a sock exchange

  

modified Retro Rib socks (from Interweave Knits Winter 2004) in Koigu color #320 for my sock pal
and crocheted socks in KnitPicks "Color Your Own" sock yarn from my sock pal

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A new knitalong!

I so loved receiving my Christmas socks from Sandi and knitting socks for my aunties, that I'm looking for a reason to knit more socks. Um, and have someone else knit more socks for me (hee hee). So who's up for a sock exchange? A secret sock pal, a socka-pal-ooza, if you will.

Here's how it'll go: You get a name, address, shoe size and some color/fiber preferences and knit a pair of socks for your secret sock pal. Someone else gets your name and info and does the same for you. We all send our socks off around the appointed date (maybe the first of March?) and then enjoy our fabulous new socks! Couldn't be funner, right?

Leave a comment if you're interested and I'll start collecting names and email addresses. Once we've got a good number of participants for our sockapalooza, I'll close the sign up and start collecting all the pertinent info. So sock it to me!

Update: Wow, what a response! Some clarifications: 1) Sorry, I was lazy about the "shoe size" thing. Of course we'll get real measurements from everyone. 2) I like the Ides of March as an end date. If we can get organized by mid-January, then that'll give us two months. 3) Non-bloggers are always welcome! 4) Folks outside of the US are welcome too. Maybe when everyone sends in their info, they can also indicate if they're willing to ship to other countries. It shouldn't be too expensive for a pair of socks. 5) Why not have beginners too?! Maybe we could have beginners swap with beginners though? 6) How 'bout I cap this at 100 people. More than that and I'd be worried that my organizational skills wouldn't be up to the task. That's 100 pairs of socks being knitted and sent around the world - incredible! 7) If you sign up, you gotta promise to really knit these socks. No leaving your sockapalooza pal in the lurch. Got it?

Update: Sign up for the sockapalooza is officially closed. But stay tuned, if the winter tour goes well, there might be a summer tour!

Here they all are, our merry band of sock knitters ready to sock on!

green = finished

Update: Sign up for the sockapalooza is officially closed, but peek in the comments for some sock pattern suggestions.

This is what my boys yell from the backseat when the notoriously crazy Massachusetts drivers start acting up on the road. The boys are doing an imitation of Plankton from Spongebob Squarepants who is a very angry little marine creature, constantly thwarted in his attempts to rule the world by his own size: "I have come to realize... I can deny it no longer! I am small." So the boys put their hands over their mouths like a megaphone and say "Attention! People of bikini bottom! You are blocking our car!"

Do I have your attention now?

Sockapalooz-ers, I will start sending out sock pals this weekend. Woohoo!

And sockapalooz-er wannabes, I'm reopening the sign up. Right now! With Christine taking over the beginners group, I've got fewer names to deal with here and am not feeling quite as overwhelmed as I had feared. So be quick and leave a comment to this post and join before I come to my senses. I'm game for about 25-30 more participants. BUT you have to super-dooper promise with a cherry on top to make fabulous socks that your pal will love and not leave him/her in the lurch. Attention! People! Repeat after me: "I super-dooper promise...."

Update: Sign up for the sockapalooza is now officially closed. But if this winter tour goes well, there's good chances for a summer tour!

Okay, we now return you to your regular knit-blogging.

weasleys

Tania's weasleys! Eklectika's weasleys! Orli's first weasley! Tami's weasley! Four cheers for weasley knitters - hip, hip, hip, hooray! Awesome job, gals.

sockapalooza

Everyone in both groups should now have a pal. I've updated the list of sockers. Check the list to make sure that you're on it and your blog info is correct.

Can you believe that some knitters (like Illanna) are already finished with their socks?! Wow! Please hold on to the socks until March 15 though, so we can all send them off around the same time. And those of you getting started, share your progress with us or direct us to your blog for updates by leaving a comment here to each week's "tuesday is knitalong day" post. 150 people is a lot to keep track of, so it'll be better if you pop by here and let us know that there's progress to see. Thanks! I can't wait to see all the socks being knitted out there.

february is for fixing

Got a few knits gone wrong? Need to rip? Need to reknit? Fall in love with those projects again this February by putting them back on the needles and putting them right. It's a February fix-a-thon for inspiration and commiseration!

Weasley knitters!

Amy Lu finished her weasley and it's beautiful. And Leigh has done an amazing job on the "H" of her second weasley.

