It's Sock Madness's fault

Well, by dint of ignoring everything else I was supposed to be doing, including getting back into a proper blogging routine, I managed to make it through both Round 1 and Round 2 of Sock Madness in time to move up. I'm now in the gap just before the start of Round 3 and finally catching up on other things again. Since last year I almost made it through Round 3 I feel a dreadful despairing urge to make it through Round 3 this year. This could be very tricky. Although I would already be out if I had been in the "For Whom The Ball Rolls" division (whew, there's a bunch of speedy knitters in that group) so I'm counting myself lucky.

So what have I been doing since I last posted? Well, strictly speaking since before the last post. Round one of Sock Madness this year was a pattern that I designed and submitted for the contest last summer/early fall.

Tropical Mer-tini in Hazel Knits Artisan Sock in Beach Glass

Tropical Mer-tini (Ravelry link) is based on the Drunkard's path quilt block. To make it extra wiggy for Sock Madness I developed a way to do a heel flap heel as an afterthought heel. The pattern will eventually be available outside of Sock Madness participants but I want to add a second size option and also see if I can make the heel prettier. And include improvements from the feedback I have gotten from the lovely folks who knitted it up and then let me know what they thought. This has been a very fun learning experience and I have really enjoyed it. Although, I have to say, I was worried I wouldn't make it through the first round since I was trying to make sure I was available to answer any questions, I wasn't concentrating as much on my competition pair as I would have been if they had not been my pattern.

Tropical Mer-tini in Celtic Memory Yarns Merino-Tencel in Irish Mist

I still need to come up with a nice greenish martini to pose with these socks. Possibly I will have time for that once Sock Madness finishes. Or I get knocked out of competition.

Round 2's socks were Tokena (Ravelry link) by Tricia/Zemy. I found them very hard going. Mainly because they were my first Fair Isle style color work knitting. And partly from poor choices I made about which yarns I used (I should have gone for the ones that were closest in size) and how I worked.

Tokena in All Things Heather sock in Raspberry and Apple Laine Apple Pie in Silver

But I got them finished in the alloted time and I have found a home for them (although I wish I had done a better job on them since I am sending them to a very sweet fellow raveler) so really, it is all good. I think I have enough left of the yarn to knit a second pair for myself if I use the Raspberry (how could I have not bought that yarn?) as the contrast color and another shade for the main color. I'm thinking maybe black? Thoughts?

I've also been slowly working on my Cluaranach and my two Clapotis and a pair of socks for a friend's birthday (I'm late with those too) and trying to develop some more designs. But I'm going to save all that for another post. Within a week I hope.