little warm toes

This week's frigid temperatures motivated me to push through second sock syndrome and finish up K's second sock. I've wanted to try socks for a while now, but sock knitting is considered addictive and I was nervous about that. Once bitten by the sock bug, people apparently never knit anything else ever again. I want to knit other things.

Socks are in many ways the bane of my domestic existence. There are five people in our house, three of whom have the infuriating habit of taking socks off and leaving them all over the house. One of those three is only two, so I'm confident she will grow out of that and her natural tidiness will prevail. But I despair of the other two. And so I battle socks daily throughout the colder months.

However, when it's really cold out, wool socks do keep toes warm. I finished an easy shawl started in the summer and went straight to the yarn store, but I was unable to commit a sweater that day. So I picked up a ball of sock yarn instead. I had a vision of sweet warm tiny boot socks, and I wasn't daunted that my sock book didn't go quite small enough for toddler feet. I winged it and tried them on her as I went. I carefully noted the number of stitches cast on and rows around the leg and foot so they would end up the same size. Somehow, the second one is bigger in the foot than the first. I ascribe that to the time lapse between the two socks.

You see, the tales of addictive sock knitting are only half true. The fact is, the first sock is addictive. I finished it in maybe two or three evenings of TV watching. I paused the TV every couple of minutes to force hubby to acknowledge the magic of the heel turn. Then I explained what turning a heel is. It was very much the exciting magical experience sock-knitters claimed. I was even able to rip back and restart the toe so it fit her better without any trouble. And baby girl was as thrilled with her new sock as I was. I promised her the next one was coming. That must have been November. Then came a spurt of warm weather, me in bed sick for a week, then her Christmas dress. Every so often, I would feel guilty about that poor second sock and manage a few rows. I learned that "second sock syndrome" is very real.

Will I ever knit another sock? Probably at least one. :)

(again, how cute are the tiny boots with the tiny boot socks?)