Wednesday 24 March 2021

Marathon Sock KAL 2021: Starts April 1st

Need an incentive to cast-on some new socks? Well here it is: the Marathon Sock KAL 2021 starts on April 1st!

 


What is the Marathon Sock KAL?

The Marathon Sock KAL is a knitalong (KAL) that involves a collective effort to knit a marathon's worth of yarn!

A marathon is a long way, do I have to knit it all myself?

A marathon is a long way (26.219 miles to be precise), and that’s a lot of socks! Each pair of socks I knit for myself (UK women’s size 9.5-10) uses approximately 300 m of yarn (assuming sock weight yarn at 400 m per 100 g), so that’s roughly 140 pairs of socks, which is a lot of knitting. The aim of the KAL is for you to knit one or two pairs of socks, and for me to knit one or two pairs of socks, and we keep a tally of how many metres each of us have knitted. If 140 crafters each knit a pair of socks, we’d finish pretty quickly, if 70 people each knit two pairs of socks it’ll take a bit longer. You get the idea! Last year one Marathon sock knitter knitted 25 pairs of socks for the marathon! Everyone is welcome whether they knit one pair of socks or ten.

When does the KAL start?

The Marathon Sock KAL starts on April 1st and runs through the spring, and possibly into the summer (prime sock-knitting season) or until we have knitted the full 26 miles of yarn.

Does it matter what size socks I knit?

All you have to do is knit a pair of adult-sized socks (UK size 1 or larger – EU 33; US 2), and enter them to my Marathon tally via this Google Form, including the amount of yarn you used for your socks, in metres. This is a bit different to how we’ve done it in previous years, but I think it’ll work well (and save me transcribing numbers!). You’ll need to post a photo of your finished socks somewhere online (e.g. Ravelry or Instagram), and you’ll need to post a link to the photo when you fill in the form, so make sure you’ve done that before you fill in the form.

I want to chat about my socks while I knit, can I do that?

There is a chatter thread is open now in my Ravelry group,** so you can chat while you cast-on and knit your socks, or you can post your socks and plans to Instagram using the hashtag #MarathonSockKAL2021 I’ll be posting my progress on Instagram via @VikkiBirdDesigns

NEW FOR THIS YEAR: THE SOCK SPRINT!


Fancy an extra challenge for this year’s Marathon Sock KAL? I’ll be casting on a pair of socks on April 1st, and trying to finish them within one week (by April 7th 2021). If you fancy joining in, that would be amazing. Any entries knitted within the first week of the KAL will be entered into a separate draw and I’ll pick one winner from those entries – entries will only be counted if they are entered via the
Google Form.

I’ll be knitting my Three Siren Socks pattern for the Sock Sprint. If you fancy knitting along, you can pre-order the pattern here.* The pattern will go live on April 1st, just in time for you to cast-on. 


Happy knitting!

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Aim

Knit a Marathon's worth of socks: 26.219 miles of sock yarn converted into socks.

Rules

·        Socks must be cast-on on or after April 1st 2021

·        Socks can be knitted or crocheted in any yarn weight

·        All socks must have a proper heel (no yoga or tube socks)

·        Socks must be UK size 1 or larger – EU 33; US 2

·        The KAL will close once the full 26.219 miles of yarn have been knitted

·        For your entry to count, you must complete the Marathon Sock KAL entry form, which can be found here. Entries that do not include a photo will not be counted

·        Only full pairs of socks cast-on after April 1st 2021 count for this event

·        Only hand-knitting/crochet will count, not machine knitting. If you have machine-knitted a sock tube and are adding heels/toes/cuffs by hand, the metres you used for the heels/toes/cuffs can be counted as an entry

·        Sock Sprint entries must be cast-on April 1st or later, and cast-off before the end of April 7th 2021 (any time zone) – I’ll be drawing the winners for the Sock Sprint via the Google Form, so don’t forget to enter them there!

Prizes

There will be four prize winners:

·        One winner from all entries completed during the Sock Sprint period (April 1st to April 7th 2021)

·        Three winners from all entries once the marathon has been completed

Winners will be drawn at random from all entries received via the Google Form.

*Ravelry link – may cause issues for people with photosensitivity. Prefer PayHip? You can find the pattern on PayHip too.

**Ravelry link – may cause issues for people with photosensitivity.

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