The Summer of Socks comes to a close tonight at midnight. I’m very happy to report that I accomplished most of my goals. Here are the 7 pairs that I was able to knit during the three months:

Denmark is pictured twice just because I like them so much.

I exceeded my own expectations on number of pairs. I did one more pair than last year, which I firmly believe was only possible because of the amazing job done by Beth and all the other blog readers. I didn’t have to worry about that part of things *at all* and that was a huge relief for me with all the other administrative things I had to do.

The one thing I didn’t really do was get to all the patterns I had wanted to try. Part of my goals were to knit all the patterns from Knitty that I hadn’t done yet and wanted to try. There are still several in my cue, but at least I got the list narrowed down by four.

In the end, it seems that some people enjoyed the along and things went pretty smoothly for the most part. As always, not all 500 people that signed up really participated. Actually, I’m kind of thankful for that! Life happens, people get busy and that’s just the way things go. Running something like this is a *lot* of work. I think I may have gone under if everyone actually had participated.

People have already asked if this will happen again next year or expressed some interest in another go. At this point, I honestly can’t say. I have no idea what my life will look like by next summer. Will I have time to do this again? Who knows. Will I want to? I also don’t know. There were times this year that I was ready to throw in the towel. I think it’s very easy for people to write accusatory and hurtful things in an e-mail, that they wouldn’t necessarily be able to say to your face. It also seems to be really easy for people to assume the worst about others in the world we live in right now, even in something so trivial as a sock knitalong. I was shocked at some of the e-mail I received this summer. It is so easy for someone to write something without thinking about how its tone will be read on the other end before they click ‘send’. And it made me very sad at times.

On the other hand, there were a lot of good things too. I’ve made some new “blog friends”, I’ve had a few laughs, I’ve learned a lot and been exposed to new things. And there have been several people who have even taken the time to say Thank You, which really means the most. And just look at all the beautiful socks everyone made! There are going to be a lot of happy feel this winter!

In the end, I’m trying to focus on the positive. There is still a lot to do. The people behind me in line at the post office tomorrow are going to hate me! I hope to finish things and sit back to rest this weekend knowing that I did a good thing and made some people happy.

And speaking of rest, I’m pretty tired and I need some time to recoup. I’m declaring next week a personal “computer holiday”. I sit in front of a computer all day at work and when I go home next week, I will *not* be turning one on. The pretty much means no blogging for me next week. But don’t worry about me! There are sweaters to finish and yarn to spin. I’ll find something to do. See you in a week!

Another finished pair of socks? I do believe it is!

Denmark – Summer of Socks #7

Pattern: Denmark from “Knitting on the Road” by Nancy Bush

Yarn: Wollmeise in the Rittersporn colorway, generously given to me in a blog contest by Kristy

Needles: size 1 addi lace needles

Knit: 8/16-9/2/2007

Mods: I added extra purl stitches between each element of the pattern to make them fit. You can read more about that here.

Once I got my sizing issues out of the way, I really loved knitting these socks! The pattern is really smart. The ribbing pattern really confused me at first, but once I noticed how nicely it flows into the cuff pattern, the genius was obvious. The details are so nice too, like the little nupps that start at the top of the cables and give a nice definition to their start. It’s just a really well designed pattern and I do hope to make more patterns from this book.

What can I say about the yarn that hasn’t already been said? Probably nothing, but it bears repeating! The colors are simply amazing. So saturated and just beautifully done. The yardage of each skein is also worth noting. After finishing these I weighed them and the leftover and they were about the same (although I wasn’t using the most wildly accurate scale or anything). That’s pretty impressive considering the size of my feet! And while the yarn was a bit on the splitty side, it was certainly outweighed by the beautiful fabric and the colors. I probably wouldn’t have gotten to try this without Kristy’s contest, so thank you again for the wonderful prize!

I have an idea or two for what to do with the leftovers from this skein, but that will have to wait. I’ve got something else distracting me right now…

Ok. Not really. The only place I’m going today is upstate NY to visit the folks for the weekend (and to meet the new doggy!). But you could say I’ll be Knitting on the Road (well… ok… technically *rail*) with Nancy Bush. Previously I told you how I had started this pattern but it was a bit small.

I’m not familiar with the yarn the pattern calls for, but since it is supposed to be knit on size 3 needles and I’m using size 1s, this result wasn’t entirely surprising. The pattern does have a good deal of stretch though, so I thought I might be able to get away with it. No such luck.

The ribbing area seemed ok though so I pulled everything back to the row after the nupps. In this case the nupp stitches are actually little wraps around two stitches that make an interesting beginning to the cabled parts.

Since there are three cabled areas on each side of the sock separated by a couple of purl stitches, it was very simple to purl one of those stitches in the front and back on the next row to increase my stitch count. I ended up doing that in each area of purl stitches. Doing the increase as a purl in the front and back makes the increase nearly invisible when surrounded by the purls of the stitch pattern.

This was a perfect solution for me and the resulting stitch count fits just fine. If you ever need to modify a pattern like this, look at the sequence of stitches and see if you can add or subtract stitches in areas between pattern repeats. If you choose the right type of increase, it may not even be all that visible. It’s an easy solution to a fit problem so you can continue with a great pattern.

At this point the first sock is done and just waiting for a mate. But I’ve got a few more things on the needles at the moment which I’ll be showing you soon.

If you are in the US have a great holiday weekend! And if you aren’t, have a great weekend anyway!

I seem to still be catching up on things that I just haven’t gotten around to and cruddy commuting conditions haven’t helped much as of late. So please allow me to indulge in some very belated thank yous.

First, both Sasha and Stacey have named me a Rockin’ Girl Blogger!

I’m very flattered! I think we all rock in some way, so if you’re reading this, considering yourself nominated!

Next, remember back when I told you all about how lucky I’d been in some blog contests? Well Jessalu’s package arrived while I was away and I was totally blown away when I opened it. Check this out:

Not only did she sew the bag herself (which still blows my mind. It even has a zipper!) but look at that gorgeous handspun yarn!

I absolutely love everything. She included some chocolate as well which I just about had to beat HWJF away from or he would have eaten it all himself! Thanks for the great package Jess!

So are you wondering what’s on the needles now? Well, when the books that I ordered from the Interweave Hurt Book sale arrived last week they brought me a great solution. I really had wanted to make CableNet with the Wollmeise yarn that Kristy gave me, but it just didn’t work out. The colors were too dark to really see the cables and there was no way I was going to do all that work and not be able to see them! Nancy Bush’s Knitting on the Road to the rescue!

Sorry for the crappy Treo pic.

This is Denmark. Or I suppose I should say this is my first attempt at Denmark. I found out at this point that it was a bit snug, (like cut off my circulation and barely get over my heel “snug”) so out it came. The second time around I added some purl stitches to increase the stitch count without distorting the pattern too much. More about that next time.

Have a great weekend!