The Funeral: FO-ish: Sock Wars II Socks

With as late as the post is, is it any wonder that I died in Sock Wars II before I even finished my first pair?

I'm actually surprised I lasted as long as I did. I was out of town on a church retreat when they e-mailed our assignments. There were pictures of completed socks already uploaded when I finally got the pattern off my friend's laptop.

I had planned ahead of time, and used valuable packing time swatching to get gauge. It took US size 1 needles to get gauge in Claudia Hand Painted Yarn Sport (color: Circus Dancer. Part of me wishes I had kept this yarn for myself.)

I really like the pattern. It incorporates "smocking" (or at least that's what Lyndsey said it was.) It inspired me to use smocking in future designs. I think it looks especially good on handpainted yarn. The two lines of smocking are supposed to be battle scars. The Scar Rib Pattern is available for the general public now.

You can see multiple Scar Rib socks on the Flickr Sock Wars II group.

(FYI, I had gotten to round 17 of the scar rib of the second sock when I died.)

Can you really call incomplete sock wars socks an FO? Put it this way, I am. I even entered these in the Stash and Burn Socktoberfest Contest.

I got my socks one week after the wars began. Right now, I can't remember my assassin's name for the life of me.

But, as you can see by my picture, I have an excuse. By mid-week, I was as sick as a dog. (You can see I still had antibiotics left when this picture was taken.)


I missed my usual knitting groups that week. I stayed home from work that Thursday and slept all day. I never even touched my knitting on my sick day.

I missed the Meet Up Yarn Crawl to attend Maker Faire with Peter and Lyndsey. It was awesome, but because I was sick, I didn't really get into it. I was dragging myself around like a zombie most of the day. I didn't even bring a camera. (Although Peter has pictures here.) The socks did make an appearance at Maker Faire, on Peter's camera. (I don't have a picture of it right now.)

Anyway, after going for Pho with Lyndsey, I headed home and decided that I could knock out this sock before the weekend ended. After all, knitting required little movement. But lo and behold, I checked my mail and there they were, the socks of death.

I'm unsure of the yarn or fiber, but they are a pretty color. And they fit.

Did I mention my target has bigger feet than I do? And that I was I out of town when I got my assignment? And I was sick the first week of the wars.

I know. Excuses, excuses. But all is fair in socks and war.