A yarny blind date

I’ve signed up for the Sock Knitter’s Pentathlon (for which there are Ravelry and Yahoo groups) because, well, I liked the look of it. The group summary goes:
In honor of the upcoming Summer Olympics in Beijing, a sock knitter’s pentathlon is being organized. This group will test your sock knitting skills. During the course of the year, competitors will knit 5 pairs of socks in 5 different styles.

That means a pair of socks in each two month period starting from 1st March. Having two months to complete a pair of socks feels do-able for me, where other groups that are doing a pair of socks a month, for example, send me into a panic just thinking about it. Two months gives me some breathing space! There is, of course (since this is an ‘Olympic’ event *g*) a competitive element to the Pentathlon – there are points awarded according to how you place in the finished socks stakes. But if you don’t complete a sock in the allotted time, even though you’re then eliminated from the competition element of the group, you can still knit along for the rest of the patterns for the fun of it. Perfect!

However! As I said, the kal / competition begins on 1st March – just over a day away. That’s when the first pattern will be released… all we know so far is that the yarn we will need should knit to 8 sts per inch on 2.5mm (or thereabouts) needles, and that solid or semi-solid yarns will work best. Being on a yarn diet, I’m obviously not buying anything new and I hardly need to with the amount of sock yarn in my stash. But I can’t decide what to use! Heeeeelp! I feel like, because I don’t know what the pattern looks like yet, I can’t choose the yarn / colour that will look best. Maybe I should just wait until the pattern comes out, but then I’ll have to think about which yarn to pick and then rewind it, all of which will be cutting into my knitting time… and I know I wasn’t particularly going to do the competition element of this, but I’d kind of like to see how I can do at it anyway.

I have narrowed my choices down a bit, though, so maybe I could get some opinions? Have a look at the poll below…

I haven’t actually only picked (semi-)solid yarns, but I think the others are ‘blend-y’ enough that they wouldn’t overpower a pattern. I’ll probably have to wait to see what it is to make a final decision on that though. Anyway! Most of these are Yarn Yard Sock, with which I get a gauge of 8.5 sts / inch on 2.5mm (which gives the better fabric imo) or 8 sts / inch on 2.75mm. The only one which isn’t is ‘Ripen’, and that’s Posh Yarn Emily with which I get a gauge of 7.5 sts / inch on 2.75mm. So those are near enough to work – I’m just stuck on the colour! Help me choose?











Which yarn shall I use for the first Pentathlon event?
Aubergine
YY Sock - Aubergine
Byron Bay
YY Sock - Byron Bay
Duck Egg Blue (on right)
YY Sock - Duck Egg Blue
Passionata
YY Sock - Passionata
Ripen
Emily - Ripen
Shelter
YY Sock - Shelter
Tour de France 41
YY Sock - Tour de France 41
Woodland
YY Sock - Aug 07: Woodland


Author: Lou

Geeky fangirl and knitter, owned by large black mog. Sometime web designer. Lapsed musician.

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