Tick… tick… tick… tick… BOOM. My second pair of Detonators for Sock Wars are finished! They were started by my target, Seussy. I received them from her on May 23, just in time for Memorial Day weekend. She had gotten about halfway through (or maybe a little more) the first sock. I finished that first sock on Memorial Day, but didn’t get to cast on the second sock until Thursday, May 29. Plugged away at them little by little over the next week, and then totally knocked out the foot from the end of the gusset decreases all the way to just before the toe decreases yesterday. Quickly finished up the toe today, washed ‘em, and voila! Second pair of Detonators filed in the done pile. Now they will have to make the long journey across the country and across the border to my target’s target, Beagle, in Vancouver, British Columbia (that’s Canada, eh!). As I said in yesterday’s post, I will be a sitting duck while these socks make their way to Vancouver and while I wait for Beagle’s SIPs to make their journey over the border and across the USA to me. I’m pretty sure I must be close to being knocked off — I mean, it’s been a month, the sock bomb destined for me is either with or on its way to its second assassin to be finished off. I have no idea how long the mailing time will be to Vancouver and back, but I’m guessing I’ll be waiting for SIPs for at least a week and a half to two weeks.
So, what to do while I wait? Knit more socks, of course. But the difference is, these are for meeeee! I want to make some socks for meeeee again! I was at Yarns R Us for a couple hours yesterday (working on the second pair of Detonators, of course) and during a little break from the knitting I checked out the new sock yarn stock Kim had on the shelves (hey, I hadn’t been there for three whole weeks). I spotted plenty of Cherry Tree Hill I’d love to use, but I already have a bit of a wool sock yarn stash developing and, um, it’s practically summer already. Our first heat wave has already started. I need something with cotton in it. Well, I spotted some Paton’s Stretch Socks on the shelf. I didn’t remember ever seeing it at the shop before, and the words “cotton blend” and “elastic” really caught my eye (pretty colors, too). One ball is about 239 yards, so I figure I can get a pair of anklets out of it. Anklets are great for trying new stuff out — quicker than a full-size pair of socks, you don’t need as much yarn, blah blah blah. Plus, I want to wait for Summer of Socks to start before casting on any full-size socks. Might as well do any “ineligible” stuff in the interim. I also bought a set of sock double-pointed needles (DPNs). I have only ever used DPNs before for 1) finishing off a hat when there were too few stitches to fit around a 16″ circular, or 2) knitting i-cord. Since I lean a little more to the side of being a process knitter more than a product knitter, I felt I should at least try to knit a pair of socks on DPNs. Almost as soon as I finished off the second pair of Detonators today, I grabbed the brand-spankin’-new DPNs and sock yarn and headed off to the computer to learn Judy’s Magic Cast On so I could start the anklets toe-up. I already have a stitch pattern picked out from The Complete Book of Knitting, so as soon as I figure out my stitch count for around the foot and leg and I’m ready to go.
And P.S. — so far, I’m actually liking the DPNs. Shhh… don’t tell the magic loop people!
