I wanted to do this sooo badly. A little sad. Thank you irishgirlie for being you!

WORLD NEWS PRESS RELEASE, January 1, 2010, Wiltshire, UK- NOTORIOUS SOCK KNITTERS CELEBRATE BLUE MOON AT STONEHENGE

Not only was it New Year’s Eve last night, but it also was a blue moon (Dec.31, 2009, http://scienceworld.wolfram.com/astronomy/BlueMoon.html), which was cause for celebration for a group of notorious sock knitters whose mission seems to be to share the passion and joy of sock knitting to the world. Well, they brought it here to Stonehenge last night. Did they ever.

The world awoke today to find Stonehenge nice and cozy. The trilithons of the Sarsen Cicle were decorated with their “cozies,” handknit with Socks that Rock, the addicting sock yarn produced by Blue Moon Fiber Arts. The “Heel Stone” (http://witcombe.sbc.edu/earthmysteries/EMStonehenge.html) displays the perfect short row heel and of course, a star toe, which seems to be the appropriate choice for this special site. Each cozy featured a different pattern, but Rockin’ Sock Club knitters who participated in the event chose to knit either the Solstice Slip pattern (perfect for when the Summer Solstice comes around!) or a cable or Celtic design(an homage to the Celtic culture that is associated with Stonehenge). See Pattern Notes below for specific information.

One cannot help but note the colorways that were chosen also. Mesmerizing, eye-popping, brilliant, saturated, vivid, art before your eyes. Initially, when this project was created back in March 2008 as part of “The World is Your Knit Canvas” contest, colorways suggested included Midsummer’s Night, Stonewash, Blue Moonstone, Philosopher’s Stone, and Mist, to name a few. However, Blue Moon’s depraved dyer, Tina, was inspired to create an entire “World is Your Canvas” series of colorways and released 10 additional colorways (e.g., “Friar’s Heel,” “Boudicca” (the Celtic Warrior queen some credit with building Stonehenge as her monument), “The Spirit of Stonehenge”) for Rockin’ Sock Club knitters to use for their first stop on their worlwide campaign (additional colorways are planned for the 11 other worldwide events that are planned for the year, however the club is keeping most of the sites hush-hush. There is some speculation that the Eiffel Tower is up next on their tour, but Tina is known for dropping hints that are meant to deliberately mislead her flock! I wouldn’t be surprised to see them show up in San Francisco to decorate the Golden Gate Bridge in a flashy scarf or skirt, especially since its Irishgirlie’s hometown and she initiated the Stonehenge campaign. Just my two cents).

Locals and tourists are flocking to Stonehenge today to witness this art. “What a brilliant idea,” one onlooker commented. “It really brightens up this place and celebrates its beauty. It also makes me want to learn to knit too!” Thousands of small “emergency sock yarn” skeins were also left at the site, in addition to stickers and swag that let everyone know that “NSK” (Notorious Sock Knitters) were here. The locals are already giving Stonehenge a new name….

ROCKS THAT ROCK!

……………

Pattern Notes below (These were sent out worldwide to all rockin’ sock club members in March 2008 and modifications were made throughout the process. This is a rough sketch. More specific pattern notes will be detailed in next year’s book, “Notorious Sock Knitters Decorate the World” (title tentative)).

Yarn: Either STR mediumweight or heavyweight (in regards to number of skeins, we are anticipating A LOT)

Pattern: Select your own, however, it is strongly suggested to use something with a cable or celtic inspired pattern or the Solstice Slip pattern.

Depending on what stone you will be knitting for (e.g., the stand alone stones (trilithons) the cozies can be knit in the round for and slipped on, or the stones with something on top where the cozy will need to wrap around and then be seamed on to the actual stone, or the heel stone which will be easy to slip on), the measurements will vary. For example, the trilitons average 6.5 feet wide, 3 feet thick and tapers towards the top (so will need to put appropriate increases in, if knitting from the top down)(http://witcombe.sbc.edu/earthmysteries/EMStonehenge.html). Oh, and they stand 13 feet above ground, so you will probably want to knit at least 12 feet. Potentially, you are then knitting 19 feet around (give or take some ease), and 12 feet long. If using STR mediumweight with a gauge of 8 stitches/inch, depending on if you are going to knit top up, top down (for decreases/increases), your cast on may have

19 feet x 12 inches = 228 inches x 8 stitches per inch = 1824 stitches

(don’t forget to check gauge…we don’t want slouchy cozies!, oh and don’t worry, we’ll have a pattern editor check my math).

