Changes

Many of you have commented recently on how much work must be going on “behind the scenes”.  You have no idea.  Actually, I had no idea either.  As with so many things, Sock Madness started with a little idea – a what if – and it’s grown to something quite involved.  It’s fun to see it taking shape and working out just the way I hoped it would but the amount of work require to put it together has been considerable.  I just want to say that we really appreciate all of the thank you comments.   

Now let’s move on to the business of today.  One by one the player lists are becoming ready to post.  Those of you who are observant will notice that they are not set up tournament style.  This is because we’ve made a small change to the tournament.  As I started putting together the roster of players, we had to put a few folks on the wait list.  Felicia and I are not “no” people.  We hate to deliver bad news so we tried to think of a way to fit those few extra people in.  The result is a change to the first round only.

The first round of the competition will be a strict time trial.  You are being divided into divisions of 32-35 players each and, for the first round it will be you versus the other members of your division.  The first 16 finishers from each division will move on to tournament play.  Make sense?

The natural follow up question is – “So who’s in my division?”  So glad you asked.  The first of the 4 divisions had been posted and you can find it easily in the sidebar on the right under the “Brackets” area.  It’s Cat’s Soaring Sock Division!  We listened to all of the great suggestions for how to name our divisions and decided to go with knitters who we find influential and inspiratonal. 

Cat Bordhi is the author of Socks Soar on Two Circular Needles, the Treasury of Magical Knitting and the Second Treasury of Magical Knitting.  She is inventive and innovative.  I’ll admit that the moebius still scares me but I do most of my socks on 2 circ’s and for that alone I am extrememly grateful to Cat.

Care to guess who the other 3 divisions are named for?

Yarn and Needles

The start of SockMadness is growing closer. We are working on the final divisions and will post them very soon. It’s getting a little hetic around here as we finalize all the details and try to make sure we haven’t missed anything.

Many of you are asking about the specific time that the patterns will be released and if you can have advance notice of the required yarn and needle size.

We will release the patterns via email at 11:00am Eastern Time. The first pattern will be released on Saturday March 10, 2007.

As far as advance notice for the yarn and needle size for the first pattern only—we will post this information to the blog on March 7, 2007. We don’t know specifically what time we will do this, only that it will occur sometime on March 7th.

We completely understand about the need to have yarn in your stash ready to go. We even understand about the need to mail order yarn. The complete list of required yarns and needles can be found on the Supply List post.

One more thing….in order to participate in SockMadness, you must join the Flickr group. The group is my invitation only. Go to the Flickr site and request to join; we will then approve you into the group.

More Questions….More Answers

We continue to receive many wonderful questions. And we will continue to try and answer them to the best of our ability.

1) Gauge–we posted gauge as the designers gave it to us. Some designers provided gauge, others did not. Some gave gauge in terms of sts per inch and some gave it in terms of sts per row. Some gave both. I can tell you, that we have not had any problems getting the socks to fit our very average leg and foot.

2) Swatching–that’s up to you. Some people are comfortable knitting socks without a swatch others are not. Neither Hillary or I swatch for our socks and we haven’t any issues.

3) Needle Sizes—this seems to be challenging. Who knew US sizes didn’t translate the same way into metric size? I knit with Crystal Palace dpns. They have all the sizes you’re going need–1’s, 1.5’s, and 2’s. I picked them up at the LYS. Crystal Palace gives the following conversions:

US 1 = 2.25mm

US 1.5 = 2.5mm

US 2.0 = 2.75

I will also say that I’ve knit with the Brittany’s. I love them both. But, I have the 5″ Brittany’s which would be way too short for many of these sock patterns. My CP’s are 8″ and work much better for these patterns. Obviously, if you are using 2 circulars or the magic loop, the length of my dpn’s won’t matter to you.

4) Colors–there is no requirement to use variegated or solid yarns, only that you use the weight specified in the pattern. That being said, some patterns look better in variegated and others in solids. We followed the designers recommendations and were very happy with the outcome.

5) 2 skeins of variegated yarn (280-ish yards per skein), gauge is 7 stitches per inch—this requirement gave many pause. In fact, when I first read the pattern, I had to contact the designer because it seemed like a lot of yarn for 1 sock and not enough to make a pair. So….the designer actually used 2 hanks of this yarn with plenty left over. When I tested the pattern, I used a yarn with 215 yds per skein and I had yarn left over. Of course, this pattern required 2 skeins of my test yarn to make both socks.

6) Contrasting vs Coordinating colors—again this is up to you. But for the socks that require 2 colors of yarn, one of them will be greatly enhanced if the yarns you choose have a high degree of contrast.

Circle the Date!

I’m still working through the list of players, making sure that there are no duplicate entries and sorting things out.  I never learned to type (although I’ve been told that I’m pretty quick with one hand) so the process is taking a little longer than normal.  Please bear with me.  As soon as I get it all sorted out I’ll start sending out emails to you all. 

Be assured that you will hear from us within a few days because the start of play is approaching fast.  When exactly? 

March 10th! 

Early that morning, we’ll send out the first pattern by email.  We plan to send the emails to each division at the same time so that those players matched against one another will get the pattern simultaneously.

Supply List – the Sequel

There were lots of good questions asked today.  Hopefully we can supply equally good answers.

1. Needles – needle sizes are apparently a little funky.  Depending on where you look, both 1’s and 1 and a half US can translate to 2.5 mm.  Go figure!

• US 1 = 2.5 mm
• US 1 1/2 = 2.5 mm
• US 2 = 3.0 mm

2. Yarn questions are also a little sticky.  Here are a few extra details about the yarns needed for the first 3 pairs of socks – in no particular order. 

