Where to Get Pattern 3

Thanks for all of the lovely comments.  I truly appreciate them.

The prep work is being done to roll out pattern 6 shortly but thre’s quite a lot of other business to catch up on first so I expect that there may be a lot of posting going on this week.  First I need to wrap up a loose end from Round Three and let those of you on the sidelines know where you can get copies of that pattern.  Here is the information from the designer, Tricia Weatherston:

The Painted Madness pattern is available  by emailing me at  twistedtreasures@verizon.net or from Mountain Knits and Pearls my LYS here in East Stroudsburg, PA. Either way the cost is $4.00 and $1.00 for postage and handling. I’m not set up for paypal or anything so if anyone is interested they will need to send me an email for an exchange of address information. Joanne on the other hand can take credit card info.  She also has some great sock yarn available.  Her phone is 570-424-7770 and the email is mtnknitspearls@yahoo.com

Just as an FYI, I believe that the prizes sent out by Tricia all came from Mountain Knits and Pearls so you know they have some great stuff.

Final Four!

I cannot believe it but, we have arrived at the Final Four.  It’s incredible.

Our very own Yarnatic, Vikkie made this lovely graphic for us.  That’s even better than just an updated chart.

I apologize for all of the difficulties with this pattern.  It was not intentional.  I would never knowingly leave errors in a pattern.  As I’ve mentioned before in other places, I’m new to the test-knitting and editing business and I worked on this one over a long car ride to Canada.  Perhaps not the best venue for editing patterns.

I think that the problem is a little more basic though.  There’s an exercise that I did in school many years ago.  In it, we were required to write instructions for completing a certain task like making a sandwich.  The usual result is that the person writing the instructions assumes that the reader will just infer certain things and fails to specify in the written instructions.

In this competition, many of the designers are new to designing for others.  It’s one thing to design for yourself and another to design for the masses.   I often create pattens for myself on the fly and just make notes along the way so that I can replicate the result for the second sock.  I’m pretty sure that my notes wouldn’t make sense to anyone but me.  I also doubt that I would be able to flesh those notes out to a full, coherent, pattern.  Likewise, I think that we all find an occasional error in a pattern and make the mental adjustment and move on.   It is human nature to leave a gap between what’s in out head and what makes it onto the paper.  The art and the gift comes in finding a way to close that gap. I’m missing that talent and I apologize.  

Round Five – Mad to Dance

We are so happy that you all enjoyed the Mad Weave and we hope that you’ll enjoy this pattern as well.  I know I did. This pattern was such a surprise to me.  I’d never done a Norwegian cast-on before and I found that I really like it.  I’d never done anything other than a regular short row or flap heel before either and this heel has cables.  Yup – cables!  (You can see them in the picture at the right) They’re pretty cool too.

 With so many cables involved, it may help to learn how to cable without a cable needle – I did!  Here are a few places to learn:

Annie Modesitt showed how it’s done on Knitty Gritty.

Wonderful Wendy can show you how it’s done too. (it’s on  YouTube too)

I’m sure that there are many more out there if you look.

The cables aren’t restricted to the heel either.  They are combined with a bit of lace to produce a pattern that dances back and forth from top to bottom.  Watching the discussion that preceeded each round there was alway a lot of discussion of cables and lace.  Finally they have appeared.

As you can see, I knit this in a variegated yarn with lots of bright color.  I really didn’t know how it would look but I like it.  Another cool thing is how the pattern opens up.  As I knit it, the sock looked small but the lace opened up really nicely on my foot and it fits my size 8 and a halfs like a glove – a really comfy glove.

As usual, our designer has a few words to share with you. 

I think that socks are my favorite thing to knit. They are quick, portable and available for almost any design exercise that you can imagine. I am mom to 2 teenaged boys and I go to college full time, while squeezing in a part time job to pay for gas money and sock yarn. It seems that the further into the semester I go, the less time I get to knit on the big and/or complicated projects that are in work around the house.  So I want something that will keep me in tune to those same projects, but not take up too much study time.

That said, this particular pair was designed to complement a sweater that I may make some day. I really like this pattern, so put it into a pair of socks so that I could still have it and enjoy it till I get to the sweater. I’ve been seeing some intriguing combinations of aran cables and lace on the blogosphere lately, and I wanted to see what the fuss was about.

There are a lot of sock patterns out in the world and on the web, but none seem to fit the image of what I want at the time I need them. So I’ve started designing my own. ‘Mad to Dance’ is the first sock I’ve attempted to write a pattern for and I hope that you enjoy the knitting of it. I know that I did! Thanks
Theresa

Oooops!

How many things can you screw up in one blog post?  In my case, apparently, many.  Not only did I write the date wrong – I also forgot to tell you the gauge.  It’s 7 1/2 to 8 st/inch in stockinette.

Round 5 Specs

I know that you’re all very busy trying to figure out what the next pattern may bring.   I’m happy to say that these specs probably won’t help much. The designer used Cherry Tree Hill in a solid color called Loden but i went a totally different way with Knit Picks Memories in a color called Hawaii.  I was surprised to find that the variegated yarn worked pretty well.  They’re both fingering weight yarns and the yardage would work out to about 420 yds. There was plenty left over from one 220 yd skein of KP Memories after the first sock.

