Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Hogwarts Sock Swap

I finally sent off my Hogwarts sock swap package to Shannon in Maryland on Friday. She received it by special delivery Owl post on Tuesday! That owl must have been caffeinated or something. I've never had a package fly so fast all the way from California to the East Coast. It must be the higher rates the owls are charging now. I couldn't post any pictures earlier because Shannon had figured out who I was and I didn't want to spoil the surprise. She also took wonderful pictures and said I could use them.

I modified the Horcrux sock pattern quite a lot to make this pair for Shannon. I used the fingering weight version of the pattern that Susan shared with the Six Socks KAL Yahoo group. I also striped the top ribbing, left out the ribbing after the lace, added a reversed repeat of the Horcrux lace and a slip stitch stripe, used my usual eye of partridge flap heel, made the foot solid stockinette and crenelated the toe to look like the Hogwarts School ramparts (and reintroduce the grey yarn to make the socks look complete.)

My DD Elanor (age 26) was my creative consultant on this project. If she had been a Slytherin Shannon might never have received this pair! I'm proud and happy to say that I used my stash yarn to make these socks. If I had received a Gryffindor or Hufflepuff pal I would have had to shop for those colors, because, amazingly, they are not in my stash of almost 300 skeins of sock yarn. These socks took me just a week to make, although it took 2 months for me to get around to weaving in all of the yarn tails.


Thank you to Shannon for being patient and sharing her pictures with me (and the world) and to Rebecca for having the idea and hosting the swap. If you want to sign up for round two the signups open on the 14th. Click on Rebecca's name for the information.

This is what was in the package I sent to Shannon. I even ordered special bamboo sock needles from Astrid's Dutch Obsessions. Of course, along with the needles came quite a few skeins of sock yarn. Maybe I should have shared one of those with Shannon too. Oh well, hindsight. I am going to send her the leftover green and grey sock yarn to make a mini Horcrux sock for her keychain.

3 comments:

Rebecca said...

Great job, Margie! I am busily finishing up my Slytherin socks, too.

Don't forget that you need to post your Hogwarts Sock Swap TWO questionnaire!

Anonymous said...

Great Socks! I have had issues with the yarn (didn't like the result of the original yarn so ordered more which took its time arriving) but should have the owl in the air ot you by the end of next week. Your Hogwarts Sock Swap Pal

Delusional Knitter said...

Those socks came out awesome! Great work.