A few postings back, I mentioned that someone offered me size 3 dpns - well Ellen, my friend who I sing with in our group Voces Angelorum, was the one - she also knits, but I believe she has the potential to work in the fine art of smuggling. I get this piece of mail from her (and in my excitement, I forgot the camera that could have given you a play by play of opening her dpns coming incognito - cleverly hidden between the ridges of corrugated cardboard - I opened it and had a devil of a time - only an Xray machine would have picked up its identity. Thanks, Ellen, for taking the time to share some of your extra stash so I can become a sock knitter.

It seems there is a cult about knitting socks and blogs. A knitter's blog rarely goes by without a sock who has accompanied some knitter to some place to document "I WAS THERE" -- is it just me or are there a bunch of closet sock knitters in this world that just come out to blog and have their unfinished sock photographed?
Now that I have enough double pointed needles to actually KNIT a sock, I am making excuses as to why I shouldn't start. The needles aren't the same color - oh that's a good excuse in my anal retentive mind (and I know those that truly know me KNOW I am not THAT). Then I start getting a bit nervous, like I am going to fail, that I can't possibly handle that many needles at one time and keep up with it. I have even casted on and tried a row to see if I can figure out what I am doing and I put them down. Then I begin to think - look at all of the other folks that are knitting socks - it can't be that hard. Then you know that place - the not so LYS - that had the sale signs up but wouldn't give me the discount - their sock class was 75 bucks - now that makes for a pretty expensive pair of socks - and surely I can figure it out if I really tried. Geez, what would my children have done prior ot the Industrial Revolution? Been sockless??? Is 75 bucks too much to charge for a beginning sock knitting class?
Well, I have 8 skeins of various types of sock yarn, so I should get started - they are even self patterning or striping to make them cute without me doing anything fancy.
So, I will set myself a goal. I will HAVE the beginning of some socks OTN before September 1.