• 2 skeins of variegated yarn (280-ish yards per skein), gauge is 7 stitches per inch
• 1 50g skein of variegated, 1 50g skein of solid, no gauge given
• 330 yards (301 meters), about 5 oz (140g)  of variegated sport weight yarn, gauge is 5-7 stitches per inch

 Sorry that the information varies from sock to sock.  There is variation in the way that different designers specify things.  I can say that Felicia uses Lorna’s Laces a lot.  In fact, she rarely uses anything else so you can bet that a few of these socks were tested with LL.  They worked just fine and, although only one sock from each pair has been knit, it appears that 2 skeins of LL would suffice for the patterns she has tested.

I’ve used a variety of yarns – Socks That Rock, Cherry Tree Hill, and Louet Gems.  So far I haven’t had any problems either.

Where you get the yarn/needles from is up to you.  Lately Felicia and I have both ordered from The Loopy Ewe and we were really happy with the service.  Of course Knit Picks is a good source for inexpensive yarns and one of the designers used KP Gloss for their sock.  I’m sure that there are lots of other great sources out there and you’re welcome to leave them in the comments.  I’ll try to compile it into an entry or a resource page.

I’m working feverishly to compile a master list of players and update other information like the prize list (which is growing a little) and the start date.  I expect to post more information tomorrow (and probably pretty regularly thereafter).

Keep asking great questions and we’ll do our best to answer them.

Supply List

While we watched the roster fill last weekend Felicia and I finally tackled a task we’d been avoiding – we chose the patterns.  We got a really great group of patterns and we’d love to have been able to include them all but we could only choose 7.  We looked for a progression of difficulty.  We looked for variety. 

In the end we wound up with stripes, cables and lace – sometimes all at once.  There are nifty cuff treatments and… yes, there is colorwork.  Ready for the supply list?

Needles

The needles required are US 1, 1 and a half, and 2. 

Yarn 

One of the socks requires sport weight yarn – preferably variegated.

Two pairs of socks require one skein each of solid and variegated fingering weight.  One of them will be greatly enhanced if the yarns you choose have a high degree of contrast.

Two pairs of socks require variegated fingering weight yarn.  Find something that makes you happy.

The remaining 2 pairs of socks use fingering yarn and they’ll probably look best if you use a solid.

Full!

I’m excited and relieved to say that the roster is now full and sign ups are closed.  Watch this space for more information this week.

Just 16 Spots Left!

It’s 1:55 pm here in Northern Virginia and, at this point, there are only 16 spots remaining.  We’re trying to watch things closely so that we can post as soon as tthe roster is full.  If you’ve already sent in your application then you’re all set. We are not sending out individual welcomes right now because we’re pretty busy answering questions and taking care of other realated details.  Oh, and we have family stuff to do too.

We have set the schedule of patterns and compiled a list of required yarns so you can look for that in the coming week.  We will also get everyone divided into divisions and, as we get that done, you will receive a welcome and an invitation to the Flickr group.  We’re trying to send the emails in manageable groups.

For those of you who’ve asked, the start date is tentatively set for March 10th.  This will give us enough time to get organized and give you time to make sure you have the yarns you need.

Still going…

Never doubt the power of the knit blog community.  We owe a huge thank you to all of the fabulous bloggers out there who are helping to get the word out.  Sign ups started a little slow but after a few bloggers started spreading the word things picked up considerably.  There are still spaces open but they are filling up at a pretty fast pace.  We will post to the blog just as soon as it’s full.  For now though, there’s still room for just a few more players.

Please note, Laura noticed tha in an earlier post I listed our email incorrectly.  I’ve corrected that post and, here again, is the correct email:

 sockmadness at gmail dot com. 

I have to say that most of the applications have been submitted in perfect format and we really appreciate that.  It makes it much easier for us to sort things out.  Thank you!

The Energizer Bunny of Sign Ups

Yep – still going! 

Sign ups have been steady but there is still room for more. Perhaps all of the lead time and teasing was too much – or not enough.  Some of you still aren’t sure if you’re ready to compete.  For that reason we’ll leave the sign ups open for a bit longer.  It’ll probably go through the weekend but it could close at any time.  It all depends on when we hit the magic number. 

If you are already committed to playing then help get the word out.  If you’re still on the fence, here are a few reminders of why you should play.

1. It’ll be fun!  Yes there is competition involved and a bit of pressure to finish first but, I’d like to think that there is also a certain degree of camaraderie involved too like a traditional KAL.  After all, you’ll all be working on the same thing.
2. There is sock yarn to be had.  We haven’t posted it yet because it’s not quite ready but – rest assured – there will be sock yarn coming your way.
3. The patterns.  They have been submitted by knitters like you from all over.  They range from simple stripes to really intricate patterns that will have you constantly referring to the charts and just for playing, you get them all!  Even knitters who lose in an early round will get them all.
4. How many competitions do you find where even losers win?  In addition to getting all of those patterns, someone will get an autographed copy of their choice of one of Stephanie Pearl-Mcphee’s books. 
5. The more people who play, the more rounds the competition goes, and that means that more of the patterns are used.   

 ETA – Someone just asked a good question and I thought that I’d share the answer.  She noted that we state that you must adhere to the pattern as written and asked if that meant that you need to use the same yarns.  No, you don’t need to use the same brand of yarn but you do need to use the same weight. When we post the materials list we’ll let you know what we used to test and  what the designer used – you may choose what you like.