I’m making slow progress on my Firebird socks. As a reminder, this pattern is from the book The Enchanted Sole by Janel Laidman. It’s gorgeous and very intimidating. I’m still on the leg of the first sock, and I’ve been working on it for two weeks!

First things first: I gave up on using the colourwork thimble. It was such a hassle to put on then off again, plus turns out the yarn threads got really tangled up despite (or because of) using it. I went back to the good old method of putting one ball of yarn to my right and one to my left, being careful to keep them apart with my fingers.

The pattern chart is tiny and complicated, as you can see. I’m using a piece of paper to help me stay in the right row, but it still takes a huge amount of concentration. I can usually knit ten rows until I lose focus and start making mistakes. It’s slow, but I keep reminding myself that the end result will be worth it! You can even start to see the feathers, which is an extra motivation. 🙂