Sock Madness ~ Part Deux

For Pete’s sake, I can’t believe what I got myself into!! I was reading Jo’s blog a couple of weeks ago, and she wrote about a sock contest she had entered. Well, I like socks, and a contest is always good, so I thought, why not? I clicked on the link, found the blog, and on the very last day, mind you, I signed up. I doubted I would be among the chosen few, or the 128 chosen few to be exact, but I dutifully sent in my email with the appropriate info, and I made it in! This should be a good thing, as Martha says.

BUT. And herein lies the but, this is an elimination contest for speed knitting. Well, of course I can knit socks with the best of them or even the worst of them. But speed knitting is a whole ‘nother story. Plus because I have knit more than five pairs of socks, I am considered an ‘experienced’ sock knitter. Okay, I’ll buy that in a heartbeat. But fast, I am not. I am lucky if I can bang out one sock a month, let alone a pair.

A few days ago my category’s list was posted, so I took a gander at my competition, which will be mano-a-mano or hand to hand combat. Aye carumba!!! These other knitters are going to kick my slow arse all over town!!! It’s all over but for the crying, and we haven’t even started yet.

Although a swift and sudden death is assured, I nonetheless went out to an almost LYS last Sunday and pawed through (and yes, sniffed) their stock in an effort to arm myself for the battle to come. This very lovely pequeño shop carries yarn I have been dying to get my hands on or at least set my eyes on ~ Fleece Artist. Alright, so for many of you spoiled readers you will say ‘Hrrrruuummmph, I use Fleece Artist for all of my socks.' Well, until now, none of the LYSs carried it, not even the LYSs on the other side of town. So I was quite thrilled to find out some could be had with an eight mile drive.

Here is what I ended up with:

Yes, that is Fleece Artist. And BEHOLD ~ my all time favorite fingering weight, Schaefer’s Anne. Oolala!!! I was in yarn heaven. Not only did they carry all sorts of Fleece Artist, but there was almost an abundance of Anne. They also had Debbie Bliss, and reader, beware, Rowan of all weights and colors imaginable. Halleluiah!!!!!!!!!!

It is true that I am on a yarn diet, or at least I have pledged to be on a yarn diet. But Wendy so kindly stated I can have a wild card, and sock yarn doesn’t count in the diet. My rules said fingering weight (lace-weight) yarn didn’t count because I have so little of the stuff, which is why I needed to procure some for the contest. So I am still well within bounds of my knitting from my stash commitment even though I bought all these babies. Oh, of course you need a closer look:

It’s pretty likely that my competition will knock me out within the first two days (I didn’t realize the competition was sudden-death, or in non-hockey overtime lingo, the first 16 per category to score finish a pair of socks wins the round), but that’s cool. I’ve sacrificed myself for less. As those cheerleaders say, bring it on!