Slow socks

Just after Christmas I offered to knit a pair of socks for a friend. She wants a pair of hand-knitted socks, and while she can knit, she's struggled to knit socks that fit in the past, and I always have socks on the go and there are only so many pairs of socks I can wear myself, so I offered to knit some for her. Simple.

I chose the yarn, Sirdar Heart and Sole that has been in my stash for a while, and cast on a pair of toe-up socks. I used my usual pattern and set to work. But they weren't growing (I hadn't finished the toe increases a whole week after casting on). While I knew they were on the needles, I wasn't wanting to knit on them, and I wasn't sure why. So last week I decided that I was going to knit a stripe a day on them to make sure they get done in time for my friend's birthday in March.

I got two and a half stripes into the first sock and there was a funny join in the yarn - a single ply had been knotted, and an end twisted in a little untidily. I persevered and knitted over the end, which seemed good and strong, but when I got to the end of that stripe, while I was looking closely at the join section, I noticed that my sock was getting larger the further I got from the toe. I thought about it for a bit and remembered that I'd had similar tension problems last year using the same needles. So I did the only sensible thing: snipped the yarn and cast on a new sock on new (and totally different) needles. I'll unravel the old toe some other time. The needles have gone in the bin (one tip was bent anyway), and the other pair of needles that are the same will also be leaving the house. No one wants to battle with their needles while they're knitting socks!

Since I swapped needles the sock has grown much faster. I now have a different problem - the new needles have reopened the small cut in my finger tip. Argh! I can't wait to get these socks finished... Do you ever get the impression that some items just don't want to be knitted?