This post is dated and timed...
to coincide with the exact date and time when I finished the 52 Pair Plunge.
Between 12:01 am on April 1st and 7:19 pm on October 13th, I hand knitted 52 pairs of socks.
The summary is here.
I went through times of sock mania, sock rebellion and just plain ol' hissyfits, but I'm one happy bunny today.
Will I knit more socks? Abso-freaking-lutely, but I may wait until I get more holiday knits (on and) off the needles.
In the interest of completing my ridiculously painstaking account of the Plunge, I give you the Final Four:
Pair 49, Sea Wool anklets with the mock cable gusset borrowed from Cookie A's Titania's Revenge.
Pair 50, Spiraling Coriolis from Cat Bordhi's New Pathways Book. This book is brilliant, and inspired me to keep on plunging. The new architectures are a revolution. For this one, I used the master Coriolis pattern, carrying the spiral pattern up the leg and into the ribbing. Yarn is from the KOL swap, and I believe it came from Natural Dye Studios.
51 is a hybrid between a Cat pattern and a Kate Gilbert pattern. I worked the Sky architecture from New Pathways, inserting a repeat of the Marina Piccola pattern along each side of the arch expansion area. This is finally the end of a Cherry Tree Hill Supersock mill end I obtained from an ebay seller last summer.
Last but certainly not least is Jeweled Steps, also from New Pathways, in Koigu KPPPM. I carried the Jewel pattern up into the rib, and worked until there was a scary-small amount of yarn left. These are mine, all mine!
I have many other things to share, including some thoughts on my new favourite knitting book and more Lazy Knitter details. For now, I think I'll go roll around in a very large pile of socks.
Congratulations! That's a massive achievement - and man, are you ever ahead of the game re: gift knitting! And yup, if it was a pinky-red wooly yarn, then it was most likely Natural Dye Studios. How did you like working with it?
Posted by: Debbie B | October 14, 2007 at 01:37 PM
Congratulations. I've been following the 52 Pair Plunge blog but am not a participant. I like sock knitting but not quite that much. You've accomplished a lot and your socks are beautiful.
Posted by: Renee | October 14, 2007 at 02:17 PM
Wow. You are amazing!
Posted by: turtlegirl76 | October 14, 2007 at 02:40 PM
Congratulations and what an achievement!
You have made my desire to own a copy of Cat's new book even more so with these last pairs of socks.. roll on for when its available here in the UK.
From 52 pairs of socks you have created 52 pairs of happy feet.
Posted by: Pixie | October 14, 2007 at 03:45 PM
wow. 52 pairs. I'd love to see a photo of them all together, but I suspect that many of them have been gifted.
Posted by: Steph VW | October 14, 2007 at 04:16 PM
Holy Crap!! That's all I can say. Good work.
And do you like orange (its my favorite color!) - a lot of the sock yarns you've used look orange-y in hue.
Posted by: Teri | October 14, 2007 at 04:46 PM
Wow! I'm impressed! And you've knitted other stuff in between your socks too! The socks al look great!
Posted by: Marit | October 14, 2007 at 05:23 PM
Yay!!!! Congrats on the completion of the 52 pair plunge. You are indeed superwoman!! What's up next? Please keep blogging, as I so enjoy reading it.
Posted by: Helen | October 14, 2007 at 05:50 PM
WOW - an amazing feat(feet)!
The unbelievable part is that you made all different beautiful patterns, not just simple stockinette - even ending with brand new sock architecture - I am so impressed!
Posted by: Pat | October 14, 2007 at 08:49 PM
congratulations! whew! it was great reading about all of your socks. thanks. also congrats on the beautiful sock pattern on knitty.com. they are really nice!
Posted by: jackie | October 14, 2007 at 08:51 PM
Hey Deb - you are the most prolific sock knitter I know, and a wonderful designer as well! What now? 52 hats? That would be easy compared to your actually 104 socks.
I love what you did with the ribbing placement on the Jeweled Steps.
I think now you ought to go on tour with your 52 socks.
All best wishes to you for continued joyful knitting and creative discoveries . . .
Cat
Posted by: Cat Bordhi | October 15, 2007 at 01:03 PM
I LOVE pairs 49 & 50! I think I must buy the new pathways book just for pair # 50 alone - it's awesome! Nicely done, and congrats on finishing the plunge!
Posted by: Nicole | October 15, 2007 at 01:33 PM
Congrats! You've succeeded in blowing my mind (52 pairs in such a short time - holy cr@p!!!), making me drool, and confirming my suspicion that you are brilliant, just brilliant.
I'm loving the Cat Bordhi book too, and am on the second of a pair of the Riverbed sockitecture, made in Maizy (82% corn fiber!!!), with a lace pattern adapted from my Estonian lace pattern book. Will post once I buy a new digital camera (mine when phoot when I wasn't looking).
Keep up the great work.
Posted by: Logan | October 16, 2007 at 12:20 AM
Wow! Congratulations, crazy lady! I'm very impressed.
Based on my current sock-knitting speed, in six months, I would be able to knit... one-and-a-half pairs of socks. That's not very close to fifty-two.
Posted by: Mary | October 17, 2007 at 04:03 PM
... I don't know whether to worship you or think you're entirely mad. =D Regardless, that's one hell of an achievement, and there are some awfully gorgeous pairs of socks in there.
Posted by: Kay | November 12, 2007 at 10:56 AM