2 in 1 socks - Take 2

Eureka! By George, I think she's got it! Instead of having my hunky husband run interference, my knitting companion opted to assist me by waking me at 4 am today by persistently licking my face and purring loudly and kneading my upper arms until bruises formed. Once slumber had been effectively and brutally ended for me, I decided to take advantage of the very quiet house and attempt the 2 in 1 socks again.

So, fortified by strong coffee instead of the fruit of the vine, I cast on again. This time, I returned to my trusty magic loop method and experimented with holding both threads around the left hand. By looping one thread an extra time around my finger, I can spread the two yarns out and pick the appropriate thread as needed, while keeping the front yarn in front of the working needle and the back yarn behind. Using a variegated yarn has aided the learning curve by keeping the two yarns distinctly different looking on the needles, so I don't get as confused about which yarn should come next.

The close up picture is not the greatest but it actually is supposed to show the two layers pulled apart. The other picture, in spite of looking like some bug-eyed alien creature, is the progress so far. It is a 1x1 ribbing about 3/4" long. Now I need to decide if I'm going to carry the ribbing all the way down the cuff or switch to stockinette or get fancy on this sock. Hmmmm?!?

By the way, who is George and why do we have the phrase, "By George, I think she's got it!"? DD#1 is in a Shakespeare class and she's learning a lot about the fact that hundreds of phrases and idioms have come from good old Billy Shakespeare, which as made me curious about lots of other phrases we use every day. Now I'm going to have to google "By George". But tomorrow will have to suffice. After all, I have been up since 4 am, thanks to my . . . well, you can supply your own idiom for my little knitting companion. Bless her hungry little heart.