MKSmiles!
Here are the socks that won Sock Madness 2.
Aren’t they lovely?
So many of you have been captivated by this pattern and we hope that you all will continue knitting these socks because we want to see them. In this pattern, the yarn really gets highlighted and there are so many different ways that you can go with it. Check this pair out.
These are from Bambino, the second place finisher. She used solids. I never even considered that but look at how wonderful they are. It’s interesting to note that, although the colors used for the triangles on each sock are different, because the foot and cuff matches on both socks, these totally look like a pair. Doesn’t it make you want to try a pair and see how it works out for you?
Please don’t go anywhere yet. There are still socks to vote on and lots of prizes to award. You should also expect to start seeing more information about SM3 really soon.
May 30, 2008
Are you ready? Have you collected all those random scraps of sock yarn from all of their hiding places? Ok, then here’s the sock for the final round of Sock Madness 2. Before you all go nuts - it’s a lot simpler than it looks. Just take a deep breath or 2 and it’ll be fine. If you look at the sock for a minute you can see that it’s really pretty simple once you get the strips of triangles made and put together.
The other thing about this sock that I should mention right up front is that it’s not the usual fit. The leg part is not going to be snug on most of us but, due to the construction, it’s not slouchy at all. It stands up and it looks great. The foot on the other hand it a classic sock fit. It’s unusual but it works really well and it’s totally cool.
In this post you can see two versions of the sock. Mine used 2 variegated yarns - one more colorful than the other. I think it works really well. The designer used a solid for most of the sock and made the triangles of many different yarns for a patchwork effect. Very differnt from my version and also totally fun.
Speaking of the designer for this round - it’s another returnee from Sock Madness One. Tricia Weatherston is actually the designer who gave us the cuffed sock from last year. That’s the sock that inspired Mtn. Mom’s Godmother Socks. Isn’t it neat the way that worked out?
Here are a few words from Tricia on the inspiration for this sock pattern.
I don’t know how other folk come up with designs for socks or other garments, but for me finished socks come unbidden into my mind. Some I sort out in my head and they never need to get knit. Having a ton of leftover sock yarns, this one needed to be knit. Having a clear picture in my head doesn’t always help once I pick up needles. I had been doing a lot of mitred/modular knitting, and I knew that I should be able to flip triangles back and forth to create a strip. I also knew, having knit some of the captivating modular designs of Red Bird Knits that a sock doesn’t have to be cast on and always knit in a tube. Flat things can be made into tubes, and with a little picking up and knitting, 3 needle bind offs and a wee seam you have a tube to build the rest of your sock.
My first effort to accomplish this was truly awful. It was a mitred triangle but there was no way I was going to be able to coherently write it down and noone in their right mind or even their SM mind would want to knit it. If I didn’t have this sock in my head taunting me and the desire to submit a design to SM, I would have called it quits at this point. Instead, I hunted out my Module Magic book and sure enough what I wanted were equilateral triangles. Once I knew what kind of triangles, I could work out how many to fit around my leg and what the ideal size of triangle was. Originally the triangles were going to be much smaller but fortunately for you, even my love of fiddly knitting refused to make the triangles smaller. Even in SM knitting there are limits. Through all of this I kept thinking just because I can doesn’t mean I should. It became a discouraging mantra. I mean seriously, why would anyone want to knit these socks. One day , this past November I was reading the yarn harlot and her words leapt out at me”Doing something in a beguiling or particularly graceful way matters too.” If beguiling matters, or devilish as some of you are fond of saying, then I needed to finish the sock and submit it to SM. Lots of things got in my way family, Christmas, other deadlines, but in the end I submitted them the day before the much extended deadline for SM.
Thank you Carole and Hillary for your patience and such a great idea to start with.
Enjoy!
Tricia (Zemy on ravelry)
May 29, 2008
Tomorrow we’ll release the final pattern for SM2. I’m happy to hear that many of you are preparing for it and so is the designer. We’re all eagerly anticipating the interpretations of the pattern. It’s very different from the other patterns and we hope that it adds yet another dimension to your sock knitting.
Today we’re opening the voting on the socks produced during the optional round. Many of them were highly modified and, as I went through the pictures, I noticed that some people mentioned using skills and techniques from earlier rounds on this sock. It seems like the perfect time to formally launch a discussion of designs for next year.
There have been threads where some of you have let your imaginations run wild thinking up ideas for SM3. It’s time now to start putting some of them down on paper. Although the due date for SM3 designs has not been set yet, it’s fair to say that it’ll be earlier than before. It’s our hope that many of you will start working on your designs while the spark of inspiration is burning bright. There will be three (or 4) of us testing the socks out and setting the roster but at least 2 of us have other major events going on towards the end of this year or early next.
It’s not too soon to let us know that you want to contribute a design. Just send us and email with a brief description of what you’re thinking of. Someone had suggested an ongoing thread on Ravelry (and on flickr too if desired) where the designers can support one another in their creative endeavours. Great idea! For the record, designers have been players in the past and this will still be the policy. For the record, no designer has made it to the finals yet
On to the voting for the optional round. The winner of the creative award for the Hippy Ripply Retro round was UC Bear with her Peace themed display. There were no creative shots this round but there were plenty of very different versions of the pattern. We said that you should feel free to modify at will and you did. Voting for this round will end on Monday, June 2nd at 6pm our time. There is still lots of time to express yourselves with the Godmother’s socks so please do. We’ll try to start that voting in about a week.
Woven Cable Eyelet Socks and Beyond. Which is your favorite?
