Sock Wars III

Yesterday when I was at Kiwi, aside from playing Knit Dr. for the morning (which I love), I was also arming myself for Sock Wars 3.

For those of you not familiar with the Sock Wars concept - There are, so far, over 1,000 Sock Warriors signed up to do battle. Today is the last day to sign up, so hurry over there if you enjoy knitting socks and are ready for a bit of silly fun.

On May 9th, each Sock Warrior will be emailed a dossier with their target's nom de guerre, shoe size, and address, along with the top secret Sock Wars 3 pattern. You must knit the socks as quickly as possible and mail them out to your target - as soon as they receive the socks you have knitted for them they are assassinated, and your defeated target must mail the socks that they were working on - along with the information about their target - back to you, the assassin. You would then finish the socks your now-deceased target was working on, and send them on to their intended target. Keep in mind, however, that somewhere out there, someone is knitting socks with your name on them with the intention if assassinating you! Once those socks arrive in your mail, you, in turn, are assassinated and must send the socks you were working on to your assassin. And it goes on like that, with socks flying all over the globe, until one knitter is left standing.

Admit it! Doesn't that sound like a heck of a lot of fun? This year, Sock Wars 3 is being sponsored by Southwest Trading Company, and the sock yarn of choice is Tofutsies, their machine wash and dryable self-patterning sock yarn blend of 50% Superwash Wool, 25% SOYSILK brand fiber, 22.5% Cotton, 2.5% Chitin. Being the rebel that I am, I have chosen Online's Supersocke 100 in a bright, screaming lime green blend that was calling my name. Supersocke is a blend of 75% superwash wool and 25% polyamid. I should be finished with the pair of socks I am currently working on by Monday, and then plan to work up my gauge swatch and sit back and get ready to dive into war next Saturday.

Now, mind you, I don't have any illusions that I will be that last knitter standing. But I plan to have a lot of fun, and what the heck, you get a pair of socks out of the deal, so what's to lose? I'm already planning to hit the Post Office on Monday morning and picking up a few of their smallest Priority Mail boxes so that I can send out my socks right from my computer using the USPS website. Just go to the website, click on the click-and-ship link, put in the shipping info, pay online and leave the package for your mail-person to pick up. We assassins have to have our methods, you know!

If you are a member of Ravelry - and if you aren't why aren't you? - you can follow the Sock Wars forum here.

Keep in mind, too that the new Kiwi Knitting Newsletter is out, so if you are not on our snail- or e-mail list, be sure to grab one next time you are in the shop to find out what's new at Kiwi, and see all the new classes for summer!