Feeling the Love

There is a legend told among Sock Madness knitters, whispered above the clicking of needles during lulls in the competition the loneliest watches of the night, tales of the dreaded Sockdolager, an extremely tall, smelly, burnt orange creature which inhabits towers (but perhaps not treehouses) and delights in sucking the color out of freshly washed socks. Yet even such a monster, for monster it is, can be conjured and banished at will by the power of knitting, or at least made reasonably presentable and set to productive endeavor. Indeed that is what Adrienne Fong, facing those primal fears, has done. Behold the Sockdolager!



Sockdolager was the first round pattern for Sock Madness 7 and, true to the more ordinary definition of this unusual word, it knocked me out of the competition. It's not the pattern – the pattern is fine, I just have too many demands sucking at my time to have finished by the deadline. Sigh. The fit below the ankle is generous as the pattern has a Fleegle heel and makes clever adjustments to the stitch count to compensate for the Shahrazad's slipper effect (when the pattern stitch on the instep draws in more than the stockinette sole). Mine has 14 garter welts from cuff to toe.

The yarn is vintage club yarn, Scout's Swag 100% Superwash Merino, colorway Je t'aime. From the way another club colorway, Ballooney, knit up, I guessed Je t'aime may look sweet in the skein but would be tigerish knit up (if Bengal orange and fawn were substituted for the pink and purple). Since I don't have orange yarn, Parisian stripeyness seemed appropriate for a sockdolager.

Although the Sockdolager finished my hopes not only for a competition berth in SM7, but also for a patterns-only spot, the kindly mods smiled on me for an earnest previous effort. And in what must be the quickest delivery time ever this lovely prize appeared from Huggybear Knits: a 4 oz. braid of a One Pot Wonder, colorway Love Knot. Thank you Huggybear! Thank you kindly mods!



Incidentally, I didn't plan this, but with Je t'aime and Love Knot amidst the ashes and potsherds elsewhere in my life, I'm still feeling the fibery love, literally, which perhaps is the finest madness of all.