Tag Archives: Again with the socks?

Rose Water Socks

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This sweet little pattern is the optional round for the Sock Madness competition this year. Mine will vary just a smidge from the pattern as it stands now because the charts have changed a little during the test knitting process.

Santa’s coming to town!

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It’s always fun to send out a bag full of prizes to Sock Madness competitors. There’s usually a prize for the first competition sock finished and there’s always a nice grand prize at the end but along the way we like to award prizes for anything that strikes our fancy from a fun photo to a great cheerleader, to helpful postings as for how to master a technique or how to fix a mistake. It’s an easy and fun way to foster a positive atmosphere in the group. Many of the prizes are donated by competitors and they like to help out with mailing costs as well.

Flying Dutchman, Sock Madness round 2

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This is my test knit pair of socks for Sock Madness round 2. At first glance, the pattern looks much harder than it is. With needle and yarn in hands, you just have to go carefully row by row and then the intarsia in the round begins to make sense. Once I got over thinking it was hard, these socks really flew off the needles. The stripes and the pattern make this a hard project to put down. We have more competitors than every which makes for an incredibly busy spring but it’s also a lot of fun!

Log Cabin socks

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The first Log Cabin sock is done. Unfortunately, it’s a bit big, even for Jason, which means I’ll have to take my chances and felt it. I will probably try that *before* I knit sock two, just to be sure I’ll end up with something he can wear.

Don’t Mess With Texas!

Log cabin socks progress

We had a smooth uneventful flight  down to the sizzling South yesterday and already I’ve got a new pair of smashing boots! They aren’t the shorter style I was looking for but they fit beautifully and I love them. Before we left I frogged back most of the log cabin sock leg so I could repair a slew of mis-crossed cables. A four hour flight was perfect for that and these are back on track again.
Boots take two

Rossling

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The morning we released the last and final pattern for Sock Madness 6. Our five finalists will be knitting this lovely pattern which combines twined and regular knitting. I really enjoy test knitting this one and am sure I’ll do more twined knitting in the future.

 

Dolce Pazzia

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Yesterday we kicked off round 6 of Sock Madness with the pattern Dolce Pazzia. Being the test knitter is the only way I could possible beat these ladies through the gate! Sweet Madness indeed.

Log Cabin Socks for Jason

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These socks are from some Romney blend wool at picked up at CT S&W from Great Brook Farm in their $5 end of run bin. They are greener than in the photo but I hear the sun is returning soon so hopefully my next pic will be more true to the lovely color.

Roosimine

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At last I can show you some of what I have been knitting. This is Roosimine, the round 5 pattern for Sock Madness. I wasn’t the primary test knitter but I did get called in for backup when Tricia thought it was really easy and wanted to see if I thought the same. I knit loosely and I think that gives me an advantage in these sorts of patterns so that I blew through the cuff very quickly and it goes over my heel with the greatest of ease.  I have a high instep though so when I got to the arch shaping the sock wouldn’t go onto my foot and I put it away in time out for awhile. Lo and behold, when I got it out for a photo session this morning it does go on my foot but it’s wicked tight over the instep. Now I must decide whether to frog and reknit the foot with shaping on alternate rows rather than every row or just let it be and hope it loosens up a bit more. It’s a very fun knit and I highly recommend it!

Thanks Sally!

Thank you Sally! Thank you Sally!

This lovely surprise came in the mail this week. I really need to cast on another pair of socks just to have something in it right away!