Old Dogs and New Tricks

It had been more than a year since I'd learned, from scratch, to knit two socks at a time on two circular needles. Long enough to forget exactly how it's done.

I later was forced to frog one crocheted sock with a finished knitted cuff back to the foot because in my rush to finish the pair in time for a friend's birthday, I accidentally made the foot of the first sock too short. For a couple of days, I juggled the options of frogging the first sock, complicated by having already finished the afterthought heel and not knowing whether I could undo that, or just making a third sock. I had ample yarn to make another sock. Making a third sock might be easier and more time efficient than trying to undo the heel on the first sock. But then I'd be stuck with a third sock that wouldn't fit anyone because the size was so odd.

After finally deciding to try unraveling the first sock, just to see if I could, I decided I'd knit the cuffs of both the first and second socks together at the same time so I wouldn't have to count rows, thereby making up the time lost to ripping out work already completed.


I was so thrilled when the first sock graciously returned the superwash wool I had gently and lovingly given it. I hadn't expected it to be so easy! The frog was done in less than one bus commute. I finished the four extra foot rows and refinished the 10 ankle rows in another day.

Finally, the two-socks-at-a-time portion of the project could begin!

Except, I had forgotten how to do it! I was on the train and didn't have a way to look up the process, plus, I hadn't used a tutorial the first time around, so I wasn't sure a tutorial would help me undo the mess on my lap.

Finally it came to me. Knit the same sides with the same needle. Don't try to knit "around" and get all four sides onto one circular needle!

After undoing that serious screw-up, the replacement socks were completed in two more bus commutes, to the delight of nearby passengers who marveled I could knit "a dog's sweater" so well.

A dog's sweater?!? I haven't tried that yet...

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