A new challenge for myself and pattern of the week
Setting new goals during Sock Challenge 2025, and a coupon code
Time for my monthly freakout: where did the time go? It’s the last day of June, and I’m still coming to terms with the fact that it’s not May anymore. But that means it’s time for a Sock Challenge 2025 update!
At the end of this week (July 5), Sock Challenge will be officially half over. (Don’t forget to enter your completed pairs of socks through August 10!) But you still have time to meet your goals, and even make new goals! I am setting some new goals myself.
You see, I don’t get to participate in Sock Challenge the same way I would if I were just knitting socks purely for fun instead of trying to be consistent with pattern creation. (I have been consistent with pattern creation and meeting my own due dates for three years now and I’m very proud of that.) But it’s a little boring to say, “Oh, my own personal sock challenge is to create X new patterns this summer.”
While that is my own personal sock challenge, I don’t want that to be my only challenge. So, I’m creating a new one for myself for the month of July.
(Side note — yes, you CAN create new challenges or goals for yourself any time you want. It doesn’t have to be at the beginning of anything. Just because I didn’t create this goal at the beginning of the Sock Challenge this year, doesn’t mean it’s too late. Start when you can, not when you think you should.)
I think I’ve mentioned this before, but I struggle with working on WIPs that are not directly linked to a new pattern release, because I have it in my head that I am wasting time if I am not working on a new pattern. I know it’s not true, but I also feel like I am holding myself back and actually knitting less because of it.
So, I sat down with a new planner last night and this morning — because pen and paper always make me feel like I can accomplish anything — and made my July plans. (If I love anything more than yarn, it is paper and various writing instruments. I have been a papyrophiliac since I was five years old. There is nothing more wondrous than the hope that a fresh notebook brings.) I always make monthly knitting plans, but I went a little further this time, letting myself include something extra.
That something extra is my new challenge for myself. I have a couple of old sock WIPs, that I think I created last year? I’ve been meaning to pull those out again during the Sock Challenge, but I haven’t thus far. I’ve also been wanting to cast on a couple new pairs of socks. I needed to figure out how to give myself “permission” to work on them while still creating new patterns.
What is my solution for the month of July?
My solution: Pattern of the Week!
I am letting myself work on one pattern/sock project a week that is not related to an upcoming pattern release. It can be one of my languishing WIPs, or it can be a new cast on. Here are the guidelines I’ve created for myself:
There’s no expectation of finishing any of them. Progress, not completion, is what is important to me.
I get to work on my pattern of the week for at least 30 minutes a day if I feel like it. I am not being strict and timing myself, and I can work on it more or less if I choose to do so. It’s the permission that’s important for my brain here, and the realization that I will still have time to work on upcoming patterns.
That’s it! And to celebrate, I am giving all of YOU a discount on the pattern of the week that I am choosing to work on!
Pattern of the week coupon code!
My first pattern of the week that I’m working on is my Veer Off Course WIP. Veer Off Course is a twist on a chevron pattern, by only having a partial chevron pattern running down one sock of the sock, and having it be mirrored on the other sock. The idea is that it’s a striped sock that takes a different path than expected, as one often does in life. (It’s also a good pattern to mark this new challenge I’m setting for myself!)
Pattern code: VEERING
This code will work until the end of the day Pacific time on July 6 and gives you 20% off Veer Off Course.
It also includes my modified Eye of Patridge heel. (You might want to get the pattern for the heel alone, if you like Eye of Partridge but wish it had more stitch definition and have trouble remembering which row you are on in a traditional Eye of Partridge.)
It was written as a shortie pattern, but it also has additional instructions for turning it into a sock with a longer leg, as I am doing with this WIP. You can use any number of CCs and stripe it yourself according to the pattern, or you can use a self-striping yarn in the stripe portion. (This is good way to use up leftover self-striping if you have a few sequences left but not enough for another full pair of socks.)
I am crossing my fingers that I will get at least a little progress on my WIP so I’ll have something to post and show you all later this week.
