02-18-2023

Omg, I must be crazy.

02-19-2023

No, I take that back. People who love to do intarsia in the round are the crazy ones. This is supposed to be fun????!!!?? Okay, I’m kidding. Really. but OMG, it has taken me 4 HOURS to do 7 rounds. “Untangle your ends before starting on the next round.” OMG. it took me 20 frickin’ minutes JUST TO UNTANGLE everything. Forget about bobbins. Little balls. Organization. laughs hysterically Just cut 2 yards off the ball and let it dangle so you can pull it out of the mess at the end of the row.

My intarsia is a disaster. I’m never going to get thru this qualifier.

…..30 minutes go by….

okay, I’m calmer. Everything is still a mess, and my purling rownds are faster than my knitting ones(???) but I do understand the process. I will be cutting the yarn for the second sock intarsia a lot shorter - there is no way you need 6 feet of yarn for 50ish stitches per balloon, and all mine did was just get in the way. It doesn’t help that I’m doing this with magic loop and the ends get totally wrapped around the loop all. the. time.

Oh, and the folded cuff worked great with a smaller diameter needle on the held stitches - use one with a really flexible cable, too, cuz that’ll help as well.

These are in no way going to fit me and my big fat legs, but I can put them on blockers for photos.

Deep breaths. And no distractions.

I’ll be adding the yarn to the project when I get a chance. Main blue is Cascade 220 fingering, main black is the same, balloons are a mix of Dollar Tree fingering (green, purple), LB SockEase (orange), and L&T Woollike (red, gold, white).

Okay, I’m maybe stopping for the night at the end of Rownd 21. It took me a total of 7.5 hours to do 21 rownds, but only 2.5 or so to do about 12 rownds. I spend more time detangling than knitting, I think. I have had to go back and fix wrong-color and dropped stitches as well. I’m seriously laughing at the tangled mess the strands are making on the work. I have been leaving a 5-6 inch tail for weaving in after the intarsia nightmare is over - I think I’m glad the rules said we don’t necessarily have to weave them on. Gah.

02-20-2023

Okay. I did 5 rownds before I went to work. I’m getting there!!!

02-21-2023

it’s….4AM (good thing I’m temporarily on the 4PM-midnight shift)

I stopped at the end of round 45. You know what that means?

I’M DONE WITH THE BALLOOOOOONS! dances around the room

I have the jumping girl, heel and foot/toe to go, but omg, I’m done with the balloons for the first sock. The inside of my sock looks like my snippets jar threw up into it LOL and oh my freakin’ G-d there are orange/red/yellowish (but MOSTLY orange) fuzzballs everywhere. The cheap Dollar Tree yarn wasn’t the one fuzzing up - it was the LB & L&T stuff! gaaah.I have ladders everywhere and lots of big loose stitches to fix but whew.

Also, I don’t know about you, but I really only needed about a yard or so of each color. Way long strands = big gnarly tangles. I may just use what I have left for the second sock.

Bed first.

02-22-2023

Knit in the round to the end of 50. Off to work.

02-26-2023 early AM

Well, I sorta finished the first one. Need to put in the counting thread and the balloon strings. Hope this qualifies me for Cheerleader status! No way I can make another one of these in 2 days.

03-01-2023

I’m a Cheerleader! :D I’m in serious need of sleep tonight, but I’ll re-cast on Number 2 (1) and knit it to my size. It’s a very interesting pattern, and I think that knitting it at a more leisurely pace (and with smaller/shorter balloon bits) , I won’t get the tangles and the fuzzballs I did the first time. I’ll try on the sock to see if the foot is okay - I know I’ll need more room in the leg and probably the ankle, since I usually do socks at 72 sts.

I’m happy, tho. Sock Madness Forever!

03-02-2023

Cast on 72 sts for new Sock #1. Will try and keep the same colors I used for the initial balloon group, but will add rounds between the bunch and the girl, and probably take the foot down to 64 sts. I’m not a fan of the under-heel gusset and the underfoot seam, so I’m going to see about tightening that up when I get there. Leisurely.

03-12-2023

I completed the balloons on the new sock. I’m seriously contemplating just leaving the girl off - I did try Sock #1 one, and it was super stretchy (and nearly fits!) except for the balloon strings. I think I may leave her off and do just one or two randomly placed balloons on the foot, and run the strings straight down the column, with daisy-chain bows on the ends.

The girl was super fuzzy on the first sock, too. The Cascade is not tightly spun, and you can really tell.

It only took me about 5-6 hours to do the balloons again. Unreal. Plus, the back seam looks better too. Amazing what a difference not stressed about time makes!!