Anyone finished with their Rowan pattern and interested in selling it, there are a few weasely-wannabe's who would LOVE to buy the pattern from you. Check out who's interested in the comments to this wednesday morning knitalong post.

Sockapaloozers!

Helene has finished the most gorgeous socks for her sock pal. Wow! Helene also suggests sending a few scrap pieces of the yarn you used for the socks to your sock pal in case they need to do any repairs later. Great idea, Helene.

You gotta see the special little blog Grauwal has made just for her sockapalooza sock progress. And what incredible socks she's making! She recommended the Knitting Zone to me as a good online source for all kinds of sock yarns. I still have to get some yarn for my sock pal, so meet you over there!

Other updates I've gotten: Elspeth reports that she has one sock finished, Sneak a peek at Kristel's beautiful sock in progress. It's blue!

And I love, love, love Christine's Good 'n Plenty socks. Christine is heading up the beginner's group, so don't forget to keep stopping by her site for tips on sock knitting. By the way, I just caught the sock knitting episode of Knitty Gritty on DiY yesterday. They've got some good info for beginners on their site, including pictures and a basic sock pattern, so follow the link and check it out.

Can I just say how much I am enjoying sending your quesitons on to your sock pals? It's really nice knowing that so many of you are out there trying to make something that your sock pal will really love. You rock! If you want to be more than a sock buddy to your sock pal, Timothy suggests getting an anonymous email account through yahoo or hotmail (like sockbuddy@hotmail.com) and visiting your sock pal's website to say hi or to write them if you have additional questions. I know lots of people have done this in the secret pals program and it's lots of fun.

Remember, send me your updates and post them here in the comments. I wanna hear how you're doing!

February Fixers!

Take a look at that list of people who will be ripping and reworking knits next month! Now, that's inspirational. We've even got Bonne Marie, who's teaches us every day how to "boss our knits around"! You know, there's at least three Klaralund's biting the dust and even a crochet project that's joining the fixing fray. Neato!

Super sockapalooza socks I've seen so far:

Finished: Suzie's pretty pink socks, Jenn's awesome blue stripey socks, Grauwal's fabulous fair-isle socks, and Timothy's first sock ever!

In progress: Cece's pretty purple sock, Angela's blue/beige stripes, Kate's swirly, frilly sock, Margene's red hot salsa sock, two, count 'em two pairs of Friday Harbor socks (by Nancy Bush) underway - Sandy's and Deb's -, and more Nancy Bush - Erika's Travelling socks.

And although they're not sockapalooza socks, Kim's argyle socks (scroll down to Jan 21 - it's worth it!) and Jenn's nipper ripple socks are just too cool for me not to mention.

And no, I still haven't decided on yarn or pattern for my sock pal. Too many choices out there!

Note: anyone without a blog, I'd be happy to post pictures of your socks in progress! Just send me an image by email.

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Same goes for February fixers - send me pics of your ripping/reknitting and I can post them in tuesday knitalong updates.

For those of you who are ready to rip, a few links about washing your yarn to get the kinks out.
Theresa's page on reusing yarn
joyknit's quick how to
some pics from my own frogging saga

And you can recycle yarn from store-bought sweaters too, you know:
How to Unravel a Sweater
Yarn Tomato takes apart a Gap sweater
Knitty Gritty's Sweater Redesign episode

In fact, I just found these in my closet that could be fun to cannibalize! A gigantic Banana Republic cashmere blend sweater and a stretched out Tweeds sweater in 100% silk - not bad! And since both have survived several years of wadded-up neglect in the closet, I think the yarn is pretty sturdy. It's worth a try, right?

Are we ready?! (I know Laura is, 'cause she's already done!)

Update: The link to Theresa's page on recycling yarn has been updated. All the images should work now. It's the tutorial I followed to help me rip and reuse yarn for the first time. It's all you'll need to know to get started!

Koigu color #P320

I fell in love with this Koigu at my LYS and found that I couldn't leave the store without it. I was thinking that this fabulous color would be really cool as the retro rib socks (from this winter's Interweave Knits) for my sock pal. But what do you all think? Is the color too powerful? Is it something that might turn people off? What if my sock pal is usually a pink/purple kind of gal (but still open to a surprise, according to her info)? Is this too much?

Any opinions would be much appreciated!

It's going to be a short post today. Except for posting, I've been offline for a few days catching up on some much missed sleep. I haven't even checked my email! Another day of r&r and the blue blog should be fully operational again. For now my misadventures in knitalongs.

