The Round 3 Story

Well Round 4 of Sock Madness starts on Saturday morning so I thought I better post about Round 3. LOL....there is a bit of a story to tell.

The Round 3 pattern came out at about 7:30 am (Eastern) on Wednesday the 4th...but I was sleeping since it was 3:30 in the west lol. I was up at about 9 am my time and cast-on almost immediately. Now, I cannot share the pattern here because its copyrighted....but I can explain it some...to begin with the pattern calls for these nice points on the edge of a fold over cuff...well I interpreted the pattern in such a way that I thought that I had to knit 11 pts per sock (22 total) and the join them together...well the pattern also said to kitchner it or sew it together but I couldn't see how to do this with each individual point. So I just made all 22 pts, cutting the each...so that meant each point had two tails...I then connected the points by picking up stitches with my dpns and then just knitted the cuff as per the rest of the pattern. But it wasn't working and I had a LOT of ends...which was very scary...here you can see for yourself:

I thought it would be faster if I knitted on both socks at the same time...so I kept knitting but it didn't work. The points were twisting and sticking out at odd angles. After knitting for about 3 to 4 inches on each cuff I knew it wasn't going to work...SOOOOO...sigh...I frogged it and cast-on a new...

This time with the help of the other participants I realized my mistake...I wasn't supposed to make individual points, it was supposed to be done in a strip and then the ends of the strips were grafted together. DUGH!, it was so easy, AND fast...making all those little points took a really long time, but it just wasn't correct...so even though I thought it might put me out I started over...I have to say that all of participants were really supportive. The designer (Tricia Weatherston) was as well, she posted to the flickr group and encouraged us. So after the frogging I had this (at about 7:10 pm):

I kept knitting until about 1:30 am (Thursday morning) when I couldn't do any more, was too tired. This is what I had at about that time:

The next day I had classes starting at 4 and had homework to finish. I went to school at about 3, threw together a couple of Math proofs for my 4 pm class...I am shocked I got them all right lol..., then I had another class at 5:30 and one more at 7:00 until 9:30 pm. As soon as I got home I picked up the knitting (I had managed to knit a bit in the morning before going to the University)...I stayed up until about 1:30 am (again)...the problem with this was that I had to get up at 4:30 to take Honey to the airport for a trip to Seattle...so I stayed up, put my IPod on and listend to one of the Harry Potter Audiobooks (Yes yes I am an HP fan...big time so there! :P~~~ ). I got back from the airport at about 6 am...I checked the SM page and found out that I made it! Wow! I couldn't believe it, I was in shock because I was sure that I would have been knocked out. Here are the completed socks:

I used Schaefer Anne sock yarn in one of their great colorways on U.S. 1.5 dpns (2.5mm). Really lovely, the yarn is nice and soft and the colors are bright and cheerful. The picture doesn't show it up well but there are blues and greens and a variety of yellows. The pattern was nice...you made the cuff first, then turned it inside out and did a ribbing, simple heel flap and easy peasy after that. The cuff was a little fiddly but I liked it alot and it has turned the creative wheels. Now that I get how to do the edging it lends itself to some different edgings, once I am out of the competition I am going to play around with it. The designer and one of the other players put beads into the points which was nice. I am thinking of lace edging or something funky. Can't wait to play with it.

Now the conclusion of this story was surprising. Yesterday our lovely game hosts announced some early prizes. Well I won a prize. I was choosen by the designer to win a prize that is coming from her, "for her incredible perseverance in getting through the garter stitch points". WOWIE ZOWIE, how cool. Seriously, I never win anything lol...and what a lovely reason to win something for! lol....I really think its amazing especially since I have not even been knitting a year yet. LOL...way cool...When I get my lovely gift I will be sure to post a picture so that I can share with everyone.

On to Round 4. We are told that we need 5 US 1 dpns and that the test socks were knitted with Claudia handpainted sock yarn and that the designer used Cherry Tree Hill...well I am ready. I just so happen to have some of both of those yarns! I am ready to go. This is so much fun. The most fun are the people. The other knitters are just great!