So I made it through round one of sock madness. We had to knit socks with an interesting construction. Pictured below the Simple Side to Side socks are knit flat and then grafted together. Then you need to pick up stitches for the cuff, heel and toe. The pattern was simple enough and created some really cool looking socks. The main issue is the lack of stretch. They will stretch in length but not in width. So of course they didn't work for my feet so my mother is acquiring a new pair of socks....again. If you hate grafting and picking up stitches these socks aren't for you. They are pretty fun to make if you have never knit socks in this style and they are great for all that wild yarn you have sitting in your stash though. The designer is working on updating the pattern to work with the fitting issues. So hopefully when its released to the general public people will have an easier time with fit. This is a competition though so socks aren't knit to necessarily fit everyone. I managed to make it to round 2 (at a much slower pace than I would have liked) but life gets in the way, travel, death and funerals. I'm just glad I finished them in time to move on.
Simple Side to Side Socks by Deborah Swift
Yarn: Yarn Love, Juliet in Robin Hood colorway
Needles: US Size 1 Circulars
This brings us to the round 2 socks which actually did fit. Cool Beans is a pretty colorwork pattern that drove everyone crazy, lol. I love how they look and I think its really cool we knit a pattern based on coffeebeans. The biggest complaint I heard was the gusset decrease went on forever, which I kind of agree but once I stopped looking at the gusset decreases and focused on the beans it went a lot faster, IMHO. It was a learning experience for most because many people had never done colorwork. I like colorwork, I haven't done many colorwork patterns but I do love colorwork. Once the errata came out for the heel and the toe problems were worked out it made the pattern a lot easier for people. Thankfully there were several finishers before me who figured out the pattern problems and posted fixes for them. I finished before the toe info came out but I'm sure its helped a lot of people. This pattern is the first time I have ever been asked to share my picture as one of the model pics for a pattern which is a huge honor, so thank you yarnyenta, you are awesome.
Pattern: Cool Beans By: Yarnyenta
Yarn: Knitpicks bare merino natural and zauberball (don't know the color)
Needles: US2 brittany dpns
I can't wait to see what they have in store for us for pattern three. I managed to make it to round three btw. So hopefully everyone knits their socks quickly so we can move on. I'm anxious to start especially with the baby's due date closing in. I want to see how far I can get. :)
