Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Further Into Madness

Yes, Sock Madness 3 began in earnest last Thursday. It began with the receipt of an email containing the never-before-seen pattern for Round 1. After downloading and printing the 10 pages of instructions - the designer did a fabulous job of giving instructions and included photos of specific parts - I didn' t get to cast on till late that night because of some other committments - work and a long-planned dinner with a frien. I cast on both socks and was able to knit the ribbing on Thursday night. Then Friday night, I was able to knit for about 5 hours, Saturday was devoted entirely to knitting, as was Sunday. Then on Monday, I was able to complete the pair. I counted and it came to 25 hours of knitting to finish a pair of socks in fingering weight yarn! That is totally unheardof for me! Now add that to the fact that the cast-on was a totally new one for me (it required about 2 hours of watching a video on You Tube over and over to get it right), and then we have what is called an Afterthought heel - that is where you knit to the heel, cast off stitches to waste yarn, cast on new stitiches with waste yarn (this leaves a hole where the heel will go) and knit the foot all the way to the toe. Then, and only then, do you pick up the stitches on the heel and knit it! I KNOW!!! It was daunting to some very experienced sock knitters in the competition, too. But I decided NOT to let a little fear kick my butt so I just knit what the pattern told me to do and trusted that the designer knew what she was talking about. Folks, I give you - Tropical Mer-Tinis in Spunky Eclectic yarn - the colorway is Walking on the Sun! I am so darned proud of those socks! The competition is divided into 4 groups of 50 people. My group is called For Whom the Ball Rolls. For round 1, they are accepting the first 40 people who complete the socks knit exactly to the pattern and post onto a special site on adult feet (no knitting kiddie socks and putting them on a 2 year old and hoping to get them accepted as a fast knit!). I'm not exactly sure what number I finished at for this round. I know that there were only 16 finished when I sent in my notice, and then I went to bed. The next morning I checked and they had put my name as finished and there were 21 total finished at that time. So I am one of the 21 fastest knitters this round in my group! Not sure when Round 2 will begin. But I am ready when it does. In Round 2, they will take the 30 fastest knitters from the 40 that made it into the round, from each group. I want to get into Round 3 before I get passed by faster knitters. A friend of mine, Lisa. the fabulous knitting teacher and enabler, says she thinks I can make it to Round 6 - We'll see about that, Lisa....keep your eyes peeled to this spot for future updates.

I am still working on another quilt - can't show it yet cause it's still in pieces on the worktable. Will get that one done this weekend, I hope and let you all see the flimsy.

Until next time,
Thanks for stopping by.

4 comments:

cinnamongirl93 said...

Love the color of your socks. So warm and fun.
Boy I am so impressed with all of this sock madness. Your fingers must fly like lightening. I learn all kinds of new techniques on You Tube. It's a great resourse.

Julie said...

Look at you go! Those are fab, I love the color.

Dawn said...

Oh. My. Goodness. Just reading your description on how to get your fabulous socks casted on -- well, now I know why I can't knit to save my life.

Yours are fabulous -- so vivid and eclectic, and knitted as fast as lightning. I so, so look up to you!!

Jill Knotwell said...

Oh my goodness, you go girl!