Lost in socks

I have so many socks on the needles right now that, just for comic relief, I have spent some time cruising to get away from them all. I found a nice site that has info on creating your own walnut needles and a wire gauge / needle size conversion chart.

This lead me off onto a Japanese short row site with great photos.

After quite a bit more time lost on sock sites, and there are too many to mention, I went back to my drudgery. How is it that the second sock always takes 3 times longer than the first one? Especially in the inch before the toe decreases?

Most of my socks these days are refootable. I love the book SWAN socks - Socks Without a Name by Lucy Desgrey. Though this is for machine knitting, you can easily adapt it to hand knitting using a short row technique. The book can be hard to find - try eBay. The colors in the sock pic show each section and they can each be a different color or technique, such as mosaic on the top and ribbed on the bottom. Great concept. This is especially useful if you have a soft and delicate yarn or stitch, such as cashmere lace, but want them to be worn with Birks and not wear out the heel.