Sock Madness 2020

Sock Madness came at just the right moment this year. I suspect for many people this was true. Most of us around the world were in various forms of lockdown, and in various forms of shock, as COVID-19 became a pandemic and restructured everyone's lives. Sock Madness gave me a structure and a goal and resulted in a terrific set of socks. 

I know the moderators plan the socks well ahead and couldn't have known what was ahead, but they do seem to be a particularly good set of socks with challenges and beautiful outcomes.

The socks are (from right to left):

    Qualifying Round : Wohin?

    Round 2: Echoes from a Transylvanian Forest

    Round 3: Lacy not Lazy Madness Socks

    Round 4: Adament Hears

    Round 1: Diamond Duality

    Round 5: Mobius Madness (this was my dropping out point but I decided to continue, especially, as it turned out, because round seven was written by Adrienne Fong who passed away. Such a lovely tribute.)

    Round 6: Lampropeltis

    Round 7: Suky

For me it was a bit more of a challenge than usual. Early on I made a mistake, picked up by the moderators and had to reknit a toe. Then later I completely misread the instructions and unfortunately the fix was too difficult and as I was in Round 6 I knew there was little time left, so I quit. A bit unhappily, but I'd never got two so wrong before, so a lesson learnt.

Can't wait for next year.

 

Finally the Qualifying Round has started!

Day 1.

Ah, Sock Madness. As usual an excruciating wait, and, finally it arrives in my Inbox at 3.20am! Oh well, people will have some part of a Sunday to get started. I'll have to fit it in around my Monday. I have two weeks to knit my sock.

I have my handspun yarn, it's the Gotland with a bit of green in it. Unfortunately, I'm worried I don't have enough. The yarn is slightly thicker than I would like. I'm going to knit the two socks at the same time. This is to see if it is quicker this way, and, it will help if I am running out of yarn. I'll start out knitting the small size on the suggested needles. I did a quick swatch and I get 8sts per inch, not 9. It was a bit tight, would love to use 2.5cm needles, instead of the 2.25mm. Depending on how the sizing goes maybe I will. The big question will be the length if I go to the larger needles.

The pattern is a Smock stitch. Simple really. It's mostly a rib with a twist every so often. A good starter pattern.

Panic stations, thought I'd lost a needle.....under the sofa cushion where I was swatching.

Now I start, just the cuffs.

Ok, the cuffs are done. The yarn has turned out to be finer than at the start. That's good, but it's still giving me extra length, I think. These could turn out to be very long socks! The two socks are turning out to be different.

Now for the legs.

 Day 2

A lovely day at SNB at Four Leaves. Managed to keep knitting my socks despite the distraction of conversation!

I am in trouble. I've just started the heels and I'm going to run out of yarn. I really don't understand how. I should have measured the length not just gone on weight. The only thing I can think of is that having the navaho plied yarn is denser therefore heavier for the same yardage. I

I do have the same top, but I haven't finished spinning it. Just as well it's the qualifier round. I may not be able to have all the socks handspun and I'm going to have to spin even finer than I have been for the other fibres. At least I've started spinning it.

The socks will be a tight fit, so maybe they might have to be gifted.

Day 3 to 8

Heels. Ok, I'm really running out of yarn. I'll have to finish spinning the other batt of Gotland. They're going to be a bit of a mixed batch as the second batt is blue. Partway down the first foot I've changed to the new yarn. I haven't had a chance to wash the finished yarn, it's a bit over twisted, but it will be ok when I've steamed the socks. I've finished one sock, just a toe to go!

Days 9 and 10

Ok, finished. The socks are a nice fit. The colour difference is noticeable. Now to get my Ravelry project listing up to date and send off my Sock Madness email. 

The Madness has begun!

Signup was announced at the beginning of February for Sock Madness 13. I love this knockout competition where you have to knit socks in two weeks. this will be my fourth year! I signed up immediately and then panicked as I was supposed to have spun all my sock yarn by now.

Yes, I've decided to handspin the yarn for Sock Madness. I'm trying out all those breeds that are said to be good for socks. I have some Gotland, Jacob, Southdown and Shropshire tops. It's a limited pallette, but I thought it might be fun to see if you can get away from having to use nylon in the yarn to strengthen the socks.

I have managed to spin 3, spun 1 without plying yet, and have another half finished on the wheel. That should be enough to keep me ahead of the pack. I'll keep spinning while I'm waiting....

Oh, no the Warm-up sock has arrived and it uses all those little bits that you have left over. It's too tempting.....

Here they are:

And, here is the bag of leftovers that I still have. How does yarn keep filling up the spaces it's stored in, no matter how much you take out? Should I do another pair?!

Waiting....

Five on Friday - new year, new start, new idea!

Ok, so I haven't blogged much, but after a relaxing Summer holiday I feel that perhaps I need to take a new approach. It is fun and I like the discipline of having to do something so I can blog about it!

Taking a leaf from Leanne and her photography blog, where she has themes for her various, varied and numerous posts, I thought I'd start a 'Five on Friday'.....five pictures of the work I've done through the week. Hopefully, they'll form the basis of more extensive blog posts, but lets start with this.

Here they are:

1. Coming back from the beach, where I've been taking pictures of shells. More food for my A-Z of shells design project, which is a bit slow at the moment because I need to do some spinning and/or some dyeing.

2. Having finally started, after years and years (yes, really!) of spinning a multi-coloured fleece that was a gift from a good friend, to design and knit this fairisle jumper. The pattern is loosely based on banksias and is coming up quite nicely.

3. Knitting more socks. Now I'm trying to time how long it takes me as I want to try out for the Sock Madness Forever Groups', Sock madness 9 on Ravelry. It opens up on the 1st February for Registration.

4. I like to have a few bobbins of fine spun singles to ply with so I've been topping up my natural and purple. I want to do alot of spinning this year, a definite stash busting year!

 5. And today, I went to see Jean Paul Gaultier at the NGV International. It's finishing soon and it full of amazing stuff, though I did think I saw something labelled as knitting when it was crochet!

So, don't forget to see Jean Paul Gaultier, it finishes on February 8th....that is, if you're in Melbourne!