What part of International Speed Sock Knitting Competition do you not understand?

This is a super ugly photo of some unblocked socks.

I am out of Sock Madness.  I was 2nd to turn in Round 6 socks by about 2 hours.  I worked every day this week, and sometimes went from substituting to tutoring.  On Tuesday, I subbed from 7 - 2, then drove straight to Bellevue College and tutored until 8:00 pm.  And I still managed to knit these socks in 5 days.

I stopped doing updates because I didn't want to spend any time doing anything but knitting.

So I will try to show you what these look like:

The cuffs are double knit.

The legs were so interesting to knit.  We knit the double knit cuffs together to reduce the number of stitches on the needles, then knit the legs.  The front of the legs is color work, but not necessarily in the round.

The back of the legs are ribbed in a single color.  I knit the front, then dropped the contrast color and knit the back.  Then, I knit the next row of the front, slipping all the stitches that were supposed to be in the contrast color.  The main color was then dropped at the end of the front. Then, I turned the socks, and purled all of the stitches that had been slipped in the contrast color.  The next step was (since I was using a single circular needle) to slip all the stitches around on my needle so I was ready to continue with the main color.  I knit another row on the back, and when I got to the beginning of the sock, I had both colors. and was ready to knit another row of colorwork on the front.  This continued for about 5.5 in.  If I had been using double pointed needles, it would have gone a bit faster, but it wasn't too bad.

At the end of the leg, you add stitches so the heels can be double knit.

The heel flap is a double knit Eye of Partridge heel.  I am amazed that I understood how to do it.

The foot was also a combination of double knitting (the sole) and colorwork (the instep).  This is the pattern on the double knit bottoms of the socks.

When I was ready to knit the toe decreases, I had to add more stitches to the instep (top) of the socks so the toes could be double knit.

I stayed up past midnight every night and woke up at about 5 am each morning to try to get in a bit more knitting.  I do wish I had not worked these days, because I would have won.  Pookie told me that making money is good, too, and perhaps a bit more important than knitting socks.  He also told me that a sock knitting competition wasn't as cool as playing croquet.

But, he did do the dishes, and he brought me a smoothie when I got hungry.  He also just sat with me and encouraged me, so I told him that if I won, I would dedicate the final round to him.  Oh well.

Peace.
f1bercat
shaping the planet with some super thick socks.

Finished Round 3

Happy Easter (a day late)

I almost finished my Round 3 socks for Sock Madness yesterday.  After the actual socks are finished,

you have to go back and knit a row of icords in the 7 contrast colors for the button band.  This was very fiddly, and mine are not super even, but, I don't care, they are finished.  Also, there are about 1 gazillion ends to weave in.

There are all the ends for the cuffs, and for the heels, though I wove those in when I finished the heels.  Then, at the bottom of the foot, near the toes, there is another set of rainbow stripes.  These are not done in linen stitch, just stockinette, but there are ends for every color.

Before I knit the icord button bands, I wanted to get the weaving in finished.  THEN, after the band is knit, you have to sew on the buttons.  There are only two button holes, but you put buttons on the inside AND the outside so the cuffs can be worn either up or folded down.

I finished third in the Tenacious Tadpoles bracket.  25 finishers in each bracket will move on to the next round, so I am guaranteed to move on.  I should have 1 - 2 weeks to work on other things while I wait for the next round to start.

Not sure how much I like these.  I love the heels.  The stripes on the feet are nice, too. Not really a fan of the "pipes" (the icord).  I might use these heels, or a variation of them, on a design of my own.  They are really pretty.

Peace,
f1bercat
shaping the planet with rainbow icords.

Stoichiometry

Hello:

I substituted today for a Chemistry teacher at Skeinherder's school.  I am a Math and English teacher.  I can probably make it through Physics, but ... Chemistry?  I really don't remember any of the one semester of Chemistry I had in college.  Yet, I have either tutored, or subbed in Chemistry 3 different times in the last 4 weeks.  It is not easy.

