Baby bra....?

Just kiddin', just kiddin'. But does kinda look like....well anyway, this is my latest knitting project.

Oh yes, I knit. Thanks to Great Aunt Ellen, who took me and dozens of other youngin's through 4-H, I have enjoyed this needlework for the past 50-some years (yikes). I started VERY young. Ahem.

And it's taken that long to get up the intestinal fortitude (guts) to try knitting socks. Knitting tends to be more a winter project for me, just standard projects like scarves, blanket squares, a simple sweater. Given the length of the Wisconsin winters I have come to know (and survive) around here, I decided that maybe working up a pair of socks would get me through this next one.

Our fun local yarn shop, The Shaggy Sheep, just happened to offer a sock class not too long after the Sheep and Wool Show. I figured it was fate. The wool had me all primed to do great things, and here's a class to cater to my needs. Kismet. Or something. Pesky knitting gnomes is more like it, in retrospect...

One of my new classmates has just started knitting. Personally, I think she's nuts to take on socks as a second project. And after about 63 minutes of trying to get the cast-on CORRECT, I was nuts, too.

This is a unique pattern. Knitting from the toe up (did I mention, I haven't even knit a sock from the top DOWN), on double circular needles, with two balls of yarn at the same time. You end up with both socks being knit at once. Yep. Nuts.

But the strange thing is, it actually works. And here's the proof:

I don't even want to mention how many times I tore it all out and started over. I have a reluctant learning curve at times.

Now I know why the gal who thought of this developed a pattern for two-at-a-time socks. After getting one accomplished (however long that may take), you might well never get the second one done. Or started, for that matter.

After just a few hours (well, maybe more than a few) I'm now well on the way. The increases for the toe are all done. Here I go, straight up to the heel. Which is the next lesson.

I've read the instructions.

One winter may not be long enough.