Presenting:

Twisted Grapevine Socks for Sockapalooza 4 and the Tour de France Knit Along:

Dyeing

Testing

Newly dyed yarn

Roadblock

Success

Progress

Halfway

Complete!



Apologizing again for my cruddy camera. I'd say the actual color is closest to the "Progress" picture above. Depending on the light, the color will vary within the entire range represented above. I'm working on the pattern and will post when ready. Click here to see all posts on this project!

Done!

Sockapalooza socks are finished! Photos to follow. (Promise.)

Time Trials

Yesterday's leg of the Tour de France was a time trial segment. Now, I'm not sure what this means or why they do it, but it inspired me to do a little time trial of my own. I knew it was taking about 1/2 hour to do one repeat of my Grapevine socks, but I wanted to get an "official" time and see how long each round took.

A breakdown of each round:
Round 1 - pattern round
Round 2 - all knit stitch
Round 3 - pattern round
Round 4 - all knit stitch

Here are the results:

First Trial (results scrapped due to tinking incident; see Round 3):
Round 1 - 7 mins
Round 2 - 4 mins
Round 3 - realized I should write this stuff down, got up for pen and paper, then realized I missed something somewhere and had to tink needle #2. Twice.
Round 4 - 5 mins
First Trial total - 29 minutes (so round 3 took 13 minutes??)

Second Trial (official results):
Round 1 - 5 mins
Round 2 - 4 mins
Round 3 - 5 mins
Round 4 - 5 mins
Second Trial total - 19 minutes!

I think a typical repeat takes me a little longer because of children distractions, admiring the yarn tinking, etc.

I have another inch or so on the instep and then I can start the toe. Woo hoo!

***

In other yarny news, there may have been a recent stash enhancement expedition at Knit Picks. Details are sketchy; we'll keep you updated as the story unfolds.

Also, if you are participating in Sockapalooza, hie thee over to Knitting Ewe and design your own Sockapalooza project bag! These are super cute, made up in "official" Sockapalooza fabric. She is selling the bags and also gift certificates so your sock pal can design their own later. I just ordered one, so I can't vouch personally, but Host Allison raved about hers recently.

And, Mad Caterpillar has designed a PDF label to wrap around your Sockapalooza socks in when you are ready to send. I've printed one out, and if my magenta ink was working, it would be very cute!

Peace of Mind

I've made a decision about the Tour de France Knit Along.

I am not withdrawing from the race! Rather, I will change tactics and strive to finish my Sockapalooza socks during the tour. Remember their name from early on, even before I made the final-final FINAL decisions on color and pattern, was Grapevine. Well, grapes... wine... France... you know.

Anyway, not sure of the "rules" on this. The TdF mods seem pretty easygoing, so I hope it won't be a problem. But I'll email them to be sure.

I turned the heel on the second sock tonight, narrowly avoiding a major frogging disaster. I was knitting along on the heel flap, thinking about short-row heels (which I've never done) and how hard are they and what do they end up looking like, la di da, picked up the stitches along the side for the gusset, hmm hmm hmm, knit across the top in pattern, concentrate concentrate, picked up the other side, tra la la. Uh, I forgot to TURN THE HEEL.

Good thing I had only done one round when i caught it. Tinked back with no major issues. I gotta try it on purpose some time tho - I think that would make one crazy looking sock.

And does anyone else keep wanting to call it the "Tour de Force"?

P.S. I fully intend to post Nettie, but should I have some people test it first? Testers? Volunteers? Guinea pigs?

Angst and the Art of Flunking a Knit Along

How I am flunking the Tour de France Knit Along? Let me count the ways...

1. Sockapalooza - I committed to this project back in April, someone is actually counting on me for socks, so it is quite high priority. Socks are to be mailed August 2 (or is it 7 now?), so there are only 20 (or 27?) days left to finish that last sock.

2. Kids' classes - I committed to these back in May, so also prior to Tour de France. Each week I need to prepare both the lesson and a project sheet for the kids to take home. There are four girls plus my daughter signed up, so again, people are actually counting on me to get the prep done. In addition, I'd like to keep my teaching options open after this, so I'd better do a good job!

3. The progress thus far - I have the first portion of the market bag done, the first solid band at the top. Honestly? This was already done before I even signed up for the TdF KAL, so does it even count? Realize this: I have not worked on my so-called TdF KAL project since the TdF KAL project began one week ago.

4. This cold - Another goal of mine during the actual Tour, was to dig out a working bicycle from our trash heap of storage and ride it every day. I haven't blogged about this, which was probably better anyway, because it Has Not Happened. At all. I did go down to the shed and look at the bikes, but I don't think that quite counts. This cold is finally going away after two full weeks, and now I don't know when I'll have time to even go visit the bikes.

5. Work - I took the part time daytime job, so I just filled up two days a week there. Plus I haven't worked up the nerve to fully quit Major Retail Store. So I'm working two part-time jobs, plus the knitting classes, and oh yeah, I still have 3 kids and a husband, and...

oy.

Can you flunk a knit along?

Knitters, Start Your Needles... Cyclists, Start Your, uh...

Bon jour, mes amis!!

Today is zee fabulous start of zee fabulous Tour de France. Zee race starts in London (London? London is not in France, mes petits, despite many efforts to zee contrary.)

Ok, I can't keep up the fake bad French accent for an entire post. But it's true - today (the prologue time trials) and tomorrow take place in England. And they say Americans are bad at geography.

The Tour starts at 3:00 p.m. London time, which works out to... right about now, I think. And therefore, the start of the Tour de France Knit Along!

I will be making a second Nettie for the KAL, since she falls rather neatly into the market bag category. I am scheduled to teach Nettie at our local LYS, so once that is done, I'll post the pattern here on the blog.

Nettie:

Here's a link to Tour coverage in English.

And en francais.

Tour de France Knit Along! (KAL)

My brother is a big* an avid cyclist and Tour fan (although, sadly, not a knitter. yet.), so I thought this would be a fun KAL to be in. Click here for all the details.

I have decided that Nettie fits nicely into the "market bag" category, and since I'll be knitting it anyway for the class, won't it be more fun to do a KAL? I think so.

I chose the yellow jersey because Nettie fits into my "average skills" category (choose what is average for you, as I understand it). I plan to finish before the race ends, but I will enjoy the group thang.

I don't know when the signup deadline is, but the Tour starts July 7. Bon voyage!

*Edited June 27. My brother is tallish, but he ain't big, lol.