War is H-E-Double-Hocky-Sticks
Once again, I've been meaning to write a post about my imminent sock death, but delayed too long. So, again I am posting post-mortem, to tell you about my experience with Sock Wars this year.
One of the major rules I live by is "Make new mistakes": that is, learn from what you've done, don't make the same mistake repeatedly, try new things, even at some risk. Julie Gardner, the inventor of Sock Wars could stand a little of that in her game. A veteran of all three Sock Wars, I was sad to see that several things had not changed: there was still trouble getting the pattern and the dossieres out to folks in a timely manner; she's still trying to run it with little or no help, despite corporate sponsorship; the pattern still needed a test knit by someone else, or even just some proofreading. Unfortunately, she also made new mistakes: some arbitrary decisions on disqualification; pattern written w/o a lot of ribbing, so the socks don't fit on smaller feet, even if the length is right; switching platforms yet again, when the Yahoo group seemed to work fine last year.
My specific gripe is that I had lowered the gauge on the socks, (i.e., made more stitches/inch) because I thought they would be too big around done by the pattern and I wanted my target to get wearable socks. Please note, this meant I had to do MORE work than others, knitting more rows, and adjusting the shaping, so it did not give me any advantage in the game. However, because of a ruling by said Supreme Commander, I had to rip out what I had done on the socks (about a sock and a half) and re-knit them, knowing that they would now not fit my target, but not wanting to be disqualified. It was very de-motivating, and the lost time cost me my one kill--I died while the socks were still on the needles. Unfortunately, my death socks are also too loose around to fit, so I didn't even get useable socks out of the deal. Still haven't decided if I will give the socks away, or frog them and re-knit them, in the same or a different pattern. However, my assassins (plural; it took two to kill me!) included some goodies, so all is not lost.
All in all, I had less fun this year than in the past. I will probably still sign up for future Wars, but will have to lower my expectations or risk being disappointed again.
One of the major rules I live by is "Make new mistakes": that is, learn from what you've done, don't make the same mistake repeatedly, try new things, even at some risk. Julie Gardner, the inventor of Sock Wars could stand a little of that in her game. A veteran of all three Sock Wars, I was sad to see that several things had not changed: there was still trouble getting the pattern and the dossieres out to folks in a timely manner; she's still trying to run it with little or no help, despite corporate sponsorship; the pattern still needed a test knit by someone else, or even just some proofreading. Unfortunately, she also made new mistakes: some arbitrary decisions on disqualification; pattern written w/o a lot of ribbing, so the socks don't fit on smaller feet, even if the length is right; switching platforms yet again, when the Yahoo group seemed to work fine last year.
My specific gripe is that I had lowered the gauge on the socks, (i.e., made more stitches/inch) because I thought they would be too big around done by the pattern and I wanted my target to get wearable socks. Please note, this meant I had to do MORE work than others, knitting more rows, and adjusting the shaping, so it did not give me any advantage in the game. However, because of a ruling by said Supreme Commander, I had to rip out what I had done on the socks (about a sock and a half) and re-knit them, knowing that they would now not fit my target, but not wanting to be disqualified. It was very de-motivating, and the lost time cost me my one kill--I died while the socks were still on the needles. Unfortunately, my death socks are also too loose around to fit, so I didn't even get useable socks out of the deal. Still haven't decided if I will give the socks away, or frog them and re-knit them, in the same or a different pattern. However, my assassins (plural; it took two to kill me!) included some goodies, so all is not lost.
All in all, I had less fun this year than in the past. I will probably still sign up for future Wars, but will have to lower my expectations or risk being disappointed again.
posted by Bridget @ 8:22 AM
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