It's Socktober, everyone! So get out those DPNs or 2 circs (or magic loop) and the STR and get to sockin'!
I am so participating in Socktober this year. In fact, I joined a KAL/contest sort of thing that the lovely ladies from Stash and Burn are running. Nicole and Jenny are running a contest on Ravelry to help their loyal listeners destash all that sock yarn they have lying around. Entries are open until October 9th over on the Stash and Burn Ravelry Group. To participate, you have to total up your sock yarn stash in yards, then pledge how many yards you want to get rid of (by knitting it, of course) by the end of the month. Drawings are going to be held for prizes, too!
This is the perfect "competition"/KAL for me right now. I am in LOVE with sock yarn, but my sock knitting has not even come close to keeping up with the influx of sock yarn. In fact, I have only knit 3.5 pairs of socks in the past year since I started knitting. Despite that knowledge, I keep buying sock yarn. The colors are so pretty! And you only need one skein! It takes up so little room! And where else can $10-$20 provide you hours and hours of entertainment? Nowhere, my friend, that's where.
So I am in for Socktober. I have 20,657 yards of sock yarn. That's 11.74 miles (or18.89 kilometers for you metric nuts). That may sound shocking, but it is nowhere NEAR the top numbers in the group. One woman has over 70,000 yards. That makes me feel better. And a little jealous. I tried to be ambitious but realistic in setting my goal, and, as I have nothing else to do this month except for one lone job interview, I settled on 1,200 yards, which I figure is just over 3 pairs of socks (assuming an average of 440 yards/skein, although some I'm using are 380 and some are 460--it all balances out in the end). Ideally, I'd like to get through 4 skeins, but I'm not going to make myself crazy doing it.
I'm actually using patterns for my socks beyond Silver's fantastic Sock Classes for once. The plan is to knit Monkey by Cookie A., Hedera by Cookie A., Spiraling Master Coriolis by Cat Bordhi, and, hopefully, at least one Santa Cruz hat by Sarah Hope-Parmeter for the 7Long Project. That'll get done, but the hopefully is for "hopefully that'll get done as part of Socktober," not "hopefully I'll get to that at some point." Just to clarify.
So far so good. I started the Monkey socks on Friday and finished them yesterday. That makes it 4 days for one pair. Now, those went abnormally quickly. It usually takes me much longer to knit a pair of socks and I'm sure the rest won't go as quickly. Here they are:
Monkey by Cookie A. in Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks that Rock Mediumweight in the "Knitty Rocks" colorway
I like them. I like how the lace pattern made the "stripes" all wavy, I like how the colors run together, and I like how they fit. So, all around a pretty good success for my first non-stockinette pair of socks! I knit them on 2 circs, which I have decided I much prefer to DPNs. No ladders! And only 2 needles! Anyhoo, I love this pattern. It went really fast and the lace pattern was really intuitive and easy to memorize. Two thumbs up.
Next on the needles is Hedera. Here's what I have so far:
Hedera by Cookie A. in Mama Llama Original Sock in the "Twisted Yarns" colorway
The yarn is not nearly as orange as it appears in the photo. It's more of a dark beige-y tan color, like tea with a little bit of milk in it. This one is going a little slower. I'm having a bit of trouble memorizing the lace pattern for some reason (not because it's hard. I'm just slow today), so I'm having to sit there are read along and it's slowing me down. But it is SO pretty! I'm loving the look of it, and this yarn is great, if a bit thinner than the STR. Progress is good, though, and I am happy.
There's one hitch in all this. I just got some money and Lorna's Laces just added new colors. That's right. Despite the knitting frenzy to destash sock yarn, I have actually already bought more. HOWEVER, so far I have only bought 3 skeins. I'm hoping to pass my goal and actually get rid of 4 skeins this month. So, if all goes as planned, that actually puts me at -1 new skeins.
I love creative math.
Next time: Socktober, Part 2!
