Preparing for War

Sock Wars starts tomorrow. I'm trying to take care of all of the basic tasks so that I can do nothing but knit until the socks are in the mail. I've got a priority envelope and stamp. I have the sincere hope that I won't have to mail the first pair out of the country, as I did last year. I know which local post office has the earliest pickup on Monday. You can't get anything into the mail on Sunday around here. I decided that I wouldn't go the Express Mail route because of the expense. My personal goal is to get farther than I did last year. I was one of the first people killed last year. The Yarn Monkey said that she'd try to keep all the first rounds in their own country, so I have some hope.

I'm a little concerned about the needle size for this pattern. The cashmerino I'm using calls for size 5 for gauge. I usually have to go down a needle size, but I had to go all the way down to size 1! I'm gonna swatch again just to be sure.

The Munkeh is all knitted, except for his tshirt. If I have some time after re-swatching, I'll start sewing him together.

I was reading a Ravelry discussion on whether or not to join the Rockin Sock Club again next year. Someone did the math, and for what it costs you could buy 11.4 skeins of Socks That Rock yarn. That convinced me to not join again. The people who run the club are really nice and they do a good job with it. However, I've only liked one of the patterns so far and none of the colors. I think I can find other ways of broadening my knitting horizons that will be a tad less pricey.

A woman named Ruth said that she was doing her own sock club with things in her stash. She pulled out yarn and patterns and put them in separate ziploc bags. Once a month, she pulls a bag from the bin and bingo, it's a sock of the month. I'm so going to do this. Maybe I'll start between swatching and monkey sewing. In any case, I'll be afk until the war socks are in the mail.