The funny thing is that each time, I was teaching Stoichiometry.  Stoichiometry is the calculation of relative amounts of reactants and products in chemical reactions.  Luckily for me, it's mostly math.  The two important things are to take the reactants and break them down to their elements and to make sure the equation is balanced.

This got me to thinking about the socks I have been knitting for Round 2 in Sock Madness, the Rainbow Pipes and Linen Stitch socks by Aurelie Colas.

I always knit my socks 2 at a time.  Otherwise, they never come out the same size.  I can't explain it, it might be tension, it might be that I can't count rows.  Whatever the reason, I need to knit socks together if I hope to get the same size socks.

This was a bit of a problem with these socks because of all of the colors.  And this was especially true when I was knitting the heel flaps.

Each heel flap used three of the seven contrast colors.

I had all 6 colors of yarn twisting and tangling with the black main color strands.  It was a bit confusing for a while, but I managed to keep it all together and finish the flaps together.

The next part of the heels, the heel turn, used the seventh color.

I just love these heels.  The flaps use the linen stitch.  The different colored bottoms really set them off.  And everything stands out so starkly against the black main color.  You can really see each element of the socks.  (See how I tied that back to the chemistry...)

I've finished the gussets, too.  But, since I just finished them, there won't be photos until tomorrow.  I feel like I am always posting photos the next day.  I need to knit at least 3 inches of the feet tomorrow, and then knit the final design element.  I think I am in pretty good shape to finish everything on Easter Sunday.  I hope so. I checked the finishers spreadsheet for my team, Tenacious Tadpoles, and no one has finished yet.  I should be in the top 5 again. 

Peace,
f1bercat
shaping the planet with balanced socks.

Got the taxes out, well...

We had clear skies pretty much all week, but not last night for the Lunar Eclipse!  I took these photos on the 13th, the day before the eclipse.

You can just see the sunset reflecting on the Cascades at the bottom of the photo.

Ok, my godkids are gone, and the house seems so quiet without them.  We had an absolutely wonderful visit.  I hope they come back to visit again, soon.

Between getting the taxes finished and mailed out (ok, we had to file an extension, but not because I didn't finish... It's complicated), and starting back to tutoring at BC, I knit on and off today on my Sock Madness Round 2 socks.

I am too tired now to have a good discussion about the pattern, but at least you can see what I have accomplished so far:

This is what the rainbow linen stitch looks like.  And here are the two socks together:

I thought I would finish the cuffs and make it to the legs be the end of the night, but I still have about 1/2 inch to go.  I am finished with the colors, though, and am now just knitting black linen stitch.  It should go faster tomorrow morning, if I don't get called in to a substitute job.

Stay healthy, teachers on the Eastside!  I need to knit socks tomorrow.

Peace,
f1bercat
shaping the planet with a rainbow.

Better Photos

Hello:

We have already broken the record for rain in March, and the month is not over.

I wanted to post some better photos of the Round 1 Sock Madness socks, Diamond Shreddies.

I just love the cable detail.

It is knit at both sides of the sock, and again at the top of the instep.

The heels are an Eye of Partridge pattern,

but the designer, Carrie Van Kessel, carried the ribbing from the cables down into the sides of the heel flaps.  It makes them that more interesting.

I am really happy with them.

Peace,
f1bercat
shaping the planet in yellow silk/merino cabled socks.

Finished Round 2

Hello:

It rained all day today.  I worked as a Teachers' Aide at a wonderful private school in Medina.  For the first hour and a half, I sharpened pencils.  I kid you not.  Actually, it was a peaceful way to spend the morning.  Then, I had to take 4 periods of recess duty.  They have a nice large area with a garden (not planted, yet) and fruit trees that are just beginning to blossom out.  Even though it was raining, the students still went out for recess.  They don't have a covered area, like my kids' elementary school.  Instead, they have bins of umbrellas, or bumbershoots as we call them.  Some kids, and all three supervising teachers, held these large umbrellas as we walked around.  But about 1/3 of the kids just played in the rain.  It wasn't cold.  They had so much fun.

