I AM SO EXCITED. Can you tell by my caps lock?
Actually, I'm nervous but excited (and no, there is no music or choreography joining in). The goal of the sock down is to push knitters to try new techniques and new designers. Well, that is not hard for me. Actually, every sock I make is a new designer (if it is not designed by the author of Toe-Up 2-at-a-Time Socks
). And I know that technique only...We can't cast on until September 1. I am really hoping that doesn't mean we can't "swatch." I am busy swatching all the sock yarn in my stash. All 5 different yarns. Swatching takes me forever, as does all knitting, and I don't want to have the wrong gauge 3 times delaying the CO (cast on) of a challenge. I am mostly using my size 0 needles, as that seems to work for when they ask for size 2 or 1.
The challenge for September has 3 different designers, all members of Ravelry, all with free patterns on the site, or knit a sock all one color: Chartreuse, or do the knit-a-long mystery sock designed by Lise Brackbill (menagerie on Ravelry)
1. 3 designers
They are: Caoua Coffee, Cailyn Meyer or Janneke Maat. Wow. I checked them out and the designs are beautiful. But O! for someone who has made very simple socks so far, so complicated. And, all the designs I found are top-down. That super scares me. I chose a design from each of them and emailed it to myself so I could print them all out (I usually write this on my laptop which is not attached to a printer, whereas my desktop computer is).
I can't decide which design I will try. Gorgeous gorgeous gorgeous. It would help if I could decide for whom the socks will be made... Samantha wants a pair of "knee socks." I could do that without a pattern, just doing some type of ribbing like the socks I made for Zachy. But, O! if I could make her one of these. Also, my niece, Hannah, has a birthday in September. She likes pink. I was going to make the "Ballet" pattern from Toe-Up 2-at-a-Time Socks
. But as it gets closer to Sept 1 and I have not finished Allie's Rain Socks 3rd try (more on these), I am afraid to start another sock project.2. Chartreuse Sock
I have been reading the thread for September in the group, and there is a lot of angst about what actually is Chartreuse. Most of that angst is coming from me! I have very little yarn in my "stash." Mostly because I haven't been knitting for long, but also because I am really trying to stay sane about buying yarn. I am trying to buy for specific projects, then KNIT THEM!
I checked Pacific Fabrics, Jo-Ann's, and Michael's since we don't have any real yarn shops any more in our city (and we are the 4th largest city in WA). I saw some chartreuse, but nothing in a sock yarn. I spent 2 days searching on-line for chartreuse sock yarn, and everything I found was out of stock. People in the group were posting photos of their yarn in the thread (lol that sounds funny, very fiber oriented). I would then look up that particular yarn. Always sold out, out of stock, etc. I don't have to use chartreuse. I can use any yarn I want for the 3 featured designers or the mystery knit-a-long. But, it has become a weird obsession. I must have chartreuse yarn.
Finally, I found some yarn on Ebay. I have no idea if it is actually chartreuse. It is named "light green." It is always so hard to tell true color from photos on a computer. I bought 4 skeins of it : 4 x 100gr Skeins KUKA WOOL DELUXE FINE Yarn Light Green. Who am I kidding? if it is not chartreuse I will be disappointed. But the dye is cast, so to speak.
People in the group were freaking out about what is really chartreuse. If you don't use the right color, your socks don't count for the prizes. As my friend Zeke (in my online game Aion) would say, "FOR GLORY! and medals." or in this case Prizes.
3. Mystery Sock
I plan to use my "chartreuse" yarn to knit the mystery sock. It is a "mock." WHAT IS THAT? I have no idea. A mock sock? a mock heel? maybe the latter. If it is mystery, how do you know it will fit? again no idea. I knitted the mystery shawlette this summer from WendyKnits. It was really fun. I am definitely going to do this part of the challenge.
4. Goals
We have 2 months to finish each month's challenge. Though a new challenge will start in October, I could work on September's challenge until Oct. 31 and still have finished on time. What is my goal? Well, my stated goal is to finish 1 sock for each challenge. That is a sock a month. The goal of my heart is to finish 2 socks for each challenge. The goal I will accept is to finish a sock every 2 months, learn many new techniques, and have fun.
5. Allie's Rain Socks 3rd try.
Disaster struck last night 3 different ways: a. I somehow dropped an entire row. I don't know how I did it, but I managed to pick up every dropped stitch. This was really hard as they are very tiny, the ribbing makes it very hard to pick up the purls, the light in the TV room where I usually knit was low as my husband was watching TV, my eyesight is not the best after 5 hours of knitting. b. I messed up the k1p1 ribbing. How could I mess up such an easy pattern? Well as I increase for the gusset, this pattern calls for working back into the ribbing, which means every row I have to alternate knit or purl. I am incapable of remembering which to use. Again, the light was dim, and I had some trouble telling whether I was supposed to start with a knit or a purl. I tried to knit back, but this yarn is a bit splitty if I have to go back. So finally, I just gave up and went on. I hope it doesn't feel too weird. c. I got off (somehow picked up an extra stitch) in the heel of the first sock, so that pattern, too, might look a bit weird for one row. I am just muscling onward.
C. A. Losi
I am in the same group and would love to have a chartreuse too! Best wishes - we'll do just fine!
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