Second Sock Syndrome Again?!

I guess it was a good thing that I recently posted about second sock syndrome and the dangers of changing gauge. The day after I wrote that post I was going through some bags on my UFO shelves. My goal is to either finish or frog 3 projects a month until I have only projects that are 6 months old or less (I’m not going to put a number to it because it is perfectly normal for me to have 25 projects that are 6 months or less old). I found a pair of socks to unravel because they only had the ribbing done and part of the circular needle had gotten broken when we moved. Frog! Yay! 1 project down and it was yarn that I had hand dyed so I’m excited to go back and knit a project with these skeins. The second thing I found is a bag that had two skeins of my hand dyed yarn, a pattern I had designed for the yarn, and one completely knit sock. Now this is definitely a finish, not a frog.

After I was done going through the bag I looked at the pattern and sock to make sure that everything matched up and cast on for the second sock. A few inches in it was obvious the gauge was not the same as the first sock, I went that far because the first sock was very flat from being shoved in a bag for so long. I don’t know if my gauge was so far off because it’s been so long, or if I just didn’t make a note on the pattern that I had changed the needles. It didn’t matter, I just went ahead and ripped them out and went down another needle size. This time it was matching up much better, but was still a little bit off (although I think that had to do with the one sock being super flat and one having just been knit). I suspect that when I wash and block these two socks they will look much more alike.

So, back to second sock syndrome. Is it considered a cure to second sock syndrome to find a sock completely knit (so long ago you don’t even remember dying yarn, designing a pattern and knitting a sock out of said yarn and pattern) with all of the stuff you need to make the other one? Or is it a case of extreme sss that you have a project that is so old you don’t even remember it? Either way it is done and as a penance for my misguided SSS I am going to knit a second pair of socks out of this yarn, with the colors reversed and a little more patterning on the top of the foot so that I can publish both patterns. Watch for these patterns on Ravelry: http://www.ravelry.com/projects/addknitter00/under-the-pier-socks   I just have to finish a couple of projects that have April deadlines and then will do this.

Here are my notes from the knitting:

Notes
4-13-11: I started this project at least 2 years ago. It is at least
so long that I don’t remember dying the yarn or designing the pattern.
Today I was going through some bags in my “finish or frog it quest.”
When I pulled this out it was with one sock completely done, the pattern  I wrote was still in the bag and the first sock was complete. I tried it on and it was perfect so I decide this is really a finish project.
Once I do the first one I will put the pattern up for test knit, then
publish the pattern. I love these colors and the more I look at them the  more I remember hand painting this yarn but it is still a little fuzzy.
Today will be the day I put as the start of the project because I don’t
even remember what year the first one was done.

4-14-11: I knit most of the cuff last night and then had to tear it
out because I realized (well I had been thinking it all along but didn’t want to admit it) that I had either changed from size 2 to 1 needles without marking it on the pattern, or my gauge is so different now that I  needed to go down a needle size to match my previous gauge. I really can’t say which it is because once I went down a size my gauge matches exactly but that doesn’t seem right if it is a difference in gauge.
Either way I would have been able to finish the second sock today if
some siren fiber hadn’t been calling me to split my knitting time with my spinning wheel so I guess no new socks for me today. Maybe tomorrow though.

4-15-11: Woke up this morning, went to work on the socks before that siren spinning wheel could call me and finished. I think I need to wash and block these since one sat in a bag for a couple of years and is pretty flat while the just complete one looks a little more dimensional.
Love these socks and can’t wait to do the second pair with additional texture to them. I will post the pattern asap.