310. The Four-Minute Sock

The backstory:  When our intrepid blogger first bought this yarn and made her own pair of socks from it, knitting a pair of socks was a major undertaking. They were the 2nd pair of socks she had ever knit, and the first for herself.  She managed to get the first one done for her spouse after that, but was probably overwhelmed with the task and never finished.  At that time some deposition craziness probably took over, or something. 

Now she's rather laughing at herself.  This is a super-heavy worsted weight yarn. (It's so heavy, it can almost count it as her weight-lifting for the week.)

A 40-stitch sock on US 7 needles. A 40-stitch sock! ha! She laughs at the puny 40 stitchedness of it! Nowadays, with a few extra years' training and experience under her belt, she's thinking she should be able to get these done in about three and a half minutes. 

We catch up with her already under way on the race track.

Here she is at 1 minute 20 seconds and hardly breaking a sweat.  Yes indeed, she's about a third of the way through!  She pauses long enough to tell us that those stripes were a bit tricky.  They required a lot of cutting of yarn and counting of rows, and put her a bit behind on the clock, but she's now cruising along and making up time.  However, coming up soon is the heel flap, the turning of the heel, and the gusset.  That might also put her behind the pack, with all that back-and-forthing of the heel flap.  Perhaps she was a bit hasty in making her time estimate. 

Indeed.  It's been 2 minutes 48 seconds, and she did not count on getting tendinitis in her forearms and elbows, or have an extra two classes to cover at work, not to mention coming down with an unexpected headache.

We come upon Béla Knitrolyi, world-famous knit coach, who is on the sidelines yelling at her, "You can do it!  You can do it! You can knit that sock with a broken wrist!  With a full cast on your elbow! Forget about those med school lectures and the stenoing you need to do! Forget about the pain in your elbows! You can do it! Knit it! Knit it!"

Despite his urgings, she falls slightly more behind the leaders of the pack. To make matters worse, she makes the tactical error of weaving in the ends of the stripes before she hits this steep heel/gusset hill. Still, it's only been three minutes, give or take. Anyone can hold on for another minute! We urge her:  Stop thinking about that Marta sweater that is at the finish line waiting for you to finish!  Stop it!  Keep on going on the sock.  Only another minute or so left to go. Push it!  Push!  You can do it!

Yes!  At 3 minutes 20 seconds (behind her goal, but still making respectable time), she has turned the heel and finished the gusset. 

We're on the home stretch.  The finish line is in sight. 

Lookie here, almost finished! 

In a last-few-seconds surprise move that stunned everyone, especially the knitter, she remembered how to do the Kitchener stitch to graft the toe without having to resort to pulling out the video for instructions.  She darted across the finish line a little behind her hoped-for time, but she scored a personal best: The four-minute sock!

BOGUS, all of it. Well, not all of it. She did knit these lickety-split this week, but it took more than four minutes. It really took a few hours -- OK, maybe six, more or less -- and the task of knitting this sock was oh-so-much-less daunting than it used to be.  Mission accomplished, and a very satisfying, and truly spectacular (if she does say so), finished pair of socks. And when she says they are heavy, she's not kidding.  The postal scale reveals 9 ounces for this pair of socks.  Beefy!

Ravelryized here.

 

 

Comments

[Ruth]

Can I hear a "WHOOT!"?

[Kristen]

Béla Knitrolyi--snicker, snicker!! Tendinitis--ouch. Been there. :(

[Debi]

I'm only correcting you cause it might come up at work..it's tendonitis (even tho my spell check wants to correct it too!)

Love the beefy sock Norma! There's one a little more svelte and a little more fancy on the way soon :)

[Suze]

Thanks for the smile....you even had me speed reading.

[Ann]

laughing the best medicine. You crack me up. "ravelryized" wtf. I love it.

[marianne]

Oh how I love those thick beefy socks! Congrats on your mad sock knitting skilz, and thanks for the morning chuckle.

[gayle]

Woohoo!
Will you be competing in the 2-minute scarf event next?

[Carole]

40 stitches! That's got to be fast. It's funny because Dale was pulling on a pair of socks I made for him way back when and he was raving about how much he loves them and how he'd like more pairs of them. They were knit with Cascade 220 and probably took 4 minutes, too. I think I can accommodate him on this request.

[Renee]

Great socks! Great post too, made me smile.

[carol]

Maybe i should rethink the xmas presents. Heavy socks for everyone!!

[Paula]

It is moved that this chapter of the Ravelry Underachievers be closed. All in favour? Let the record show one vote in favour, none against, none abstained. Motion carried. *sniff*

[Nora]

LMAO. Funny thing is, the worsted weight socks I made when I was just learning (not very long ago) are my absolute favorites. Cushy and lovely.

Yours turned out wonderfully. Brava!!

[margene]

Look at you...a real knitter. You've come a long way babe! That pair of socks will be well loved and worn in the cold that's coming.

[Cathy-Cate]

Those are WONDERFUL socks and look very cozy; the stripes are especially pleasing. And I love natural dyes. I am extremely impressed at how alike they are, being knit at different times. Way to go! Definitely a PR!

[Joy]

Thanks for the giggles! Very nice socks - only problem with worsted weight socks is finding shoes they'll actually fit in ...

[Manise]

Got to love the thick, quick sock!

[Vicki]

I started some heavyweight slipper socks on 8s while watching election returns on Tuesday night -- I'm turning the heel already, even with a bunch o' cables!

[Cheryl S.]

LOL! I wish all socks knitted up as quickly as worsted-weight ones.

[sara]

I was just about to come in here and comment that if you finished that in 4 minutes, I was going to give you my sock yarn stash. Too bad. ;-P

[Doris]

What nice socks...and won't your husband be happy with his nice warm feet this winter? Loved the story too.

[Marilyn]

Here's a headache remedy from my youngest son who has "next thing to a migrane" headaches. 2 Tylenol and a can of Diet Coke. Really. That simple. I tried it and it worked for me too. Hope it works for you. :)

[Seanna Lea]

That's great! If I could knit a pair of socks in a few hours (granted all of the socks I have going are sock weight not worsted), then it wouldn't be problematic at all to knit two pairs for my MIL before the holidays!

[Cookie]

Four minutes?! Dude, I knit two pair while reading this.

You are one of those people. You know that, right? xo

[Kristen]

Hate to tell you this Debi, but the first entry in the dictionary is tendinitis. The "alternate spelling" is tendonitis. I learned this when I had it. What a wacky language English is, eh?

[Sue]

You crack me up! Lovely socks....

[Lisa McGuire]

Love the socks and really love the story...:)

[twinsetellen]

From the midst of a Bohus sweater at over 8 stitches to the inch, man do those socks look great!

[kmkat]

9 ounces? They can count as leg weights when you wear them. Also, I would like to meet those leaders of the pack, they who supposedly knit faster than you. Frankly, I think you made them up.