The needles required are US 1.  Both the designer and I used the Magic Loop but feel free to use dpns if you like.

We’ll send out the pattern on Friday, April 28 27 (Thanks to SopranoSpinner for catching my error) between noon and 6pm.

Elite Eight

To continue the March Madness analogies just a little longer – we are now down to the Elite Eight.  Are they who you thought they would be?

The Specs for Round 5 will be up soon.  No need to do match-ups because there are only 2 left in each division.  How crazy is that?

On another, totally unrelated note – it seems that for every prize that is awarded another is donated.  This time the treats come from Yarnatic Vikkie.  She’s offering a set of Susanne’s Ebony US 7, 4.5mm Dpns.  I just love the little Panda on the package. 

Woven Colors

This round is taking a bit longer than previous rounds and that’s perfectly ok.  In fact – it’s to be expected.  We did say that the socks would get a little more, um.. interesting.  Didn’t we?

Lately there has been a lot of discussion about choice of yarn so here’s a quick little illustration of the difference yarn makes. 

We all have different preferences but I think that each yarn adds a little something to the pattern.  Not necessarily better or worse – just different. 

I’ve seen the disscussion about a side competition among those “in the bleachers” (remember there are no real losers here) and I think it’s fabulous!  I know that the designers are having fun watching the socks develop online and I think that we would all agree that it adds to the fun.  If nothing else, having more knitters working on the patterns means that we’ll see more different versions of the sock and be able to appreciate the differences in the yarns just a little bit more.  Keep it up and SHOW US YOUR SOCKS!!!

By the way, we had another prize donation too.  Tezzcan has offred a set of stitch markers.  You can see some or them here.  I believe that it will be winners choice.  She’s trying to decide if she should sell them on Etsy so go check them out and give her a little encouragement.

Monday Update

It’s just after noon here - high time for an update on Round 4.  At this moment there are 5 knitters who’ve made it through to Round 5.  Woot!  Congrats to all!  It’s been an really interesting and exciting round so far – filled with photo finishes and gallantry.  The Stitchinwench beat out Linnakat by “the hair of her chinny chin chin” and Yarnatic Vikkie beat out Geotrax Laurie by just a bit.

I suspect that the story that’s taken most of us by surprise would be the match between Knitting Mamma and Lalaknits Laura.   Laura put down her needles when Mamma started struggling with a migraine.  Many were tempted to refer to Laura as a Gentleman for such behavior but I prefer to think of it a knitterly.  As you all have demonstrated time and time again, friendship comes first.  Knitters never hesitate to help each other out – even in the heat of competition.

Here’s a little news for those of you who are watching the Madness from the sidelines.  Karin Bole, the designer of Mad-tini, our Round 2 pattern, has it available for sale on her website.   Go on over and get a copy.

Pattern 4 – Mad Weave

Once again I’m posting to tell you to check your mailboxes because the next pattern has been released.  It is not a cable or lace pattern.  It’s the Mad Weave and it’s the one that Felicia referred to in an earlier post – the one that will likely cause a little anxiety with hanging stitches.   

At left you see one of the socks that Felicia knit.  It’s a little hard to see in the picture but stitches get dropped and picked up later.  Because of the way the stitches are “woven”, the colors in a variegated yarn will really show up in interesting ways.

The designer for this round is Tina Lorin and she’s worked really hard to make sur that this pattern is perfect for you.  She plans to join the discussion on flickr as past designers have so watch for her and say hello.   Here’s what she has to say to you all.

 

Hi everyone!

Congratulations to all of you Mad Sock Knitters out there, those still in the game and those of us cheering on the sidelines!

I’m so glad all of you will get my pattern and I hope all of you will try it. I feel privileged to be a part of this 4th round. I wanted to be a part of Sock Madness but knew that if I joined, I would be out in the first round. So I submitted a pattern and here I am.

I’ve been knitting for a long time if I add together the chunks of knitting time separated by decades of nonknitting. My mother taught me to knit Continental when I was a child, but I didn’t continue and forgot how to knit as I grew older. I picked knitting up again in the 80’s and re-taught myself how to knit from a book. I didn’t know I should be intimidated so my first project included cables. I taught my college roommates how to knit and felted my first sweater by accident.

I didn’t knit in the 90’s, but continued my subscription to Vogue Knitting that I started in college. Some day I knew I’d pick it up again. And I did 3 years ago.

 

But if this pattern scares you – stitches will be dropped on purpose – know that I’m scared right along with you. For all my knitting experience, this was my first time submitting a pattern anywhere and I was shocked it was accepted! But Hillary and Felicia have done a fantastic job of making sure it’s good to go and I’ll be here to answer questions.

I can’t wait to see your versions of the Mad Color Weave socks. May your hands stay nimble and your needles fly! Good luck!

Tina Lorin

http://woolgatheringandmore.blogspot.com/

Round 4 Gauge Update

Well, we got our gauge clarification but it’s still a little open for debate.  Ummm… long story short – y’all are gonna love this.

According to the pattern, the gauge should be 11 st/inch in stockinette.  Felicia measured her test sock and she got about 8 st/inch in stockinette.  Felicia and the designer discussed it and the bottom line is that it shouldn’t matter too much.  I suppose that you can consider this a gauge range.