Sock Sniper 2015

Have you heard of SOCK SNIPER? It is sock knitting contest with participants from all over the world, based off a group of the same name on Ravelry. Of this year’s 443 participants, 134 have decided to be active in the game (with another 309 knitting along) of last-man-standing competition where you knit a pair of socks for a target within the group only until the time you receive your own knit pair in the mail. That can happen in a matter of days, or you might finish your pair, and then receive the work-in-progress of your target and continue on knitting until the end of the game (usually in late-October!).

All participants received a set of four brand new sock patterns to choose from on September 1st, and I have been madly knitting away ever since!

Six days in… One sock down, one sock to go.

Baaad Anna’s Yarn Store encouraged more local participation this year by putting up a prize for the last-standing British Columbian, and the number of BC-based participants increased from 5 to 11… ten of which are active. So conceivably, there may come a point where have each others’ socks on our needles!

At 7 days in, two active participants (one in the UK and and one in the US) have already received their ‘death socks’, with another 40 or so completed pairs already on route to their targets. I myself had a bit of a slow start having decided to switch patterns and yarn two days in after knitting half of my first sock. But with the long weekend shutting down the postal system for an extra day, I might be left in competition long enough to finish off my target’s pair!

My false start… decided to shelve these two days into the competition. But will perhaps return to them one day.

Follow the progress of our local competitors on the Baaad Anna’s Ravelry group. And stop by our Wednesday night Knit Night to see some of the competitors madly stitching away.

And the best part of Sock Sniper? All funds raised through entrance fees support Doctors Without Borders, having already raised over $9,500 from past competitions to date!

Warming up my sock-knitting needles pre-competition with a little of Vice Yarns’s gradient sock yarn.