First Sock Nearly Completed

JimsSock.jpg
Originally uploaded by missizii

Jim's first sock is nearly done. And once it is done, then I'll have to cast on and knit its pair. There is a knitting superstition that if a knitter doesn't cast on for the second sock in the same sitting as she casts off the first sock, the second sock will never be completed (perhaps never even started). I'm not usually superstitious, but not finishing the second sock is such a grave matter. So now, when I sit down to knit on the first sock, I make sure that there is enough time, should I finish it, to cast on for the second.

Jim doesn't want trouser socks, he likes them shortish. Jim says that trouser socks always fall down around his ankles anyways, so just leave them that length. I contend that if the socks were perfectly fitted, they would not fall down, but they are his socks, and he shall have them the way he wants. This means, most sorrowfully, there will be no lovely cabled increases up the back of the calf. I will have to make a pair of these for myself, just so I can do the increases up the back. It also means I will have one completely unused ball of sock yarn, since I am using pretty much exactly one ball per sock, and I have three balls of yarn. The third ball was to make each sock trouser sock length.

What does one do with a single ball of sock yarn? Other than grow a third foot, I mean.