is really the nail in the coffin of the unfinished pair is me winding my chosen sock yarn into a center pull ball. Once I get to handling the new yarn and considering which pattern I'll use I reject the unfinished pair as if it were a pimply mouth breather with halitosis.

I suppose this is my cue to swear that when I'm finished with Paula's socks that I will go back to the basketweave and the braided cables socks that I still have on needles. I'd like to do that but I'm slowly being seduced by the two skeins of Opal Hudertwasser yarn currently lounging in my stash...Regentag auf Liebe Wellen and Der Blaue Mond to be exact.

Y'all may have to resort to nagging me to finish what I've started.