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Round 1 - Diamond Do-summats
Mar. 21st, 2020 10:11 pmThe "pattern dropped" on March 19th and it's been a frantic race ever since. Well, what else am I supposed to do, quarantined in our home with plenty of groceries and a sock knitting competition to keep me busy?
I keep forgetting the name of the pattern. "Diamond Duplicity" sprang to mind as I was typing the title, but although I knew that wasn't it, I could not for the life of me remember what it was suppsed to be.
Colour choices (w/ background cat)
Seeing the pattern made me realise immediately that this called for a lovely neon colour combination. Just about the only thing in my stash that I had plenty of was black and petrol, and it had a lovely contrast. Petrol is notoriously hard to photograph and my phonecam isn't doing a very good job of it, but at least the SLR camera is doing better and I have many more options in post-processing.
And oh yes, the pattern is called "Diamond Duality". I had to look it up. Again.
Almost, but not quite the right colours.
Even in post-processing I can't get the colours right. The petrol is much brighter, more vibrant, but even upping the vibrance, the saturation of blues and playing with the tint only got me this far. In real life these socks are going to POP.
Two days knitting almost non-stop on these socks got me as far as the toe chart. I'm not going to risk taking pictures by lamplight unless I have to, so here's the afternoon status when I'd just finished the gusset:
With another background cat. Phonecam still screws up the petrol.
I'm trying to get as many 'background cat' pictures this year as I can. Ever since we got back from France Kwibus has been most attention-and-cuddle-seeking. Doortje is taking a bit of a back seat, as she's known to do, but still gets her fair share of cuddles. Kwibus now sits between us on the couch after we finish dinner or snuggles up next to my leg, preferrably on my pattern, when I'm knitting. So cute.
Anyway back to the competition! The gauge for this sock is rather snug, although the stranded work where I use two colours is knit on a quarter needle size bigger, so it's easier on my hands. Knitting the gusset and foot today was really all I should have done, I can tell while typing my fingers are tired. I shouldn't overdo it, the Madness is a marathon, with sprinty bits here and there.
Because the leg of the sock is so darned long (in the above picture the black cuff folds over completely because the foot model isn't long enough) I'm making the foot longer too. It makes the sock as a whole more balanced. Photo's popping up from other contestants with a smaller row gauge knitting the absolute minimum on the foot look really weird, almost like knee-stockings. I know a handsome gentleman who may be interested in something in his size, though. Several actually. With my wonky row gauge (always higher than patterns require) I will have to check how long the socks turn out, but I'm aiming for 44 or larger. Normally, if you fold a sock double over the heel, the leg and cuff should be the same length as the foot and toe.
Time shouldn't be an issue although I shouldn't get complacent and slack off because I'm probably not the only quarantined knitter in my team. I'm two days in with nearly a full sock finished, making this the fastest pair I've ever knit. The old record is 6 days for a full pair; if I keep up this tempo I'll be done in another two days, taking 4 days for this pair of socks. (But I really shouldn't.)
This competition round ends in 12 days or when all teams are full. As far as I can tell, I'm pretty much the fastest one on my team so far although people not showing pictures and not chatting may finish their pair faster because they spend all of their time knitting. In any case, my fingers need a break!
I keep forgetting the name of the pattern. "Diamond Duplicity" sprang to mind as I was typing the title, but although I knew that wasn't it, I could not for the life of me remember what it was suppsed to be.
Colour choices (w/ background cat)
Seeing the pattern made me realise immediately that this called for a lovely neon colour combination. Just about the only thing in my stash that I had plenty of was black and petrol, and it had a lovely contrast. Petrol is notoriously hard to photograph and my phonecam isn't doing a very good job of it, but at least the SLR camera is doing better and I have many more options in post-processing.
And oh yes, the pattern is called "Diamond Duality". I had to look it up. Again.
Almost, but not quite the right colours.
Even in post-processing I can't get the colours right. The petrol is much brighter, more vibrant, but even upping the vibrance, the saturation of blues and playing with the tint only got me this far. In real life these socks are going to POP.
Two days knitting almost non-stop on these socks got me as far as the toe chart. I'm not going to risk taking pictures by lamplight unless I have to, so here's the afternoon status when I'd just finished the gusset:
With another background cat. Phonecam still screws up the petrol.
I'm trying to get as many 'background cat' pictures this year as I can. Ever since we got back from France Kwibus has been most attention-and-cuddle-seeking. Doortje is taking a bit of a back seat, as she's known to do, but still gets her fair share of cuddles. Kwibus now sits between us on the couch after we finish dinner or snuggles up next to my leg, preferrably on my pattern, when I'm knitting. So cute.
Anyway back to the competition! The gauge for this sock is rather snug, although the stranded work where I use two colours is knit on a quarter needle size bigger, so it's easier on my hands. Knitting the gusset and foot today was really all I should have done, I can tell while typing my fingers are tired. I shouldn't overdo it, the Madness is a marathon, with sprinty bits here and there.
Because the leg of the sock is so darned long (in the above picture the black cuff folds over completely because the foot model isn't long enough) I'm making the foot longer too. It makes the sock as a whole more balanced. Photo's popping up from other contestants with a smaller row gauge knitting the absolute minimum on the foot look really weird, almost like knee-stockings. I know a handsome gentleman who may be interested in something in his size, though. Several actually. With my wonky row gauge (always higher than patterns require) I will have to check how long the socks turn out, but I'm aiming for 44 or larger. Normally, if you fold a sock double over the heel, the leg and cuff should be the same length as the foot and toe.
Time shouldn't be an issue although I shouldn't get complacent and slack off because I'm probably not the only quarantined knitter in my team. I'm two days in with nearly a full sock finished, making this the fastest pair I've ever knit. The old record is 6 days for a full pair; if I keep up this tempo I'll be done in another two days, taking 4 days for this pair of socks. (But I really shouldn't.)
This competition round ends in 12 days or when all teams are full. As far as I can tell, I'm pretty much the fastest one on my team so far although people not showing pictures and not chatting may finish their pair faster because they spend all of their time knitting. In any case, my fingers need a break!