I started my sock pal sock and although I love that color, I'm still not convinced that my sock pal will. The rib pattern at the top of the sock looks good, I think, but I suspect that the rest of the retro rib pattern will get lost in the colors. I'm putting this one in time out for a bit, until I decide how to continue.

And I have actually failed in my first attempt to frog a store-bought sweater! I started with the ribbed cashmere blend Banana Republic sweater. All the seams looked good for ripping, so I gave myself the thumbs up.

I began with the neck, but the tubular bind off wouldn't reveal its secrets so I had to cut it and pick out a row to get a piece of yarn to start the ripping.

And then it wouldn't unravel! It seems that the first and last knit stitch of the 3x3 rib are knit a row higher than the rest of the stitches in that row. Perhaps this is some way of making the ribs lay flatter? I could unravel it, if I were willing to pull the yarn by had through each of these stitches every row. I of course am not. Too bad!

So everyone how are you doing? I hope your knitting and ripping is going a lot better than mine. The comments box is wide open awaiting all your knitalong updates. I promise to take the time this week to come visit you all!

We did our fixin update yesterday, so on to the socks!

Mine are coming along pretty well now that I've settled on yarn and pattern and actually gotten started. I'm sticking with the turquoise Koigu and the retro rib sock pattern. But since the purl ridges alternating up the center of the ribs really weren't showing up in my yarn, I'm just continuing the rib pattern for the cuff all the way down the sock.

I'm up to the gusset now, which has been giving me some trouble. I hate starting a new needle with a purl stitch and this pattern is unfortunately kind of set up like that. (This is one reason I prefer to make a sock in stockinette or simple ribs. But I was determined to try something different for my sock pal, because I think she especially likes patterning.) So I slipped the stitches around on the leg to allow me to start each needle with a knit, but when I tried that on the gusset, that of course messed up the placement of the gusset decreases. Doh! And back to the heel we go. C'est la sock knitting!

Did you see Stacey's sockapalooza survey? I missed it, but it seems like a lot of you helped her decide what yarn to use. Cool!

Have you googled "sockapalooza" recently?

Some of my favorite in-progress socks that I've seen so far include:

Mary's patterned beauty
Jessica's beautiful Birch Leaf sock
Nona's incredible wave sock
Mary-Heather's suckapalooza-no-more socks (hee hee)
Amy Lu's rainbow sock
Kristi's own cable and lace design
Jenny's fancy walking away sock
Mary's Koigu retro rib sock (great minds think alike, I guess!)
Parikha's beautiful brown sock
Silke's red Regias

And we've got bunches of awesome finished socks as well:

Anna's amazing green pompom socks
Chris' striped socks
Gill's Sour Apple Sock in Cherry Tree Hill yarn
Donna S.'s Mountain Color socks (hey look, they match Gill's!)
Leandra's purple patterned socks
Kristel's beautiful purple variegated socks
Michele's green cabled socks (check out the close up here)

Will one of these pairs be yours?! It's so exciting isn't it?

Oh and a brilliant (absolutely brilliant!) idea from Angela. How bout if we all include a postcard of our home town/state with our socks when we send them out to our pals, so they can see where they came from? Sound good? Let's do it!!

Sockapalooza sock #1 reporting for update.

I'm actually almost done with this sock now, but this picture I took a few days ago captures the turquoise color of the yarn better than any of the other pictures I've taken.

Alright sockapalooz-ers, get ready to start drooling. One of these fabulous pairs of recently finished socks could be for you!

Mary-Heather's incredible socks (closeup)
Margene's salsa twinkletoes
Karen's earthy striped socks
Maeve's blue cables
Lindsay's fur-trimmed ankle socks
Liz's fun stripes
Angela's cute little striped ankle socks
Kate's mermaid socks

And some sneak peeks at socks-in-progress that might be yours!

Kim's chocolate sock (scroll down to Feb. 13)
Mia's chocolate socks (Yum!)
Anja's blue retro ribs (oh these socks are calling to me, I MUST make myself a pair!)
Jackie's pink retro ribs
Dawn's flame retro ribs
Polly's New England sock
Lisa's super stripes
Barbara's pink stripes
Emma's lovely Broadripple
Cathy's beautiful patterned sock
Jessica's dainty fair-isle socks
Sandra's purple waves
Stacey's Crusoe
Julia's Crusoe
MA's ribbed Koigu (hey look, some weasley progress too!)
Jennifer's increasing stripes sock
Stephanie's blue wave socks
Angela's violet varigated sock

Those of you who haven't started yet, time to kick into high gear! We want to make sure that everyone gets a pair of socks. Go, go, go!

