So…I still have them. The first socks. From 15 years ago. And I have the shiny new version. Wanna see what’s changed?

First, a small caution, because my heart gets tender and squishy about things these days. My first inclination, any time I get better at anything, is to whisk away all evidence that I didn’t always know what I know now. So showing the sock from my Very First Sock Pattern feels like showing you my teenage diary. There are lots of things that make me want to hide my face in my hands and groan in embarrassment.

But I’m trying really hard to see them as a concrete reminder that you get better at things with practice (rather than as secret proof that I am and always have been a talentless hack and a complete fraud and I should remove myself from polite society before I’m caught, which is what my brain tries to tell me if left unchecked).

And I bet a few of you may also have a brain that tries to turn ‘I got better at this!’ into ‘well clearly you sucked and you should be ashamed of yourself, go hide’ too. And when our brains are doing that, they need to be told to knock it off.

So how about this, you tell me something you’ve gotten better at, and I’ll come back and tell you what got better with these! (Wiggly video version over on instagram.)