What I learned from Sock Wars

I have to say that participating in Sock Wars III has been a frustrating experience. When I first started working on this post I had written that it was a great experience but I have changed my mind at the moment. Bear with me for a moment as I whine, then I will have it out of my system we will hope. I was so excited about participating, I waited anxiously for my target "dossier", I struggled through learning the pattern (which really isn't that difficult just a bit tricky), I knit like the wind for three full days and I finished my first pair of socks. I sent them off Priority Mail and let my target know that they were coming. She responded once via email and then silence. No acknowledgement that the socks were received, no going onto the Sock Wars website to mark that she was "dead" and that I had scored my first kill. Until she did that and sent me the info for her target I couldn't do anything else. I waited, I emailed her twice but only silence. So, I finally emailed the "Supreme Commander" Julie Gardner and explained the situation. She gave my target 48 hours to let her know if the socks had arrived and to mark herself killed. After that I was to knit for my target's target. However, I still had no dossier for that person. I had started another sock for myself, using the "Detonator" pattern so I could use that rather than starting from scratch. Technically, when you "killed" your target they were supposed to acknowledge that and then send you their target info and the socks that they had been working on. However, it was obvious THAT wasn't going to happen. So, I waited for word from Julie, I checked the website to see if "dejener" was listed as killed. And still nothing happened. So I emailed Julie again and she responded that she was still waiting to hear if my target had received the socks. O.K. So, as of this morning my original target is still listed as "Alive" and I am still in technical limbo. I will start to knit for my new target but my enthusiasm for the whole thing has been somewhat dimmed. If I didn't know that someone else is waiting for socks knit by me then I would just "bag it" and consider myself done and wait to be killed off. But I am not a quitter so I will persevere. I think I would sign up for Sock Wars again because I like the concept but I just won't get nearly as excited the next time.

OK, I am done whining for the moment.