International sock pals, you might think about sending socks out at the end of the month. Those of us sending within the US will be sending things out on or around March 15, so socks will be still en route for about a week after that. So plan accordingly, given what you know about your country's postal service.

And remember to include a postcard if you can from your home state/country!

Big update today! First another finished weasley! After making one for her son, MA finished one for herself. With an "R". Awwwww.

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On to a wrap up of the February fixins, which definitely won't end with February. Cause I'm not done yet! Those of us who have ripped and are reknitting can just continue the makeovers through March. And for inspiration, just check out Sandy's latest posts where she's making final decisions on all her (AWESOME!) unfinished projects.

Since I've already started my new project with the yarn I recycled from the sleeves, I thought it would be best if I went ahead and finished ripping out my Banana Republic sweater. Not only were the body pieces huge, but about 3/4 of the back came out in one long piece of yarn!

5 1/2" diameter ball of yarn
(full ball of Koigu added for scale)

Yes, there was a whole lot of ripping going on:

Poor Stacey has ripped out her sockapalooza sock. Oh noooo! Wendi ripped out her very first knitted project and Janell ripped out her almost-first project. Amy Lu ripped a poncho for her daughter. Dani ripped out her poncho (marvel at her new finished sweater, then scroll down for ripped poncho pics). And another poncho bit the dust over at Jenny's. Karen frogged a failed project and was rewarded with 10 skeins worth of Lana D'oro. Yum! Michelle said good-bye to her fluffy thing and is gonna start a scarf style scarf! And Nicole ripped Rosedale United to start Rosedale.

There was plenty of fixing too:

Emily is fixing her Mariah. Patti has started Gersta with her Klaralund yarn and fixed her just finished Marilyn! Bethany is reknitting a sweater for her son. Shelby shows us that fixing's not so bad after all (and should have a finished Gloria to show us later today). And Renee is making a blanket out of the yarn she recovered from the baby sweater she ripped last week.

Rae had an emergency fix precipitated by a boy and his scissors! Eklectika fixed her dangerously low-cut tank. Jessica fixed and finished her mon petit chou hipster panties. Wowza! Nat fixed a wonderful heirloom blanket that a few moths had gotten to. Grauwal fixed the sleeves on her Jean Moss cardigan. And Jenny fixed something she didn't even know was broken!

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This is your official sockapalooza two week notice!

I'm on schedule with one sock done and the second begun. (Hey, that rhymed!)

And what you're all waiting for, more finished socks to covet:

Silke's cloverleaf socks
Tania's striped regia socks
Jackie's retro ribs
Karen B.'s elegant fair-isle socks (when they were still in progress)
Judy's gorgeous fair-isle socks
Angela's violet variegated
Jessica's beeea-utiful Birch Leaf socks
Lydia's lacy, autumnal colors
Jenny's beautiful blues
Timothy's first socks!
Deb's purple patterned socks
Amy Lu's rainbow socks
Fern's red socks
Dyann's Conwy socks
Jackie's red hots
Beate's incredible orange patterned socks

And in-progress socks you're gonna want to have:

Jody's tutti-frutti socks
Valentina's berry Tumbling Leaves
Emily's pretty white confetti socks
Ginger's teal blue sock
Jackie's retro green socks
Mamacate's Broadripple
Keri's Dublin Bay sock
Wendi's blue ribs (those would be PERFECT for me!)
Julia's Bob Marley Carribean Shells sock (did you vote in the poll?)
Kathy's beautiful striped socks

Sock on folks! Only two weeks 'til we ship.

Starting off again this week with another finished weasley. After making one for her son, Katie made a second weasley for her daughter.

Apparently making weasleys is as addictive as making...

a close-up of the ribbing with twisted stich borders
and look at the cute little toes!

Socks! Yup, I'm all done with my pair. Whoopee!

