janestarz | Sock Madness kicks off

On March 2nd the liberating message was posted on the Ravelry forum: the first pattern was posted on the dropbox, Sock Madness has officially kicked off. (This, after hundreds of people nervously refreshing the Ravelry forums to see if the pattern had been posted yet. And how about now. Now then? Maybe now?!)

Although my Muse did an "Oooh, shiny!" on the warm-up pattern, whilst knitting it I realised I would be hopelessly short of yarn. I had a little less than 50 grams of this white left, would knit in the same gauge as the pair I had made for Yava'in, would use less contrasting colour than her socks, and to top it all off, I'd wanted to knit these for myself (six sizes larger!). No way in hell I would have enough yarn. Suggestions of altering the pattern were weighed and finally discarded. I didn't love the pattern on the foot, and although I did have a beautiful colour combination I might need it later in the competition.
Combined with my sudden colour inspiration, I threw the half-knit first warm-up sock into a baggy. And this, in the picture below, was as far as I got with preparing for Sock Madness: two bags of possible yarns to be combined.

Pink and purple leftovers with white, light grey and anthracite (left)
Variegated yellow/red with bright green variegated, lime and red solids (right).

The specs have been published and you can supposedly already pick yarns you want to combine, but I find it really all depends on the pattern. Although other people might enjoy purple cats on a neon-green background, I might want to decide which four colours of contrast yarn I'll use when I see what I'm knitting. Neon combinations can be fun, but I am a great believer in the Tao of Aafke7, a fellow sock knitter from Uden. She does beautiful soft colour combinations. Sea-foam teal with grey and a dark blue. Very painting-like (dare I say it: pastoral)!

Oh no, I lie. I also wound skeins of yarn into a ball. Lots of balls. All ready to knit. But, I just noticed, not those in the baggies. Huh.

The first pattern in the Sock Madness is called "Twisted Madness" and consists mostly of sets of twisted stitches. Because the stitches all twist the same way, the fabric of the sock twists around the ankle as well. It's notoriously rigid, hard on the hands and wrists, and I refuse to cast on 80 stitches just so it would fit me (20 stitches more than usual PER ROUND!). Screw that, if it doesn't fit me, I know someone with very dainty feet who loves to wear warm hand-knit socks to larp events. And her birthday is coming up this summer. You do wear pink, right?
Casting on the smaller size also means I might have enough yarn for this pair, as it is eating yarn like crazy. It does bring out the colours of any clownbarf or variegated yarn and looks pretty dull in any solid colour, but to each his own.

I am already getting very tired of the forums, especially the official forums where the whole world joins in on the chatter, the useless questions-that-have-already-been-answered if-only-you'd-read-the-rules or, gods forbid, the-rest-of-the-questions-thread. (I could never be a mod, I'd start killing people on day one! So kudo's to them, for being so patient and putting up with the likes of us.)

I've also jokingly stated it's quite typical for knitters to organise this world-famous competition, where everyone can sign up and join in, set up rounds and prizes and things you need to do to get through to the next round, and then to furiously knit away in the comfort of your own home. How delightfully introvert!

The schedule runs:
Qualifying round - 2 weeks
Competition round 1 - 2 weeks
Competition round 2 - 2 weeks
Competition round 3 - 2 weeks
Competition round 4 - 2 weeks
Competition round 5 - 10 days
Competition round 6 - 10 days
Competition round 7 - 10 days

Still, I am determined to get through the first round, I want to make a decent stab at this competition, so I've set up the laptop, some tea, and I'll do some serious sock knitting now!