Monday, March 26, 2007

Sock Madness Round 2 - A FO Report - Madtini Socks

Well, I made it through round 2. Not only did I get through round 2 but by some crazy fluke I was the first knitter done. I know, the first one! I never thought of myself as a particularly speedy knitter, but maybe I've got some skills.

I sat down to knit after my family had gone to bed and I just knit and knit and knit. I watched TV shows I'd never seen before online. The dog and cat wandered in My little helpersto keep me company and eventually fell asleep around me. It was peaceful. It was so quiet, and my house is never quiet. I revel in the sound of my children. I love to hear them playing, laughing, and imagining. If they play quietly it is an ominous silence. A silence all mothers recognise as the heralding of certain doom. But this was a different sort of silence. The silence of breathing, and dreams, and a days work done. A beautiful silence. I'd forgotten how lovely it can be to sit all by oneself in the silence and just breath. I wasn't tired, I was happy, and I didn't want to break the spell. So I just kept knitting, wrapped in solitude and contentment...all night. I was surprised when dawn came and The Greatest got up for work. The night had passed and I had finished one sock with only the toe to go on the second sock. The toe quickly knit and I was finished in time to make breakfast for the children. It's a shame my first incarnation of the pattern wasn't right.

All wrong



They look pretty good one might think. Not to shabby for being knit in one night. But I made an error in the pattern. A sock disqualifying error. I made a stupid Disqualifying cufferror in the first line of the pattern. I can't even blame it on up-all-night-I-read-the-pattern-wrong-at-3 a.m. knitting. This was a mistake in the third stitch I knit for the socks. A mistake I repeated over and over and over again. Without giving too much of the pattern away the stitch pattern for the cuff is *Yo, k2, pass yo over k2* a simple 2 stitch repeat. But I read it as *yo, k2, pass yo over, k2* That doesn't look any different, but it is. I mentally added a comma. That comma makes it a four stitch repeat. That comma makes it wrong. So my socks were rejected.

But I wasn't ready to concede defeat yet. I took a little trick I learned while knitting Starsky courtesy of Knittypant's tutorial. I cut the offending cuff off. Bear in mind that at this point I had been up all night knitting. My hands hurt. The yo pattern was not forgiving to the hands. My hands ached. My eyes twitched with fatigue. I was going down for the count and I wanted a shower. I was a soup sandwich. But I had come this far I was not giving up yet. I took tiny scissors to my knitting and thought "Oh my, there may be no coming back from this." The yarn over pattern was such a pain to take out stitch by stitch from the wrong direction, I was ready to give up. I'm not competitive by nature and this was really becoming ridiculous. No longer the peaceful knitting experience that kept me up all night, this was work, and a lot of it. But I had come this far. I decided to see it through to the end. I managed to pick up my stitches and knit the correct cuff from the bottom up.

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I submitted my new sock for judging and the final verdict was good! Despite the fact that I knit the cuff from the wrong direction they took pity on me and accepted my sock. And I was still the first one done. Round 3 here I come!

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm still amazed at how fast you got them done, AND redid the cuffs! I doubt that it'll happen (I'm kind of surprised I've made through two rounds already), but I hope I get the honor of losing to you in the final round!

Anonymous said...

I was floored when I was at work on Friday and saw yours come through finished already. Now I know, it requires an all-nighter. I haven't had to employ the all-nighter yet, but may need to pull it out for future rounds.

Anonymous said...

I'm in awe. My experience knitting this sock was almost identical to yours up to the point where you stayed up ALL night. I had the same beautiful, Zen kind of knitting zone. It was great! I think I went to bed around 5 am. I should have just stayed up. I think going to bed actually made it HARDER to get back in "the mode" the next day. I think it's cool that you were the girl who thought she wasn't even going to make it through the (easy) first round with the (relatively)easy first sock. Then in the second round where the competition was tighter, the sock was harder and we started on a WEEK DAY EVENING, you kick butt and take names. Even after a REDO, you still kicked butt. One of the things that took me so much longer was figuring out that spiral and then reknitting where I had done it wrong. One of my "in process" pictures shows the spiral done wrong. sigh.

RE: your comments on my blog. Yes, I think you belong in the genius club with me. haha You just picked a different part of the pattern to have a "genius moment" on. That pattern is not going to ever be one of my faves but I ended up with a very pretty, good fitting pair of socks so I guess it was worth all the hand pain those PSSOs caused.

DEFINITELY run, do not walk to your LYS and get some Claudia's (or order some from Loopy Ewe, they have a decent variety). It is the bee's knees. I also recommend the colors of Jitterbug. They are FAB! I'll let you know how it knits.

Anonymous said...

You are such an amazingly speedy knitter! Great job with your socks, too. I would never guess you fixed them.

Zonda said...

Awesome!! Great save there! Whew, hope you get some rest before Round 3!!

Rani said...

Just started knitting socks and I'm amazed at your work. Also feeling good about myself . . . not the only mother staying up late watching COPS or reruns of Madlock trying to get some quality knitting in! Enjoyed your blog!

shiguy4076 said...

Oh my a all nighter you are dedicated or competitive :) I think the socks are beautiful. Good luck on the next rounds!!!!!
Shi

darlene mcleod said...

They are lovely! And I second that mid-night zen knitting feeling; it's rewarding, isn't it?

Good luck on Round 3!

Anonymous said...

Oh my goodness, you are just amazing. All night knitting socks, and projects during the day. Just amazing.

As I struggle to master PURLING ( I think I have knit down), and I can't even figure out binding off yet. You have made at least eleventy million projects, that I totally envy!!!!
I know I'll get there, but it is very rewarding to see you make progress.

As for round three and all that follow...I pronounce you the winner. Of course I thought that, when you said you were going to enter in the first place. I can't imagine having your skill set as my very own.

Good luck, stay happy and be Zen!!!