More finished sockapalooza socks for your feet to dream of:

Erika's Travelling Socks
Cara's pink clown socks (and look, she made a little keychain sock too!)
Monique's spiral stripes
Iris' superlong Regia Brasil socks (wow, that was a lot of knitting!)
Angi's white lacy socks
Sibylle's lovely silk socks
Dawn's pretty blue socks (here's a lighter version of her picture)
Debi's purple wave socks
Cathi's brightly striped socks
Carla's Broadripples
Gracie's Broadrippless
Amy's blue retro ribs (on their way from New York to ???)
MA's Koigu ribs
Cathy's purple textured socks

And more underway:

Marie-France reports she's working on Nancy Bush's Conwy sock in pink.
Pam's blue/green striped socks
Christy's Firefighters sock
Parikha's gorgeous grey sock
Amber's beaded spiral sock
Kirsten's fun stripes
Sandy's Friday Harbor sock
Allison's blue ribs
Jody's gorgeous Regia Surf sock
Ginger's blue Elann Sock-it-to-Me sock
Nona's tessellation sock

Just one more week and one more update and then it'll be time to get those socks in the mail! Of course, those of you with international sock pals have most likely already started sending socks out. In fact, I've already heard that the first pair has made its way to its recipient! Check out how happy Helene is with her socks. Hooray!

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February may be over, but we're still fixin'!

Did you see Bonne Marie's fabulous little number that she made from her recycled cash iroha?! Or Shelby's gorgeous Gloria?! Check out Bethany's little cutie modeling the sweater she just fixed. And Dani modeling her poncho turned shawl. Colleen had to fix her Fix-it sweater a second time, but it's all done now!

Still ripping and fixing are: Emily, who is almost done with her Mariah. Brynne, who ripped a sweater and is charting out how to reshape it. Carla ripped her Rogue (no pics yet). Nancy is fixing her Rogue - cutting, lengthening and grafting it back together (oh my!). And Sibylle says that with all this frogging and fixing, she's been thinking about ripping her Rogue! And here I thought Klaralund was the big fixer-up sweater. I did hear that another Klaralund bit the dust over at Enchanting Juno. And mine is should be at least partially ripped by next week's update.

Amazing how our fix-a-thon has inspired so many others to rip, fix and finish old projects! Katie rescued a cute baby tart hat from her UFO pile. Sandy ripped out a hat in a fabulous Berroco yarn. And Ellen reports she's redoing a sweater - ripping the yarn out from the neck to lengthen the sleeves.

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Last but not least, a little bird told me that a nothing but a t-shirt along is coming soon!

Last official Sockapalooza update! I've got about half of you listed as all done, so time to finish those socks and get them in the mail, folks.* I'm off to the post office to send off my sock pal's socks later this morning.

hint: this package doesn''t have far to travel!

Here's the latest bunch of finished socks that I've seen. Ooooh, the anticipation!

Mary's Conwy socks
Brynne's blue lace socks (Kristy has already received these!)
Holly's cable & rib socks
Christy's Firefighter socks
Neysa's beautiful cable socks
Erica's Pretty Comfy socks
Julia's aptly named Bob Marley's Grandma's Carribean Shell Socks
Dawn's flame Retro Ribs
Mary's Retro Ribs
Sandy's Friday Harbor socks
Kim's flock of chocolate socks (scroll down to March 8)
Polly's green New England socks (go Pats! hee, hee)
Wendi's blue Denmark socks
Keri's Dublin Bay socks
Cece's Party Ants socks
Rowena's Crusoe socks
Kristi's Spearfish socks (her own design!)
Parikha's elegant grey ribbed socks
MamaCate's Broadripple socks
Ginger's blue Sock-it-to-Me socks

If you've received your socks already, feel free to give a shout-out in the comments here and let your pal know how much you liked 'em!

* - If you're still working on your sock pal's socks, no problem. Just send them out as soon as you're done. If it's going to be a while, it would be nice if you sent me or your sock pal an email so they know that socks will be coming. The date's not as important as the socks, so keep on knitting!

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I may be done with my socks, but not with my fixin'! In fact, I just acquired a new fixer-upper. My LYS was having a little clearance sale of old shop models. I immediately grabbed this sweater, which I remembered always liking. I was drawn to the colors when I first saw it and then once I felt how soft it was, I wanted the yarn.

But I never saw the yarn in the store (now I know that it's OnLine 76 Cup). So I had to have the sweater. The style is just silly though. Look at those puffed out sleeves! I've ripped everything back to the ribbing and am working on reknitting it. Stay tuned for its reincarnation as "Banff on Safari" coming soon!

