Note: I wrote this on Sunday, May 18 and waited to publish it until my Sock Wars target, Mary (aka Seussy), received her package (aka “deadly sock bomb”).
Well, so far, I am still alive and kicking in Sock Wars III. I finished my original pair of socks on Saturday afternoon, and have carefully packed them to mail to my target (Seussy) on Monday. Then I shall await the arrival of Seussy’s unfinished socks, which I am to finish up and send on to her target — unless I get killed off by my assassin’s socks first (if that happens, I then mail Seussy’s unfinished socks to my assassin to finish for Seussy’s original target — are you confused yet?). My assassin (Caitiedid) has been silent through the entire process, so I have no idea how far along she is with her socks. However, checking back on Saturday through the list of participants and who is listed as alive or dead on the Sock Wars site, there was a string of at least 9 or 10 assassins behind me (that is, I’m downstream of them and they are aiming in my direction) that are still listed as alive.
There seems to be a difference of opinion among the ranks as to how Sock Wars is to be handled — the protocol of International Sockicide. There are some who take it very seriously and say things like, “This is war, not a swap!” Then there are others who praise Sock Wars for introducing them to new knitting friends. My take on it is that of a friendly competition. Sure, I wanted to get my socks finished as soon as possible so that I could advance in the game, but I didn’t want to do the stealthy, stalking, tactical thing. I kept quiet about my progress while working on the sock, and once finished, packaged them nicely and let my target know the socks were on their way.
Some sock warriors had great fun packing up their killer socks — the Mola(Toe)v Socktail, for example. Very clever and creative! I did a typical package with the socks, a sympathy card, and some little gifty items (assorted teas and a jar of hand cream, along with the leftover yarn). Some sock warriors included gifts of candy, beaded stitch markers, knitting-themed pins, etc. in their packages. Go ahead and click the photo to the left if you’d like to take a closer look.
I chose to use TOFUtsies sock yarn — first of all, because in order to be eligible for the grand prize of a 60 balls of TOFUtsies (one in each color it comes in), that is what you had to use for your original socks. And since my target didn’t have any reported fiber allergies (in addition to wool, soy fiber, and cotton, the yarn contains a small amount of ground-up shrimp and crab shells which have antibacterial properties) and I had never used the yarn before, I went for it.
Although it’s not over yet, I’ll say at this point that I’m glad I at least tried Sock Wars. I don’t think I’ll do it again, though, for the same reason I originally had decided I was not going to participate (before I caved to my knitting buddies’ peer pressure, LOL) — when I have to knit socks using a pattern dictated by someone else, during a specific time (and if I want to stay alive in the game I MUST. KNIT. NOW.), and in order to stay in the game I need to keep knitting more and more socks before my assassin finishes theirs and sends them to me, it makes me want to not knit socks. Especially not more socks in the exact same pattern that I just finished knitting. Now, I don’t necessarily mind knitting the same pattern twice, especially if it’s one I like. I just don’t want to do it right away, over and over and over again. It makes me want to cast on a baby sweater for my nephew — or just anything else besides knitting these same @#$% socks all over again.
That reminds me…I have a weaving project to work on. Hey, it’s not socks! Better get on that now. 
Edit 5/21 - Seussy received her socks on 5/20 and has kindly shared some modeled shots as well.
