Monkey's Paw and a Monkey Sock

So you may have noticed that post frequency has been suffering lately, and I feel compelled to offer a little something by way of explanation. To sum it up, The Monkey's Paw- sometimes you get what you ask for, and it often means a slow-down in knitting.

At the end of my maternity leave back in September I found myself saying the words “I quit”. After experiencing life as a full-time working parent of one and then spending the last year at home with two, we decided to make the life-style change a permanent one. Some parts of that decision came really easily; other aspects caused frequent changes of mind. But in the end I followed my heart and the family balance that is right for us, right now.

Not quite the end of the story though. Fast forward a month and along came an opportunity to help my employer out during the transition - working from home, doing parts of my job that I really enjoy, 21 hours a week, and only until the end of the year. Too good to pass up right?

Well, I am thankful for the extra money (and the daily news often makes me doubly so) and really enjoy the time spent focussing on something completely removed from the daily routine. But I’ll tell you – finding 4 hours a day to work after chasing the kids, keeping house, cooking meals and maintaining some semblance of social contact...phew...it wears a girl out! Throw a couple of runs a week in, and there isn't much time left. You notice that knitting and blogging haven't even made it onto that list yet - they are becoming a car-pool lane and 5 minutes here and there pursuit.

But thanks for sticking with me, and I do promise to find a way to keep things updated. Enough of the pity and onto the knitty though, because somehow this girl (tired as she may be) is finding a way to have it all (just in shorter bursts of highly multi-tasked efforts).

The Monkey Sock. Singular. One sock. The entire month of Socktoberfest – my first – and I have, in the middle of November, one sock to show.

This sock instantly became a favourite knits. Small, portable, attainable, and a very cool calm-inducing pattern. And I have never enjoyed a skein of yarn more. I will be knitting many socks in my future – this I know. That said, there are definitely a few things wrong with this one, and I’m really not sure where to go from here (considering there is a second sock to knit which could quite possibly end up suffering the same fate).

• The heel is too long, or is it high?Either way, it sits up way to far on the back of my foot and looks a little strange.

• The sock bunches. I’ve made it all nice and flat in the picture, but stand up or walk around and I suspect that bunching will occur very quickly (which is reminding me of the home-knit legwarmers that I wore in the 80's).

• My first attempt at Kitchener Stitch/Grafting wasn’t bad, but isn’t perfect. I’m much better at faking it.

So if there are any successful sockers out there I would love to know – can a good wash and block solve this or do I cut my losses and get this monkey off my back? (And yes I will be asking this question of the great oracle that is Ravelry).