And if you thought I was a frogging and fixing fanatic, just look at Carissa's to-do list. Incredible, Carissa! And really inspiring. If anyone else out there is still fixin', let me know what you're up to in the comments!

So far almost 120 pairs of socks have been made and sent off to pals. Incredible!!! I can't thank you all enough for doing such a great job coming through with wonderful socks for your pals.

My pal (both in the sock swap and in real life) Sandy got her socks from me! I'm so relieved that she likes them. And I received two pairs of wonderful socks from my pal, Andrea.

Yes, my socks were crocheted! Aren't they pretty? The yarn is Knit Pick's Color Your Own sock yarn and it feels great. I love the color. Yes, "color your own" is meant to be dyed, but you see, I like me a good plain sock. I put that in my sock pal info and Andrea came through for me. It's not easy knitting socks for me! Thanks so much Andrea!! These socks are going to be well-worn, I can promise you!

And winding up the sockapalooza, another list of amazing finished socks:

Barbara's pink crazy stripes (she finished these ages ago and I totally missed them!)
Jessica's dainty fair-isle socks (I missed these too!)
Elspeth's socks in repose (another oldie!)
Sandra's beautiful purple waves
Anja's blue retro ribs (lucky Julia got these!)
Pam's blue/green stripes (my favorite colors!)
Kathy's Kool-Aid dyed socks (these went to a very grateful Brynne)
Nona's unbelievable tesselating socks
Jen's broadripples (she's also showing off the stunning striped socks she got from her sock pal, Kathy!)
Wendi's cables
Chris Q.'s purples
Illanna's Broadripples (see them here on the blog of the happy recipient Jody)
Gina's Briggs and Little socks
Allison's amazing first socks (shown here on the feet of another Allison who was her sock pal!)
Lu's pink (PINK!) broadripples
Jody's spring stripes
Dawn's Purple Club socks
Nancy's pretty purple ribs (also shown are the lovely socks she received from MK!)
Cindy's cute blue ankle socks
Steph's Crusoe socks
Jenifer's squiggle ribs (look, she got the lovely grey socks that Parikha made)
Emma's oh so lovely Broadripples
Amber's gorgeous beaded socks (you have to see the close up here!)

Just a few more dozen socks to go and this sockapalooza tour will be o-vah! And once everyone's gotten their socks, I'd definitely be up for another go round. (No sign ups now, please. I'll let you know when I'm all set up to start another tour.) Until then, keep knitting those socks!

And the socks just keep on coming!

Chrissie's incredible pink patch socks (Beate was the lucky one who got these!)
Denna's retro ribs (as worn by her sock pal Samantha)
Lynne's slouchy socks (as seen on Lindsay's happy feet)
Lisa's super stripes
Ann's ravishing reds
Yasmin's pinky socks
Marti's blue ribs
Hannah's diagonal rib socks (seen on Jessica's blog)
Gina's sweet ankle socks (her first pair, people!!)
Lori's Broadripples (on her sock pal Amelia's feet)
Stacey's toasty toes socks
Selena's winterberry Crusoes
Nicole's Bittersweets
Lizzie's blue ankle socks (seen here in Lydia-land!)
Traci's rainbow socks (seen on her pal's happy feet)
Allison's beautiful blue/green socks

Again, feel free to use the comments here to give your sock pal a big shout out. Hooray for sock pals!

So far, I have confirmation that over 80% of the socks are done and on their way or already arrived. That's awesome! If you aren't marked down as finished in the main list and you haven't already reported in, I'd appreciate it if you'd send me a quick email to let me know how far along you are. I'm sure there are more finished socks out there that just haven't been blogged about. So let's make that list all green, people!

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Hey, fixers and weasley knitters, what'cha up to? Anyone out there still working? I'm still plugging away at pop and my hourglass sweater and collecting yarn for new fix-it projects.

Did you realize that revamping a sweater is an excellent excuse to buy new yarn?? I recently bought this lovely Debbie Bliss wool/cotton to combine with the Rowan wool/cotton in hubby's practically never-worn and destined-for-frogging brown butter vest.

Some time next fall this lot should become the sweater version of Cyd (which I first fell in love with when I saw it in progress over at crankyknits). Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy. I'm never going to stop fixing. It's just too fun!

Today however is Wednesday. Alas, my web server was down for the part of the day yesterday when I was home and able to blog. So this week, Wednesday is Tuesday, okay.*

You mean there's MORE finished sockapalooza socks?! Oh yeah!

