While up in Connecticut this weekend, I prevailed upon Rudi to head out into my parents’ yard and take a few shots of my recently finished pair of socks.

These are Frick-n-Frack:

One was knit toe-up. The other knit top down. I started with Frick, which took me a week to knit. I am particularly slow knitting toe-up socks, so I figured it would be smart to start with my weaker skill.

I was confident that I’d have no problem making up time with Frack, since it was knit top-down, but I underestimated how quick my teammates would be in filling the quota for the next round.

By the time I finished Frick, completed socks were rolling in every few hours, and those of us still knitting were feeling a bit of a panic. By Sunday night, there were four spots left and more than that number of knitters within sight of the goal.

I stayed up all night knitting — or at least, I stayed up until I started making dumb mistakes and then I took a 90-minute nap. Refreshed, I started back up again. The body of the sock was done before I left for work, and the toe and heel were finished after lunch, allowing me to nab the very last spot for this round of Sock Madness.

Relevant info: The yarn is Happy Feet in the boringly named colorway #4. The feet were knit on 2.5mm needles; the legs on 2.75mm. Frick took me a week to knit. Frack took me less than a day-and-a-half.

Toe up or top down, though, they are a very cheerful pair of socks and a nice addition to my wardrobe.