For Christmas I knitted Rob a sock. I had every intention of knitting him a pair of socks, but sadly one is all that I got done. It wasn't even a real sock, with a heel and everything. It was just a tube sock, for wearing around the house with his slippers. Super easy. The problem was that I could only knit when Rob wasn't around. So I'd knit during my lunch break, and I'd hurry home after work to knit before he arrived. But these tiny snippets of time weren't enough to complete two socks. So I wrapped up the one and gave it to him with a promise to finish the other one right away. "It'll be a New Year's present!" I remember saying.

And it would have been, except I spent the week after Christmas peeling wallpaper off our living room walls. That always takes longer than expected. It also inflamed the nerve in my carpal tunnel, so I had to put myself on "wrist rest," which meant no knitting for several weeks. "I'm really sorry," I told Rob, "but it's going to have to be a Valentine's Day present."

And it would have been, except our friends' baby was due on Valentine's Day. And the knitting for him had to take priority. "It's a gift," I explained to Rob. "A gift can't be late." Poor Rob didn't even bother pointing out that his sock was supposed to have been a gift, too.

After I finished the knitting for the baby, I devoted myself to finishing Rob's other sock. I was making serious progress, too…until I ran out of yarn. Not a problem! I would just run to the yarn store and get more. But they no longer had any. "It's okay," Rob said, with resignation in his voice. "One sock can just be shorter than the other."

I disagreed. The man had waited this long for the sock and he was going to get a proper sock. So I found the yarn online and ordered some. It arrived last Saturday, and I immediately got to knitting.

That evening, I handed Rob a wrapped package. "Happy St. Patrick's Day!"

Feigning surprise, because he's a good sport.

And considering St. Patrick's Day was still several days off, I think we can say that the sock was, in a way, early.