Sock Madness

Well, SM2 starts in a little less than a week. I'm getting excited, but also a little nervous. I have to work the day before and night of the first pattern release (Thursday 3/13). I just hope I can make it up Friday-Sunday when I don't have to work. I guess they've decided to do it a little differently this time around in that the first x number of people to complete in your division move on to the next round instead of pairing knitters up. I have a feeling this is a lot easier for the organizers of the group-- especially with 200+ knitters!

There's been lots of talk about what the patterns may be though. An organizer has already said they will mostly be toe-up (eep!) and there is one with a Japanese Short Row Heel. I have to say at this point my only goal is to make it past Round #1... though that may not even happen! Mostly I'm in it for the camaraderie, new techniques, and new patterns. I've been told it's still fun from the sidelines... which is good because that's where I'm going to be spending a lot of time.

I'm going to have to go through my sock yarn stash Monday and Tuesday and figure out what yarns I'll be using. There's a lot to go through as you can see from the last post (ca. 12 miles of just sock yarn), but I'm looking forward to it. Swatching and winding are in order. These are the requirements-- with yarn used for test knitting as a suggestion:

Yarn
Needles
Gauge

A
About 360 yards of fingering weight yarn - Louet Gems Merino/Claudia’s Handpaint
US Size 1
8.5 st /inch

B
1 Skein fingering weight – Colinette Jitterbug/Opal Handpaint
US Size 1
32 st /4 inches

C
350 yds fingering weight - ? /Socks That Rock Lightweight
US Size 1
8.5 st /inch

D
400 yards of 2 shades of laceweight – Knit Picks Shadow Heathered /Tess Designer Superwash Laceweight
US Size 2
35 st /4 inches and 40 st /4 inches (2 slipped stitch patterns are used)

E
340 yards fingering weight - ? / Socks That Rock
US Size 1.5 (2.5 mm)
8.5 st /in

F
2 skeins fingering weight yarn – Knit Picks Felici/ Dancing Leaf Farm Sock Hop
US Size 1 (2.25 mm)
8 st /inch

G
Odd balls of fingering weight yarn (leftovers) and 225 meters of solid fingering weight
Us Size 1 (2.5 mm)
9 st /inch

* Optional Round
400 yards fingering weight – Cherry Tree Hill Supersock
US size 2
?

There are some exciting teasers on the SM2 website (here, here, here, here, here, and here) so it's getting me pretty excited to try to guess what the socks are going to look like.

OK, that's all for now. I will probably post a picture of the yarns I've chosen for the competition, but may not post much else until the first pair is finished :o).

Happy Knitting Everyone!

P.S. Anyone who reads this in SM2? I'm in the UConn Cast Ons.