February Sock Challenge!

I currently have five WIPs: two long term projects (afghan & stole), two pairs of socks (both half done) and a pair of mittens. The Winter Ravelympics start in ten days, so you'd think that I would be participating in the WIPs-Dancing, but you would be wrong. Instead I'm planning on casting on for two new projects, mostly because realistic goals and me are not two things that go together well.


Both pairs of socks are presents (sister and Mom), and I would desperately like to finish them before I move back to South Korea at the end of the month, which means I have ten days to knit two socks. Considering that both these socks have been on the needles since October and November of last year, I originally though my plan was a pipe dream. Then I went and checked how long it takes me to knit a sock on average. The first results were pretty dismal; I knit two pairs of socks last year and they took three to four months to complete. Then I looked further back at the socks I knit in 2008, and if you discount the my very first pair of socks (they took a whole year), I knit my second and third pairs in about a month each.

Now, a month is much longer than ten days, but I'm a faster knitter than I was a year ago. Plus, I'm not working right now, and it's still to early to be packing. What else do I have to do besides knit my fingers to the bone? My goal, my pre-Ravelympic warm up, is to finish those two pair of socks by February 12. It will be hard. It will mean hours of knitting each day. It will mean funny grooves in my fingers from holding the needles and repeated jabs from too sharp tips. And in the end, if I make it, it will mean room in my luggage for two more skeins of yarn, and that will be worth it!