Unraveling, part two

As I finished the foot on the second sock, I realized I had made another mistake.  I had knit 40 rounds instead of 36.  How did this happen?  I keep a running tally of rounds knit and referred often to my record of the first sock of this pair, but it turns out I was not looking at the right tally marks.  So I stopped before switching to double-pointed needles to work the toe.  My error meant the foot was nearly a half-inch longer than it should be.  After some consideration, I decided to unravel just two rounds then move on to the toe.  If the yarn were thicker and the stitches larger, I would probably just take out the needle and pull the yarn to unravel it.  But this sock yarn is quite fine and the stitches quite small, so I get best results when I pull out one stitch at a time, which actually takes longer than the original knitting.

Why these errors?  I'm not sure, unless it's just a lack of concentration these days due to tiredness and stress.  Perhaps instead of recording the rounds for a couple of pairs of socks on one sheet of instructions, I should tally just one pair per sheet.  Or maybe using a different colored pencil for each pair would help.  I need to do something; unraveling my work is just no fun at all!

Here is the finished pair using a pattern called Cath Socks, with a bit of basket-weave-like texture.  The yarn is Patons Kroy in Cameo Colors.  I really like the shading of the pink, purple, blue, but not how the stripes don't match up very well.  I followed the advice of a blogger who has knit many pairs of socks, and used a new skein for the second sock rather than finishing up the first skein; she said she has better luck with matching by doing this, but I sure didn't.