Friday, May 9, 2008

Monkey See, Monkey Doomed

I have been trying since Tuesdays to start a pair of Monkey Socks (pair #4, so I should be good at them by now!)

My first attempt began well enough on Wednesday but ended in failure on Thursday. The ribbing looked basically OK, but once I got into the pattern I decided the yarn was too thin for the needles and/or pattern.

Then I tried to knit other socks with the same yarn and needles (because I was trapped in a series of presentations at work with no other supplies! The horror!). But that didn't work either.

Kevin's starting going to a track workout on Thursday nights, and we decided to bike there for some extra tandem-ing practice. I planned to knit while he ran (17 days out from a marathon is not a good time to do speedwork for the first time in several years!), but we weren't home long enough for me to wind new yarn.

Fortunately, I'd brought my traveling swift:



Naturally, since I am the queen of pooling, the yarn (Socks that Rock mediumweight, in one of the 2007 club colorways) pooled like mad:



And the fabric seemed a little dense (I must have used size 3 needles last time I made socks with mediumweight).

So I ripped AGAIN when we got home, and started a third time with some nearly solid deep red/pink Heather from Schaefer Yarns. It's lovely so far (after the ribs and 2 pattern repeats), but of course I haven't taken any pictures of it.

What's especially foolish about this desire to make monkey socks is that I've signed up for the second 52 Pair Plunge, wherein a bunch of lunatics try to knit (on average) a pair of socks a week for an entire year (any size socks count). It starts June 1, so any socks I make before then do not count (and use up vital sock yarn supplies I should be conserving for the plunge). Naturally, I started wanting to knit socks immediately after signing up... a feeling I expect will vanish about 11:53 PM on May 31.

I expect I will fall quite short of 52 pairs, because of all the other things I want/need to knit instead. But I'll be interested to see how many I do make--I suspect it will be between 24 and 30 pairs, because I can knit about a sock a week, focusing somewhat hard some of the time, but also knitting other things when I feel like it. Presumably, a formal challenge will make me slightly more focused--but also more likely to rebel.

3 comments:

jennsquared said...

Nice travel swift! That's what i would have use it for anyways ;)

That's a lot of socks you are making! I thought I was crazy doing Sock Pentathlon, but I think you win on that one.

Sunflowerfairy said...

I love you because you are such a slacker over-achiever. Know what I mean?

knitseashore said...

*love* your traveling swift!! Must remember that next time we are on vacation.

Good luck with your socks!!