Life, Knitting and the Pursuit of Roller Coasters

The grass is green and the trees are starting to fill in.

The fan is in the window.

The Oberon is available again.

And I’m now out of Sock Madness.

The pattern released on Monday morning and I spent all day knitting and picked at the sock some on Tuesday, but I wasn’t anywhere close to being fast enough this round. So, I took a nap on Tuesday and I haven’t picked up the sock since then. I’m still hoping to finish this pair this weekend or early next week though and I’ll start the next one soon since it releases on Sunday.  They are gorgeous and I made it further than I did last year. I’m honestly happy to have made it as far as I did and I’m also thrilled to be done from the competitive side. I think 3-4 rounds is just about right as SM was starting to cut into my life a little more than I’d have liked and I just started losing that competitive edge this round. And hey, I still get new socks and some extra patterns out of the deal, so it’s all good.

Sock Madness Round 3.  I completed the pair earlier this evening and was the 10th finished in my division out of 12 going through for the round. So, I’ve officially made it further than I did last year. While I’m still going to knit like mad and try in round 4, I’m pretty sure I won’t make it through to 5 and beyond. I mean, I can be fast but there are some insanely fast knitters playing along.

Slippin’ Stripin’ Socks – Sock Madness Round 3

Knitpicks Shadow (laceweight!) held double, in colorways Jewel and Oregon Coast.

Once I was back in the realm of the living (after grafting that second toe), I went through email and one of the winner’s I’d drawn, Holly, already had a copy of my pattern. So, I’m still going to send her a little something, but I drew a replacement winner as well. Congrats Jen!

What a crazy week.

First off, thanks again for all the lovely comments on the blogiversary post! I had so much fun discovering a ton of new-to-me blogs and making some new Ravelry friends as well. I closed the comments shortly after midnight last night and copied everything over to a spreadsheet so I’d have numbers to feed into the number generator. It selected Holly and Rachel as the knitter winners and Dave as the coaster winner. Check your emails folks.

Speaking of last night, a certain YarnHarlot was in the general vicinity, and my friend Rachel and I headed out to Ann Arbor after work to hang out with all the knitters. Her talk was fun and funny and fabulous, just as it was the last time I saw her. I didn’t spot as many of the local knitters that I recognize as I thought I would, but we had fun anyway. (We’ll pretend that that isn’t a blurry dark photo with the camera still in macro mode and the flash turned off, ok? I was star struck, who thinks to check the camera settings?)

I was knitting away frantically on sock 1 for Round 3 of Sock Madness the whole evening and we sat at the end of the row and talked to just about everyone as they passed by until the end of the book line caught up to us. I was just finishing up the toe, and actually kitchnered it closed shortly after while we waited for dinner. I’m working frantically on sock #2 today, hoping to get the pair done and submitted tonight and maybe make it through to round 4.  More info on the socks when the pair is done. Must get back to frantic knitting right now.

My wee tiny sock arrived at it’s destination late last week. My recipient was KnittingGnome.

And the one headed my way made it on Saturday.

Here it is in all it’s wee tinyness with the adorable sheep stitch marker she sent with it, from Sheep In The City Stacey. Thanks Stacey! It’s adorable.

And Thanks Yarn Miracle for hosting the whole wee-tiny sock swap. It was great fun and far less work than a lot of the other swaps.

Reversai was the pattern of choice for this round of Sock Madness.

We didn’t have the full 40 for each group in round one, so some of us got traded to other teams. I had started out as a member of the Uconn team and was traded to Tennessee. They welcomed me with open arms, but this round especially has been the fastest group. 20 from each group will get through this round and I was #14.

As a April Fools, they gave us the pattern on Monday instead of Tuesday which completely threw off my whole week. I lost an hour of knitting time Monday night while setting up an April Fools of my own on Fun Factories (we swapped out our background image on all forum themes and had some made up headlines in our news fader).

I averaged half a sock a day this week. I had the first sock to the heel on Monday night, turned the heel at lunch on Tuesday and knit the foot Tuesday night (finished at 2 am). Wednesday I cast on and knit to the heel on sock #2. And today I turned the heel at lunch and snuck in a few more rows in the afternoon. The pair was fully finished just after 10 pm.

There were some complaints about the stitch count being too high on this pattern, and while I can sense that mine may sag a little with some wear, they initially fit pretty well. And as much of a pain as the garter stitch sole and toe was to knit, it seems to wear really cushy. I think they were made extra cushy with my yarn choice, Gypsy Knits BFL in Merry Go Round. This stuff was like knitting with butter clouds. The yarn has a bit of a sheen to it, and the garter stitch especially is so soft. Luxury socks indeed.

I loved the garter stitch short row heel especially. I can’t say that I’ve enjoyed any of the short row heels I’ve knit in the past. I was never confident that I was doing it right and I didn’t like the fit of the ones I’d finished so I think of all the socks I’ve knit to this point, only 3 pair have had a short row heel. But between the garter stitch and the way the yarn striped in the heel, it really made sense this time. All my wrapped stitched were a different color from the center stitches I was working, so it made it really obvious which stitches they were. And the added stretch plus the “squat” stitches of the garter make them fit my feet really well.

Bring on Round 3!