The Ram Club for Men's Socks

Help me eeeee! I don't remember exactly what lead up to it, but I think I signed up for a "Men's Sock Club"? The Sock Club for Men? hee hee heee. Well, I do have plenty of "Men" in my socalled life that I could knit for, right? Maybe it was the Ram thing. I'm heavily influenced by Aries.
It's at theuniquesheep.com. I vaguely remember finding it during March Madknits when I was looking for Jayhawk color yarn for Jaywalker Socks. Or maybe it was when I started searching for Sock Wars. Today, I had to go to PayPal to find out what the actual website was. When I got there, it is soo cool. But, they're not going to start shipping stuff until August. Whew! I've got to get through the Six_Sox and then there's going to be Sock Wars III in May. I'm soooo into this stuff. But, I have got to stop buying 4 or 5 new yarns for each One that I use up. All my stash hiding spots are overflowing. I started to use the Ravelry stash list a while back and really got to get back into it.
A few days ago, I came across a blog where a woman has listed how many Yards of Yarn she owns.
Is there anyone here that actually KNOWS how much yarn they have? Exactly, down to the Yard ?
Boggles the mind.

Sock Wars III - an epic adventure on knitter scale

From the Sock Wars files:
Sock Date 4/23/III
Who's getting ready for Sock Wars III?
Got yarn? TOFUtsies is optional, but has it's rewards if you Start your first Weapon with TOFUtsies. You only need to provide the yarn for ONE pair of socks Soldier! Unless you've Volunteered for the Valkyries. (Those intrepid, selfless knitting addicts that walk unseen among mere mortals).
Got Sticks? DPNs, 2 Circs, long Circs. Several sizes.
Waiting impatiently for release of Proposed Gauge from the Supreme Commander.
Planning the schedule for weeks of deployment.
Practicing: Knitting a pair in TOFUtsies Pedal Pushers, but not that pattern.
Shipping out preparations: Getting the materials ready with Postage for sending out in most expedient mode of delivery.
Stealth: Nom de Guare

Preparing for Sock Wars III

Warriors Prepare for Battle! Man your TOFUtsies ! Look sharp there Addi.
During March Madness, I was searching high and low for Jayhawk yarn for Jaywalkers socks. Two Blue balls of ToFutsies ended up coming home with me on the theory that I could maybe dye part of it Crimson. But, then I got off on the Regia tangent. So the ToFutsies survives to go to Sock Wars III, maybe?
I mysteriously ended up with a Bag of 4 Tofutsies Collectors Edition (I think it's from Stitches?) recently. As I was cleaning up after my March Madness fall off the Buying Ban, it just seemed to appear out of the back of my car. Anyway, Is there any chance the red / pink in there is the 733 colorway? I can't remember now. In my memory, it looks a lot like the 733 Get your Feet Wet color on the SWTC website (on my monitor). Boy, that's a lot of ifs and buts.
Anyway, I've been swatching with circs (I Always do 2 at a time) in various sizes to see what gauge I get. Tofutsies is a very fine yarn! So far, I've used #2 and #1, getting to the #0 tonight. I really love how it feels.
As for allergies, I was worried about it when I first read about the "ingredients". By all accounts, I should be allergic to half the stuff in there. But, I'm willing to risk it. I'm doing the "knit a necklace" test starting tonight.
I'll knit a skinny mobius or something and wear it all weekend to see what happens. Maybe a headband? I would do an Ear warmer band if it was colder. It has occurred to me that a "good" use for swatch squares might be to tuck into the side of a bra? (at this point DD would be sighing "T M I Mom!" Too Much Information") That would really test the allergy tolerance! Anyway, the Tofutsies has not caused my hands to itch at all. A couple of other kinds of yarns have given me itchy hands, but after I washed the FO, it was great.
I used to be totally convinced that I was "allergic" to wool. Now, I spin and knit and everything. Wool, alpaca, angora bunny, you name it. I still can't wear the skirt that Auntie brought me from Scotland, or the outrageously expensive dress pants DH gifted me. Not even with heavy pantyhose. I've washed, and dry cleaned both, and I hasn't helped those particular articles. It really must be something that they use to treat the wool, or maybe the fabric after it's made. Once, I even got some hand dyed alpaca from a RenFest that was lovely, till I started knitting it. Something in it, maybe the dye?, caused me to cough, choke up, sneeze, tear up, the whole nine yards. ;-) But, another color that I bought from the same booth was just fine!
Anyway, Off To The Races: May the best knitter WIN!

Jayhawk Jaywalkers are Finished

The finished Jayhawk Jaywalkers Socks ! Yeah

They fit really well. As they should since I frogged them back at least 3 times to get the fit right.
And the frogging went really well with the Basketball games. Knitting, frogging, screaming, knitting, screaming! Wow, those last couple of games were really tense.

And I love how the colors came out. I'm usually fanatical about the stripes matching on the socks, but I just could not stand to loose any of the yarn. Each sock used exactly One Ball of Regia. See earlier posts on how I over dyed it to get the Crimson and Blue just right. I'll be looking for Jayhawk colors far ahead of time this year. I will find the perfect yarn next time!
Rock Chalk, Jayhawk, Go KU! Another Championship!

Photos finally

The Jayhawk Jaywalk Socks
These were started with 10 stitches (5 on each side of the needle). The toes increase 1 on each side of the instep and 1 on each side of the sole for 2 of every 3 rows until there are 25 on each sole and instep (50 total). Then I started the Jaywalker pattern.
All was going great until I tried them on after turning the heel. I had knitted straight too far. So, when I tried them on, the foot was obviously too long. And the Gussets were getting too big by that time I had increased by 17 stitches on each side. They were frogged back to the red stripe. Heels turned, again. On the right foot, the blue now pretty much just starts in the heel, but the first time the blue was a whole stripe before the heel turned.
Anyway, they really fit. But, where the pattern stitch starts, there are some really lumpy parts. I hope they work out when they're finished and blocked.
Can't wait until the game starts!

March Madness Socks

So, if you've been following along, you probably know that I've really gone over the bend to get the perfect pair of Jay Hawk Socks for March Madknits or Madness.
So, to catch you up and try to refind my sanity:
I searched high and low for the perfect yarn.
There wasn't any, but I was willing to try Regia in a colorway that turns out to be Inca.
The toe / swatch turned out to be far too big in the gauge, and not at all the colors I was expecting.
So, in the throes of March Madness, I frogged them out while watching Thursday Night's Basketball round one.
Friday's spare time was spent finding dying hints and getting the exotic materials at the grocery store.
Then, all of Friday Night Madness was spent tying the two balls of Regia into garlands of yarn puffs to separate out the Jayhawk worthy color sections from the sections that needed to be dyed more Red and the sections that needed to be more Blue. What little time we slept Friday night, the yarn was soaking in vinegar.
Saturday was spent Dying some puffs Red and some Blue. And in true March Madness Miracle fashion, by Sunday Morning, I had the perfect Jay Hawk worthy yarn for my Jay Hawk Jay Walkers.
So, Sunday after Easter services and lunch was spent watching Basket Ball and restarting the frogged and dyed socks.
Updates later, the photos of the process were too scary to publish.