I sometimes knit when I supervise recess.  But, because of the rain, I didn't get any knitting done.  I had to work on the Round 1 socks, Diamond Shreddies, when I got home.  I finished the foot pattern, it's a repeat of the pretty cable pattern, last night, so this afternoon/evening, I knit about 1/2 inch more on the foot, and then knit and kitchenered the toes.

This photo is horrible  because it is with my camera's flash:

But, at least you can sort of see the cables. We have to email Sock Madness when we are finished with a link to our project page.  The project page must have a photo of the socks in progress, and a finished photo with a tape measure.

I'll try to take a better photo tomorrow, so you can see how pretty these are.  I love how the yarn, Redfish Dyeworks Silk Sock, feels.  And it shows the cables beautifully.

Peace,
f1bercat
shaping the planet with a classroom full of sharp pencils, and some yellow socks.

2014 Sock Madness, Round 1

Hello:

I finished my Brucie socks in time to be placed on a team for 2014 Sock Madness.  My Team is:  Tenacious Tadpoles.    I was a minnow last year, which I think was the slow team.  I'm pretty sure the Tadpoles aren't much faster... but perhaps not the slowest?  Thank goodness, though, because it's much harder to finish socks quickly when you have a job, even a part time job.

That being said, I'm now on the first round of real competition.  Sock Madness calls the pre-lim round or the "placement" round:  Round 1.  I call the first round when you are actually on a team: Round 1.  Hope that doesn't confuse anyone, but, that makes more sense to me.

The round 1 pattern is a beautiful cable pattern, Diamond Shreddies by Carrie Van Kessel. 

I'm using yarn I bought at the Madrona Fiber Festival last year, Redfish Dyeworks Silk Sock.  I was looking for some yellow sock yarn (ha ha ha I have plenty, now) and was bemoaning the fact that although there were some beautiful yellow FINGERING weight yarns at the festival, there were none that had nylon in the mix.  The person from Redfish Dyeworks talked me into trying their silk sock, saying that the silk content took the place of the nylon in adding durability.  Well, we shall see how durable these socks are, but I can say that the fabric feels amazing.  It is so... silky!  I catch myself just stroking the stockinette sections.

The pattern has these beautiful cabled sections that will be on each side of the sock.  In the beginning, you knit the cables (if you are using magic loop or 2 circular needles) on the "front and back," then when the legs are finished, you move the stitches so the REAL front and back are in the right places to knit the heels.

The only thing I don't like about the pattern is that she has it set up so the break between the "front and back" sections originally falls between two purls.  This always causes laddering for me.  I can sort of have a knit and a purl where the sides split and not get too bad of a ladder, but two purls just doesn't work for me.  Finally, when I got to the cables, I twisted the pattern just a bit so my front and back split in the stockinette section.  It made a a big difference.  I just hope the ribbing (where there is a bit of a ladder) will even out with washing and wear.

The heels are a modified Eye of Partridge pattern.  I do love this heel.  It is so pretty.  The designer has modified the traditional Eye of Partridge heel flap by keeping the ribbing on the sides of the flap.  It is just beautiful  and really shows up well in this yarn.

I hope to finish the turn today, and the gussets (that will be a bit of a reach...).  Skeinherder is coaching me again this year.  Honestly, I couldn't compete without her help.  She texts me occasionally during the day to check my progress and cheer me on.  She checks the group threads for me.  I am way too chicken to see how many people have turned in socks.  I know it will just waste time and make me more nervous about whether or not I will make it to the next round.  Skeinherder is my thread mole.  She reports back how many socks are in so far, and always tells me not to worry!  She also reminds me to stretch, get up occasionally, and stay healthy.  Coaches are so important to success.

Anyway, back to the heel turns.  I'll report back in tomorrow, though I will be working all day so I'm not sure how good any photos will be.  We shall see how good the light is in the late afternoon.

Peace,
f1bercat
shaping the planet in Round 2