Sock Madness Round 1...Done!

So the third year of Sock Madness started last Thursday. The pattern was released sometime around 4 am. And guess what? I was not anxiously hitting the refresh button on my computer waiting for it to arrive (like in previous years), no I stuck to my promise and was still sleeping peacefully at the time.
Alright, so I did get up around 5:30, which is still pretty darn early, but honestly I couldn't sleep anymore!
So here are the first socks of the competition completed:

They are called Tropical Mer-tini's and the pattern is based on the Drunkard's Path quilt block.
If you are interested, you can see other people's socks here.

It was a pretty fun pattern and went very fast. The one tricky thing is this sock had an after thought heel. Something I have never done before, and will probably never do again unless it is for the competition or a test knit.

It's not that it was difficult, but it was a lot of picking up stitches and a lot of grafting. UGH!

Time: I started these on Thursday and finished them on Saturday night. Again, keeping to my promise that I would not go completely nuts-o and be a crazy ninja knitter. I will save that for later rounds. =)
Needles: size 0 addis magic loop method
Yarn: knit picks essential kettle dyed in gold.
YARN PROS: I gotta say, I really like this yarn. It is nice to knit with, the colors are beautiful, and you can't beat the price. I bought a ton of it a while back and I am glad I did.
YARN CONS: The only complaint I have is that for some of the colors (especially the darker ones) there is a very distinct color difference between the skeins. Some being extremely obvious to the point of looking like two different colors entirely.

So there you have it. Seeing that this is round one and the first 40 people from each division go through to the next, I am thinking it will be a while before the second round starts. At least, I hope so. I have a few things I would like to work on/finish by the end of the month.

P.S. I am twenty weeks pregnant now and we are hoping to find out the sex of the baby on Wednesday! We are like kids waiting for Christmas around here!

P.P.S. I hate the fact that there is construction work literally being done in front of my house. Not only do they start around 7 am, but they are loud and rude. Maybe I am weird, but I don't like hearing men yelling and cursing all day long while they dig up the road and honk their horns over and over and over again. Not only that, but being told that I can't park anywhere along the street. I should park in my driveway. Which fits one car and there are three that belong to this address. I was told today that if they are to damage my car they are not liable. Huh. Considering the construction started over a week ago, there are other cars parked along the street, and the only reason I was told this is because I had to run to the bank and back today..it makes me wonder. Now that they know I am home and where I live, they have knocked on the door twice today. Good times.

All I need now is my Tiara

Well, that and about 5,000 yards of lace/cobweb weight yarn. Oh and lots and lots of time.

This was my final SP13 package. Kerry (my spoiler) said she wanted to "go out with a bang" and boy did she ever!

For those of you that don't know, this pattern is called The Princess Shawl and its from Heirloom knitting. Everything on the website is just breathtaking and I love the historical significance to it all.

Anyway, I have had my eye on this pattern for a long time, but I never bought it.

a) Because the pattern itself is pretty expensive (around $30),

+

b) I was very intimidated by it. Yes I know I do a lot of lace, but this lovely is considered to be one of the most challenging lace patterns out there.

=
c) I had a hard time justifying the cost of something I may be too chicken shnit to ever knit.

But even still, I coveted it something fierce. So when asked in the SP questionnaire if there was anything I was dying to get my hands on, I listed it. Never dreaming in a bazillion years that she would actually get it for me!

And trust me, The shawl is even more intimidating then I thought it would be. But damned if I don't want to toss everything aside and start her. So far my will power is holding on, but it most likely will not be long before I get this lovely on my needles.

Thank you Kerry for everything! You really know how to treat a girl.

The Good, The Bad, and The UGH!

It has been a while since we have had any real knitting content on this blog hasn't it? Whatever happened to those January goals? And where the heck were Februarys? Yeah, I know, BAD BLOGGER! (Or is that bloger? The first spelling looks better, whatev.)
Well today, I plan to show you actual FO"S, a good knit gone bad, and finally fess up to how the January goals went.
(By the way..pictures suck as usual. Can you believe these were taken outside in the middle the day? We even have sun today, but my yard is completely in shade and I did not feel like taking pictures in the middle of the street in my pajamas and slippers...yeah, I know, but they are so comfy!)
Alrighty then, here we go.

The good:

Marlene socks by Cookie A. Knit with All Things Heather in Raspberry on 000 needles. Start to finish was about a week.

The pattern was a lot of fun, easier then Pomatomus I would say. The yarn looked so good I wanted to eat it! It was not the softest to work with but after soaking it softened right up. It did bleed a lot in its blocking bath, but it did not take away from the color at all.

Next, (these were so hard to get a picture of!).

Primavera socks knit with The Sanguin Gryphon in Hatched on Size 00 needles.

LOVE the pattern, LOVE the yarn! I highly reccomend both. Alas, these little lovelies are not destined for my feet. They were very, very hard to give up. But I liked the pattern so much I think I will cast on another pair for myself, as soon as I can put it in my knit schedule.

And now the Bad. This next photo is not for the faint of heart. You may want to skip this..

FELTED!!!! These are the Through the Loop Mystery socks knit in Panda Silk (which said hand wash only and I was well aware of it, even alerted Adam to watch out for them in the hamper). They were lovely and soft and fit on my feet perfectly. I think I wore them three times. My sweetie put them in the washer, and he felt horrible about it..but they came out fine. The reason for their sad state is my fault. I did not pay attention when I was doing the wash, and threw these babies right into the dryer. OOPS!

And as if it could not get any worse after that...

The UGH!

All Hand knits waiting for finishing work. They have sat in this state for about a month now. Now that I have posted this here I hope I have shamed myself into getting them done.

You know, this post has become way to long already. I think I will save the next post to talk about the monthly goals...I promise you wont have to wait another month to find out. =)

Resistence is Futile

It's that time of year again.
What time you ask? Sock Madness time.
Sign ups started last Sunday and go 'til this Friday. I decided that this year I would not compete. The reasons are as follows:
A) I have crazy fuzzy preggo brain and don't think trying to keep up with the pace will be good for me.
B) I don't feel like diving into the stash to see if I have all the yarn requirements and seriously cannot afford to buy more yarn for the competition
C) I could spend that time working on socks I really like and want to make, instead of busting my butt on patterns that I may or may not like all for the sake of competition
And finally
D)I have way too many projects on the go right now and lately I feel that I have been making some good progress on them (well the current WIP's anyway, not the kajillion UFO's sitting around).
Speaking of the UFO's, a few of them have been getting some love as well. I have had start-itis for so long now, and I think I have now caught finish-itis. Granted, I have started a few new things, I am not completely reformed people.
So anyway, I thought long and hard about it and decided that Sock Madness would have to do without me this year. I am going to practice some self control, exude some will power, etc. etc.

And then I thought:
I know I am going to keep checking the website to see the teasers and the patterns released. And I know I am going to look at Flickr/Ravelry to see the finished socks. And I know I am going to kick myself in the arse for not joining up. Just 'cuz I join up doesn't mean I have to get all crazy sock knitter ninja like. I can quit whenever I want to, and it's free and it's 7 patterns (or more) that I get to enjoy with a few select people before anyone else does. I think we all know though that me being the competitive freak that I am..I will be all crazy sock knitter ninja like, no ifs, ands, or buts about it.

So I mentioned that sign ups started on Sunday?

Yeah, I resisted 'til 5 pm, then sent in my sign up e-mail.