Qualifier for Sock Madness 2025

 After Valentine’s Day passes, the signs ups close and the qualifier is released.

This year, we started with a toe-up sock. Knitting a toe-up starts with casting on the toe and knitting up the foot, increasing for the gusset, turning the heel, knitting the heel flap, then working up the leg!

Sounds good so far?

This qualifier was just getting started! 

After the first cuff, we kept going into a cuff-down sock!

Both my sock blockers are inside the sock snake. The second half gets a new cuff, leg, heel flap, heel turn, foot, and finally a toe!

I had to remove the blockers to close the toe. Once the pair is knit together as a closed tube, we end up with this push me pull you. How do we get a pair of socks?

In the pattern, we were to mark a particular stitch for snipping later. At the time, I ran a lifeline in the last round of the first sock cuff. Now that I snipped the stitch, I concentrated on catching the stitches from the second sock. 

Once sock 2 was safely on the needles, I quickly transferred the stitches from the lifeline. This pair of socks is nearly done! They just need a stretch cast off…

Conjoined Twin Socks pattern by Katherine Richmond 

Signing Up for Sock Madness 2025

 February first is the opening day for sign ups for Sock Madness each year. During the first couple weeks of February, sock knitters flock to the Ravelry board to sign up and discuss the potential for the year. The group releases a Warm Up pattern and the knitting may begin! 

Gansey Adventure Socks pattern by Zaliwa. I did not try to match the stripes!

Wires Don’t Have to Match

 This morning, I added an inch to the lower center front of the AFI Elegance pattern. Which seems like a touch too much, but it is better than it was. The cups have rotated into a better position. 

The front looks better, though the tips of the wires swung far enough down, they may need another eighth inch between at the top of the gore. The right wire, though, started to bother me as it was then digging into my ribs. What is it? 

I added a quarter inch to the upper center front, and that did not fix it.

I tried a larger underwire, and that did not fix it.

I tried a smaller wire, and it feels better. The width of the wire is now closer to my breast root and on the front edge of my body, not back in my ribs on my side.

A Positive Direction

 This morning, I sewed up the next Elegance bra. Just for me. I’m kinda done with the group for today, and I don’t have much more time to sew before the course ends.

On their webpage for the AFI Elegance, the company suggests the use of “Regular or Vertical with lowered front” underwires. Well! I was using vertical without lowered front, both sides are tall! So, I grabbed some Orange underwires (same size as Regular, and popped them into the 90C  practice bra. That did not work well at all! I switched back to the original fitting bra I’d made in size 90B and the wires fit it great, and the cups fit well on me!

At this point, I had the right wires, right cup size, and next I altered the band pattern. I always seem to need to swing up the bra band. So, I did the basic band alteration on this pattern, then cut out the bra, and sewed it up. 

Did it fit? No. But, I can see what I need to change. 

So, the underwires need to sit against the outside of the breast in a certain position. They are meant to be close to the line of the breast root and support that edge of the cup. I did not understand this on my first few bras, so I want to express the thought now. 

This regular underwire sits leaning way back in this bra. No support, drag marks everywhere in the fabric. But, if I pull the bra, really rotate it into place, then the band finally smoothed out and the cup wrinkles disappear. If I had a pair of these “Vertical Underwire With Lowered Front,” whatever these mythical unicorns are, I doubt I would have to crank the bra around as far  to fit it. But, I have the Orange wires, which will work fine once the pattern is tweaked. 

So, I pulled off half the lower band elastic and chopped the center gore in half. Next, I’ll patch some fabric into the gap - I’m spreading the gore somewhere between 1/2 to one full inch. Then, I’ll reapply that elastic and try out this fitting bra. It shouldn’t be too many more alterations before something actually fits well.

Barely Fit

 They don’t hurt as bad, so I worked on the first toile with the changes for the DL03. 

Some background, I had altered the fitting bra to have a half inch more along the band after the fitter had suggested something like that for the fitting bra. Then, at the fitting bra check, she told me to do the band alteration that she’s giving out in general. So, I did that Tuesday. But that extra half inch combined with the instructed basic band alteration did not go well. My chest was trying to escape. It was a new and weird experience.

This time, I started over and just did the fitter’s alteration. Only that. I grabbed a kit and  cut it out and sewed up my first official toile. Once that was sewn together, there was just under two hours until the last fitting. I altered and cut out the Elegance as well. Will I make it in time?

So, there we are, I’m down to one finished bra that doesn’t fit, and I raise my little zoom hand to get in the group as instructed. I wait my turn patiently. And the person in charge passes me over and does another group. And I wait. She is discriminating against me for some reason. Finally, she calls me and I am allowed to talk to the fitter. Well, the bra did not fit. The powernet had seemed to be a similar strength to the one I ran out of, but it was too tight and I had to add a bra extender at the back. The cup edging had wound up too tight from being in a rush, and she told me nothing about what I should do next. 

I’m tired. I’m sore. And I’ve had it up to here. 

I am so sorry that this has turned to complaints, but the communication had not improved with this company. I will write to them tonight to see what it is she has so personally against me. I still cannot share what this course is as I do not want to give them any advertising at this point.

Retaliation Against Underwires

 I’m swollen. All that digging into my ribcage from the underwires caused issues. Go figure. How long do I wait for it to clear before I sew something comfortable? I went through and measured wires again, I’m 2 sizes larger. That would realistically be new bands. I’m not sewing new sizes in the time left, I haven’t even made any that even the band fits yet. The next round of fittings for our first actual toiles (bras sewn up correctly to test the changes) is tomorrow. 

Only thing I can really do is try to mitigate this swelling. I don’t like taking meds if I can help it, so I’ll try some topical treatments first, like Arnica and soaking. Maybe it’ll get better in time for the last fitting?