Nearly a crisis

In the end I took both the mobius scarf and Mummy's Christmas socks with me to Paris, and am glad I did. I managed to finish the socks so they are just waiting for a wash and then I can wrap them up! Goodness I am organised!?

So now onto the other knitted Christmas present. If you are reading this Annie please look away now.

I bought the yarn for Annie's socks and Mummy's socks at the same time, and it is supposed to be the same, 4ply alpaca from Texere, although the blue for Annie's socks came on cones rather than in balls. However as I started knitting with the blue it felt a bit thicker than the plum colour I used for Mummy's socks. This seemed fine though, the knitting is just more dense, but I am knitting Annie's on fewer stitches anyway so they shouldn't come out too big. All was going swimmingly until when I was about half way down the foot part (these are knitted top down) I glanced down at the cone and felt the first twinge of an approaching panic. I could see the cardboard of the cone through the yarn, there really wasn't much yarn left on the cone.

It is always odd the compulsion to knit faster when you think you are going to run out of yarn. So yesterday was spent in a frantic rush to the finish. Which would I reach first? The end of the sock, or the end of the yarn? Luckily the sock won, so here is the first sock:

and the yarn left on the cone:
That was cutting it very fine.
I have started on the second sock, and am knitting away hoping that there will be at least as much yardage (it is odd we don't seem to use the word metrage) on the second cone.

I am feeling very virtuous that I am 3/4 of the way through my Christmas knitting already (it always helps to set nice low targets, then you can enjoy the feeling of reaching them :-) ).