Bitten by the Sock Bug.

I've been knitting since 2005, and it seems as though I've spent the whole of that time avoiding knitting socks. I like big, chunky jumpers, made from big, chunky yarns. You can't really knit a wearable sock on 10mm needles! They're small, they're fiddly, the Magic Loop technique is incomprehensible to me, and knitting with a set of four double-pointed needles is like wrestling with a large wooden tarantula.

And then, as I mentioned the other day, I knitted the Sox on 2 Stix.

I've been wearing them as house-socks until now, as I was a bit afraid of rubbing away the fragile yarn inside a pair of shoes. Today though, I wore them out of the house.

I only went to the Post Office and back, to see off my last Ebay parcels. But all the way there I wanted to do a little dance of joy, about my lovely socks! Every person I passed, I wanted to say, "Hey! Are you looking at my socks? Look at my socks! I made those! I knitted them myself! Look at my socks!!"

I've never really subscribed to the school of thought that wearing "special" underwear can make you feel better. In my experience, wearing fancy underwear guarantees only that I'm going to be uncomfortable and cross. But, I do like socks, and my delicate little feet dictate that I can't wear shoes without them, so I may as well wear socks that I like. I have socks with stripes and strawberries and bees, and even a pair with glow-in-the-dark aliens on them! None of these, however, can compete with the joy of wearing your very first pair of handmade socks.

Wearing handmade socks is so awesome that I now have no choice other than to buy a set of wooden double-pointed needles, and learn to knit them "properly".

I am being aided and abetted in this by , who has very kindly sent me three balls of the most luxurious Regia sock yarn with silk. It feels so soft and scrumptious that I can't wait to wear it on my feet - even if I do have to wrestle with a large wooden tarantula to make that happen!