First Round Done!

Well, I finished the first round of the "Sock Madness" game! I can make a pair of socks pretty fast but these were the fastest. lol...The first round was a time trial and the frist 16 people out of each of the four brackets moves on to the next round. I do not know if any of the other rounds are timed as well. I cannot share the pattern of the socks with you because the designers have asked that the patterns be used by only those in the competition but I can give you the specs:

"
Mad Cow Socks" by Jennifer Young

Yarn: Wildfoote Sock Yarn in Blue Boy colorway, the variegated is Wildfoote as well that was originally a very light pink that I dyed with Wilton's food coloring. The pictures do not show all the colors really well, there is orange, transitioning yellow, red, hot pink, dashes of purple and cobalt blue.

Needles: 5 Susanne's 2.5 mm DPNs, 5"

There was a little bit of confusion on Saturday morning about the pattern but the ladies who set this up as well as the other competitors were extremely helpful. I have to say this...KNITTERS ARE NICE PEOPLE...this is why I say this....

I have only been knitting since July 2006 (yeah I know but I have been playing yarn since I was 7...crochet) so some migh consider me a beginner....though I will toot my own horn here and say that I picked it faster then I would have thought and have been knitting some advanced things...I made a bunch of socks for the holidays and many more since then...but there is alot yet to learn out there...this first pattern for the game was a challenge for me because it had "short row heels", which I had not done...the instructions were confusing to me (no pictures)...but the other knitters stopped their own knitting to help others out...they didn't have to...stopping to write out detailed tips, instructions or just give encouragement slowed down their own knitting and competiting but they did it anyway... KNITTERS ARE NICE PEOPLE...I thank them for their help and appreciate that they shared their time and experience. :-D

This has been a nice experience for me, shared knitting with some nice people; ended up with a funky fun pair of socks; learned some new techinques which enlarged my available knitting skills; and got a pattern that I know I will knit again. Woohoo...I scored! At least I think so anyway...lol...

Its really cool how everyone made the same pattern but all the socks look different because of the color combos that were choosen and how the variegated yarns used changed the pattern depending on whether it was a self-patterning yarn or not...You can see pictures of how the socks turned out the game's flickr group page: "Sock Madness 2007".

I AM SO WEARING MY SOCKS TODAY!

(Sorry that pictures are posted sort of wonking...blogger is just frustrating me with the positioning of the pics and I am leaving them as is because I can't get them to line up)