Personal challenge: sock knitting edition

With more fingering-weight, self-striping sock yarn on its way to my house, I have begun to panic a bit about the vast amount of that yarn I already have here.  I love knitting those socks, and I really love wearing those socks, but each pair takes me two months to make and that is just scary.

Question of the week

How long does it takes me to knit a pair of fingering-weight socks if I don't knit anything else while I'm making them?  

Steps to uncover the answer

Here is the situation, broken down to its parts:

1/ fingering weight socks are ideal for portable knitting, because they fit into the very small knitting pouch that fits into my very small purse.

2/ since the socks are in my purse, and I don't knit next to my purse at home, I work on something else in the evenings.

3/ if I don't have many appointments, or I'm too busy to knit while I do, I don't knit the socks at all.

Aha moment

The purse!  The problem is the purse.

The personal challenge

Last week when I finished my black and blue stripey socks (photos to come later) I immediately cast on some yarn that has been waiting for two years to be worn at Christmas in sock form.  I put one sock in my travel-sized bag, and I put one on the coffee table, and at the end of the next day they were both past their cuffs.

Two days later, I watched a James Bond movie and got the Home Sock down to the heel flap, and the day after that, I got it over its turn.  Then,

(and this is the sneaky part)

I swapped its longer needles for the Portable Sock's short needles and put it in Portable Sock's place.  Because, you know, if I knit more at home than in transit, and I swap the socks periodically, I should have both done around the same time.

I'm not sure how that will pan out though because yesterday, while waiting for a meeting, I made progress on the gusset:

And last night, I was only able to put a couple of hours into the now-at-Home sock.  I might have to swap back if that keeps up.

I'll keep you posted on all things Christmas Sock but in the meantime: I hope you get some knitting in today, whether at home or abroad!