Shirley's fair-isles (seen on her pal Andrea's blog)
Sara's beautiful red lacey socks (and there's another peek at the great socks that Nancy sent her!)
Mary's fabulous handspun Monet-esque socks (here they are on Illana's feet!)
Jamie's blue retro ribs
Valentina's pink "patented" no-kitchner socks
Morgan's variegated socks (seen here on Chris' blog)
Martha's beautiful blues (on Leandra's happy feet!)
Elizabeth's blue and green socks (on her pal's feet)

Only 16 people left on the list to finish and report in. Only 16 - wow! I am so happy with how this knitalong turned out. And so impressed at how many of you have come through for your pals. What great socks and great pals. Thanks to you all for making the sockapalooza rock!

* - When I was in college, we always had those Jewish holidays off that fall in the middle of the week. In order to make up the missed class days from the M-W-F schedule, there was an official "Tuesday is a Wednesday" scheduled in the calendar. It was sort of fun doing everything on the wrong day!

Sockapalooza Wrap-Up!

First, a few final sockapalooza socks to show this week:

Kirsten's stripey socks
Sarah's beautiful beaded socks
Jennifer's blue stripes

It's now a month and a half after the official end of sockapalooza and we have several stragglers doing their best to finish up and a couple of non-finishers who haven't responded to my requests for updates. So, send in those updates if you could please! And let's also try a different approach. If you haven't gotten your socks yet, let me know. Let me know too if you've heard from your pal or not, so I'll know if there is a chance that you'll still be getting socks. If you haven't heard from your pal and they don't respond to my emails, I'll work out a "consolation prize" for you.

** Speaking of which, if anyone is interested in donating sock yarn or something else as a consolation prize for those sockapaloozers who were forgotten by their pals, please contact me! **

Once I get all these final sockers taken care of, we can talk sockapalooza summer tour!

We're down to about four sockapaloozers still knitting away. Two make-up gifties have already been sent out to waiting pals. Go sock pals and doners!

And look, some sockapalooza socks have recently arrived on my doorstep too.

blue crocheted socks - how cool!

It's a second pair of socks from my sock pal, Andrea! She sent me these along with the lovely cream-colored pair I posted about in March, but these were too tight for me to wear. Andrea was kind enough to offer to widen them a bit for me and now they fit perfectly. Hooray! In exchange for her fixing my socks, I've offered to fix the supercool socks she got from her pal.

the pattern is from Vogue Knitting On the Go: Socks

These beautiful socks were knit by Shirley, who's a little too busy right now to fix up Andrea's socks, but will be sending me her extra yarn, so I can try it.

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Speaking of fixing, my pop sweater is still unfinished. And with the arrival of warmer weather, I'd say that it's likely to stay that way through the summer. So it looks like the fix-a-thon has pretty much wrapped up. Here are a few final fixes to show you:

Emily's tank finally fits!
Nicole's Rosedale is gorgeous.
Erin turned a tank-gone-wrong into a bodice for a little dress for her daughter (scroll down to April 24). Awwwww!
Leanne reports that she has finished two projects and ripped out another (check out her fix-it nightmare!).
Ellen reports that she lengthened sleeves on one sweater by ripping out an oversized collar and then ripped another sweater out, dyed the yarn, and will reknit it in a different pattern. You go, girl!
And Suzanne did a great job fixing a way-too-big denim sweater for her son: before and after. Look at that cute little smile!

Send me more links if there are other fixes out there. I wanna see!

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And elsewhere in Knitalong-land, I guess I'm sort of knitting along with the NBaT'ers over at Nona's. So here's my progress...

model tee: front and back

And more blue blog designs I've seen:

Beth's Tricot in Manos Stria
Kim's fabby Rutgers NBaT (scroll down to bottom) and her new Mets NBaTank (scroll down to May 12) Go Mets!
Anna's rockin' chocolate brown scoop-neck NBaT
And Rosemary's Spring Fling Tank in Lion Brand Polarspun

Wonderful knits, ladies. Thanks so much for sharing them with me!

No not news about Sockapal-2-za yet (give me another minute or two!), but there is more news from sockapalooza one: my sock pal made me another pair! And they are so cool.

stripes - I love stripes!
click for close-up

And a few other cool gifties arrived.

Sock yarn from Shirley and funny pencils from Cara. You gals are the greatest! All your thoughtful gifties really cheered me up while I was working on the Sockapal-2-za organization.