The Madness that is March
Hi knitters!
It's March (what? It's still March, until Thursday) and there's so much going on.!
Somehow after a lull in January and February, the stirrings of spring seem to kick everything into sudden high gear. This month I've managing to fold at least four kinds of madness into my schedule - Sock Madness, the NCAA tournament's March Madness, preparations for Easter and "scouting" for our 2010 Birdathon. Along the way, I have been knitting some *amazing* socks that I just have to share.
Sock Madness was the first form of madness to spring up. This is the third year I've competed in the Sock Madness. I never do very well, but I enjoy the challenge. The idea is that 4 "brackets" of sock knitters receive a brand new pattern at the same time and try to speed-knit the socks according to the pattern faster than the other members of their bracket. There are multiple rounds of sock patterns released, and smaller numbers of sock knitters are allowed through on each round - sort of like the basketball tournament, though you are not competing one-on-one. It's more more like the Olympic qualifying runs, where winning in your group lets you through to the next round.
In the past, I've sometimes managed to make it to the third round of Sock Mandess and I've knit some of my very favorite socks doing it.
This year, for Sock Madness 4, we "played in" by knitting the first pattern to prove we were serious - and I got to knit these beautiful side-to-side socks knit in Crazy Zauberball, color 1702 "Little Fox", using borrowed US size 0 needles from Dee Dee (thank you, dahlinks!)Pattern is "Simple Side-to-Side Socks" by MtMom and it took me 13 days to knit both socks. Slow, slow, slow!
Round two is a delightful pattern called Cool Beans by the Yarn Yenta, Heatherly Walker. I am using one of my very, very favorite yarns - Hazel Knits Artisan Sock - using springy green Euphorbia for the background and rich, flavorful Chocolatier for the beans. I'm calling mine "Spring Beans"
We started Round 2 on Friday, March 26 at 2 am. Well, I didn't. I started at 9:30 am and have been knitting away. Over the weekend, the sock-in-progress got a tour of all my other kinds of madness.
First, there was late-night basketball (thank you, Tivo!) on Friday.
On Saturday, we loaded the birding gear into the car and went off to explore the wilds of south Santa Clara County to look for sandpipers, pilieated woodpeckers and rufous-crowned sparrows. I even took the sock to choir practice on Sunday morning - no photos there, though.
The best photos came from hauling the sock from one county park to another on Saturday. I love the one at the top of this post where we managed to pose the sock with a denizen of the local hills - the Banana Slug! Go back & look at how slimy he is. Eeewww! But my favorite is this command-performance "Sunset & sock knitting at Uvas Canyon Reservoir" photo by Bill Walker
For this shot, I asked for a lot. I wanted a photo that showed me, knitting my sock, at the lakeshore, leaning on the trusty Subaru, with my birding regalia visible AND the lake, the hillside and the moon in the sky. Hah! Bill came through, as always. I even like the way I look in this photo. It's the perfect momento of the Sock Madness blending into the Birdathon Madness.
I'm still working away on the Spring Bean socks - number one is fnished and I have to knit like the wind to stay in the competition, while birding, Easter, and basketball all swirl around me. Let the Madness continue!
It's March (what? It's still March, until Thursday) and there's so much going on.!
Somehow after a lull in January and February, the stirrings of spring seem to kick everything into sudden high gear. This month I've managing to fold at least four kinds of madness into my schedule - Sock Madness, the NCAA tournament's March Madness, preparations for Easter and "scouting" for our 2010 Birdathon. Along the way, I have been knitting some *amazing* socks that I just have to share.
Sock Madness was the first form of madness to spring up. This is the third year I've competed in the Sock Madness. I never do very well, but I enjoy the challenge. The idea is that 4 "brackets" of sock knitters receive a brand new pattern at the same time and try to speed-knit the socks according to the pattern faster than the other members of their bracket. There are multiple rounds of sock patterns released, and smaller numbers of sock knitters are allowed through on each round - sort of like the basketball tournament, though you are not competing one-on-one. It's more more like the Olympic qualifying runs, where winning in your group lets you through to the next round.
In the past, I've sometimes managed to make it to the third round of Sock Mandess and I've knit some of my very favorite socks doing it.
This year, for Sock Madness 4, we "played in" by knitting the first pattern to prove we were serious - and I got to knit these beautiful side-to-side socks knit in Crazy Zauberball, color 1702 "Little Fox", using borrowed US size 0 needles from Dee Dee (thank you, dahlinks!)Pattern is "Simple Side-to-Side Socks" by MtMom and it took me 13 days to knit both socks. Slow, slow, slow!
Round two is a delightful pattern called Cool Beans by the Yarn Yenta, Heatherly Walker. I am using one of my very, very favorite yarns - Hazel Knits Artisan Sock - using springy green Euphorbia for the background and rich, flavorful Chocolatier for the beans. I'm calling mine "Spring Beans"
We started Round 2 on Friday, March 26 at 2 am. Well, I didn't. I started at 9:30 am and have been knitting away. Over the weekend, the sock-in-progress got a tour of all my other kinds of madness.
First, there was late-night basketball (thank you, Tivo!) on Friday.
On Saturday, we loaded the birding gear into the car and went off to explore the wilds of south Santa Clara County to look for sandpipers, pilieated woodpeckers and rufous-crowned sparrows. I even took the sock to choir practice on Sunday morning - no photos there, though.
The best photos came from hauling the sock from one county park to another on Saturday. I love the one at the top of this post where we managed to pose the sock with a denizen of the local hills - the Banana Slug! Go back & look at how slimy he is. Eeewww! But my favorite is this command-performance "Sunset & sock knitting at Uvas Canyon Reservoir" photo by Bill Walker
For this shot, I asked for a lot. I wanted a photo that showed me, knitting my sock, at the lakeshore, leaning on the trusty Subaru, with my birding regalia visible AND the lake, the hillside and the moon in the sky. Hah! Bill came through, as always. I even like the way I look in this photo. It's the perfect momento of the Sock Madness blending into the Birdathon Madness.
I'm still working away on the Spring Bean socks - number one is fnished and I have to knit like the wind to stay in the competition, while birding, Easter, and basketball all swirl around me. Let the Madness continue!
posted by spinnity at 3/30/2010 01:11:00 PM
1 Comments:
COOL BEANS COOL COOL BEANS!!!
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