A Sign of the Coming Apocalypse?

I finished my socks for the first round of Sock Madness 2 Sunday night at just before 10pm. And in sign either of the coming destruction or that I really should just concentrate better, I finished in time to move on to the next round in Sock Madness 2 and in the first half of the pack to boot. This puzzles me no end when I think how long it has taken me to knit other socks. But on the other hand if I can keep it up, maybe it really is possible to knit through my existing fingering weight sock stash before I die.

Here's my socks:

Yarn: Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks That Rock in Smoky Blue overdyed with red
Pattern: Zombie Socks by Sheryl Giles
Clock time to finish: approx 84 hours
Actual knitting time rough estimate: not more than 40 hours - not sure though, I forgot to time it. Doh!

I started with some Socks That Rock lightweight in Smoky Blue earmarked as a possible for the "moody" sock.
But then a couple of days before the pattern was released we got some more clues. "Scary", "Michael Jackson's Thriller", and something about Buffy the Vampire Slayer, something like that Faith might wear them but Buffy - not so much.

So I decided to try overdying the yarn with red to get the deep dark purple of the scary night from the red on the blues and the various reds of drying blood from the red on the cream to browns. I suspect I just didn't use enough dye because while it looked good in the skein...
And the cake...

In the socks it's a bit pink in places - especially where it pools. But looks very very nice in others.

I may overdye it again to see if I can get closer to my original vision. But for now I have some super comfy socks. I highly recommend this pattern if/when it becomes available to the general public. It's pretty easy to knit but with the dropped stitches it is fun and interesting.

I'd still be knitting and unlikely to be far enough along to move on to round two if it hadn't been for the FoUI's enthusiastic support. He helped out with all the round the house stuff and the child wrangling so I had more time to knit.

One needs to be careful what one jokes about around here, though. A couple of days before the competition started I made a joke at dinner that the only way I'd manage to move up from the first round to the second would be if I didn't even waste time on eating or drinking. But that I'd die without water so I'd need one of those beer hats to hold cups of water. The FoUI pointed out that I'd knit faster on coffee and joked that he'd even sacrifice by refilling coffee mugs (he's very anti-coffee) but I was still surprised (and amused & touched) by how far he took the joke. A box arrived at the house just in time for the leg of the first sock...

I have the best husband in this world and any other with intelligent life.

Part way along I must have pinched a nerve somewhere because my right hand went numb sometime Saturday and it's still doing more tingling than feeling normal. I'll have to do something about that if it doesn't stop soon. Next year I must remember to get into training sooner.

In the middle of the Madness I got the most awesome package from sweet sweet April at The Weaving Inn. I'd won a contest on her blog and just look at all the lovelies she sent me.

Thank you so very very much April and I'm so sorry that I didn't blog this right away. I was certain that if I did anything but knit straight through I'd never make it into the next round so I didn't even let myself do blog reading or writing for fear of "missing by that much". I adore the little stitch marker holder and the only way I'm gonna get to hold onto it and the cute Ladybugs tape measure (which matches very nicely with the Knitter's bag I got at Stitches West this year) is by letting my daughter have the adorable little Bella doll. She ain't gettin' that yarn though. Grrrr. Mine. Grrrr. If you're reading this and you haven't seen April's blog run right over. She's great fun to read. And a super nice person as well.

Now that I'm waiting for round two I have started the FoUI's well deserved next pair of socks. Plain stockinette in Yarn Nerd 1200MHz BFL in Tour de France.
If that's not loud enough for him I may have to start searching for indie dyers who dye yarn you can see from space.

I'm also starting a third swatch for the Zazzlejeans cardi. If the size 8 Harmony Options don't get me gauge I'll break down and do the math for which ever needle I like the fabric best off of.