This is just a bit to get you all started. Our UK RSC members are headed out to Stonehenge as we speak to get exact measurements and they will be dispersed soon. Some groups are talking about working together/doing a KAL cozy….keep reading the blog for details.

Remember…

ROCKS THAT ROCK!

I think I lost it… let me know if you come across it.

Well actually I do not think I lost it, that is not true. My almost complete and really full NSK binder is not where I have been keeping it for the past year and well.. I expect foul play. ( where could it be?did the butler do it? oops wait I do not have a butler.) I wish people would not touch and certainly not move or hey, even breathe on my stuff. I worked hard on this puppy and it has all my personal design notes and maybe it was not my best creative work but it was mine. Why would you mess with something that is not yours?

Okay reigning it in to give you the details and Scrapagories and post Etta Mae’s binder for a little inspiration. Was going to post mine but… I am going to try to be really big about this and choose to look at it positively. hmm… oh I know, I was not really creatively happy with it anyway. In all honesty was pretty embarrassed to show you guys and well now that I am telling you about it I think maybe it might have run away from home. Poor sad binder.

Ok letting go (yeah right) and starting over. In with the good air out with the whiny air.

Here is how this contest will roll:

There are 8 categories below which you can enter under. We here at Blue Moon will pick our 16 top favs 2 from each category and then post them here for the whole club to vote on. The 8 grand prize winners from each category win a 40% off coupon that can be used on the anything Blue Moon wise including the 2010 sock club. The 8 runner up will receive a 20% off coupon good for the same. You have until December 20th to send these to us and we will then post the the top 16 on the 22nd and you can peruse and vote until the 26th. We will then announce the winners on the 28th.
When you send your photo please also add in a short description of what you did and why.
Since I have to start over ( see the letting go) and think I might have missed my own point of this whole thing earlier. Instead of making it mostly about what was in the club I am going to make it what the club is for me. A journey maybe or keepsake of my sockie year.

Here are your Scrapagories:

the most Dominating. (in keeping with the whole sock knitting world domination theme)
the most Likely to be Martha Stewart ( I think this speaks for itself)
the most Colourfully outrageous ( well duh)
the most Out of the Box ( a heel here, a toe there. anything goes)
the most Notoriously Sock Knit (celebrating community, knitting, sock…)
the most Tightly Wound ( where organization reigns supreme)
the most Creatively Scrapbooked Challenged ( I would enter here)
the most Hodge Podge ( this is the category if the others are not calling your name)

Please send you binder photo submissions to sockclub@bluemoonfiber arts.com

I think that covers it ( ha ha covers it…get it?) If you have any questions let me know.

I am off to find the butler.

Most of you should be getting your shipping notifications from USPS. We are doing our best to get everything out today and tomorrow.
Sorry for the delay we had a bunch of issues this time around and I kept thinking it would all resolve in time and it did not.
Every once in awhile we have one of “those” shipments where almost everything goes wrong and as much as I did not want to read the writing on the wall about this one it was never the less true. I am sorry that the ones that take longer to reach their destination are going out at the same time as the others are but felt that at this point they all just needed to ship.
I hope it does not colour your experience of this shipment. I am really excited about this one and cannot wait to see if you enjoy it also.

So while we are all waiting I have some questions for you.

Who is your current fav sock designer and why?

When do you the bulk of your knitting?

How many pairs of socks did you knit this year?

Who do you knit socks for?

oh and thanks so much for the feedback on the keychains. Very helpful.

There is a notice in your package this time out about Camp and next years sock club. So look for it. Mostly it tells you to check the Blue Moon site the second week in December when all of this will be there.

As Carol mentions below we still have our binder contest and Susan and Cockeyed and I have been working on ours.

(Be kind. I am not so good at this as I thought I would be. Seriously I am pretty disappointed in myself. Oh well, getting over it)

All of the details on this one will be posted this Friday.

ok brief packaging break over. The playlists are really coming in handy this time out although I think if Joann hears another cover of Blackbird she might take me out.