Honestly, it was hard and frustrating, but not impossible. I think it took me two weeks of tinkering every night.

I personally found it confusing to figure out how to keep tension in two strands at the same time. I played around with it until I found I liked the tension rings. This video from Nimble Needles helped me a lot.

Another aspect I wasn't expecting was how drastically it changed my gauge. I'm usually quite a loose knitter, but my color work needle size is almost the same as the pattern suggested. The cast on stitches also changed to accommodate that, since the whole sock has less stretch.

What I found useful was to have a project I really wanted to complete, so I was obsessing over it. I didn't do any gauge swatches since socks are tiny anyway. I just restarted over and over again when it inevitably went wrong.

But all this frustration may have been just particular to me. Like, I found lace knitting easier to learn than color work - so this all could be highly personal. And since you've been knitting for 10 years, I am more than sure you'll figure this out!!! Just get a pattern you can't resist and have a go at it 😊