Stuff I Need to Know, and stuff I figured out

Stuff I need to know:

How do you ply the godawful crap singles you spin on your spindle? Does it require extra equipment? I can't find anything online, so I'm lost. (I'm sure it's there, I am just not searching for the proper thing.) Can you either tell me what to do with one godawful crap singles whilst I spin another godawful crap singles?

Also, what's a good basic book about yarn creation? Something that maybe doesn't focus on the method, but more on the ideas? I need to know about grist, and why I'd make a three ply over a two ply, and how to spin for socks or for a sweater and such stuff as that. Recommendations, pweeze?

Stuff I figured out:

Cutting my knitting is no big deal. I might feel differently about steeks, but the socks? No problem. I cut one little thread and unravelled it as though it were a giant provisional cast-on, and I reknit. That's it. I actually did it one row higher than necessary, in case my stitches slipped, but they were good little stitches and stayed right there for me.

I can kitchener without looking at the directions, if I take the stitches off the needle. It makes perfect sense if I can see them flat and just "duplicate stitch" even though there aren't any stitches there. If I can't flatten them completely (like, say, for a sock toe) I kitchener them backwards and end up with a purl row instead of a knit row. Even though it's unintentional, I think this is funny so I left it.

I get a fever blister when I'm dehydrated. I didn't make this connection until La pointed it out, but Sunday morning I woke up with the first hangover-headache I've had in ten years (women in my family don't get hangovers, as a rule - we're just genetically lucky that way) and later that day I got the biggest fever blister I've had in my memory. Another reason to drink my water.