( polls)
| 1. Green Woven Cable Eyelet Socks |
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| 2. X Marks the Foot |
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| 3. Lunar Zazzle Woven Cable Eyelet Socks |
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| 4. Woven Cable Eyelet Socks with ribbed foot |
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| 5. Bright Woven Cabled Eyelet Socks |
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May 28, 2008
The schedule announced in the last post has been revised slightly in order to accomodate the schedules of the 4 finalists. The next and last pattern will be released on May 29th instead of the 22nd. We hope that it will be an exciting round.
In the meantime we will continue wrapping up outstanding business from previous rounds. The poll for the Hippy Ripply Retro Socks will go up over the weekend so there is still time to post and submit great pictures.
May 16, 2008
We didn’t forget about you all and we were not intentionally keeping you in suspense. The truth is that the awarding of prizes and polling for favorites has fallen woefully behind and we were trying to come up with a catch up plan.
Based upon our need to catch up and other small issues we’ve arrived at a release date for the next pattern of Thursday May 22 – probably in the afternoon. It is a little bit of a delay but we know that there are many of you still working on socks from earlier rounds and this will give you a little extra time to free up some needles.
The specs for this round are:
Needles – US 1.5 (2.5mm) I used dpns for parts of the sock and a circ for another, you may choose dpns and straights. It’s hard to say except that you should have a bunch of needles in the right size on hand.
Yarn - 225 meters of solid fingering weight and odds and ends with none of them being less than 4 yards long. This is also open to interpretation based upon the yarn you have on hand. I couldn’t find my odds and ends so I used a highly variegated in place of the odds and ends and a darker, less variegated yarn for the rest. Play with the combinations and have fun.
Gauge – 9 st/inch
As many have surmised, there will be 4 knitters competing in this round to be the ultimate winner. It seemed easier and more representative this way.
While you’re waiting for this round to start, please remember to vote for your favorite from round 4. The voting is still open but it closes in just a few hours.
I’m also looking for nominations for Round 5. Lets see those Hipy Ripply Retro Socks! I’ll get that poll up on Friday and it ought to be open until Monday evening.
By the way, if you receive a prize please show it off to us. You know how we all love Yarn P*rn!
May 14, 2008
Here’s the sock for round 6. Let me start by saying that I’m not a cuffed sock person. At all. I love these socks though because of the details and the meticulous way that this pattern is written which made it such a joy to knit.
This toe up sock starts out simple with a rib but the thoughtful little details start just after the heel where the rib starts gradually. Nifty. Of course the true beauty is the cuff which is knit right on to the sock and works out so perfectly that after the last stitches are grafted you’ll be left with a perfect sock that needs nothing more than to have the ends woven in (or not).
I didn’t block these at all but I’m curious to see what they would look like if I did. If that lace cuff opened up a bit I’m sure it would be fantastic. My only real advice to you all as you start this sock is to take the time to read the instructions and take advantage of all of the resources Deborah has collected for you. She even provided videos!
And now, a few words from Deborah, the designer of the sock for round 6.
Greetings, Sock Madness competitors and spectators! Deborah “Mt. Mom” Swift here.
This pattern had its roots in last year’s competition. I began with a basic toe-up sock,using wide-ish 3×1 ribs to stretch but look more elegantly smooth than 2×2. The cuff idea came from Sock Madness 2007 round 3, “Painted Madness” by Tricia Weatherston (to get that pattern, e-mail Tricia at twistedtreasures@verizon.net , or her LYS, Mountain Knits and Pearls, at twistedtreasures@verizon.net — addresses current as of April 2007.). That sock had a turn-down cuff which began with sideways garter stitch “points”. (Any of y’all remember the beads I added to it last year?) I ended up being knocked out in that round, but those socks were my favorite of the competition. I’m wearing them now, as I write! In the post-round musings on Flickr, CelticMemory Jo waxed poetic about making boot socks with a lace flounce spilling out over the tops, and that image stuck with me. That’s not exactly where I ended up, but it’s where I began. Instead of starting with the cuff first, as Tricia did, I added it on last as if the sock were a lace shawl needing a non-binding edge. After all, socks need to stretch at the top too!
I have loaded videos onto YouTube demonstrating several of the trickier steps in the pattern. Links are below.
You have the pattern, you have the technology — now get knitting!!!
Short Row Heel with YOs:
Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ttSoJoa4nU (starting & turning)
Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZCtOPmi204 (middle, more turning)
Part 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjwvMu2TN3A (completing)
Crochet Provisional Cast-On
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqWfea8oOH8
Godmother’s Socks: Starting the Lace Cuff
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKUQrnSOj9Q
Godmother’s Socks: Finishing the Lace Cuff
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YxEec2W6UcI
May 9, 2008
It is so nice to hear such an enthusiastic response to the announcement about SM3. I hope that means that all those people who had ideas floating around for SM3 socks are gonna put them in writing. The date and time of round 6 isn’t all that I left out of the post yesterday. We have a new team member for SM3 - Carrie (Pacalaga) will be helping with the test-knitting. We know that, as a former player, she has the perspective and she’ll know what we’re looking for in a SM3 pattern.
Our hope is to eliminate the last minute panic and get the patterns well in advance this year. That way we can focus on test knitting and making sure that the patterns are all perfect. We can also take the devilish teaser shots and make sure that the line up for next year is awesome. Most importantly, we’ll know well in advance that we have enough patterns. We’ll post more about what we’re looking for in potential patterns soon.
As many of you have speculated, the next round, being the semi final, will have just one advancing player in each division. I’m setting the release window between 7 and 10AM. I will try to get it to you as early as possible.
May 6, 2008
Let the flogging commence (preferably with nothing more lethal than a wet noodle). I deserve it. I nearly forgot to post the Round 6 specs today. Perhaps it was the fiber fumes. The incredible amount of touring. The wine. I don’t know but here I am with a small peace offering. I have the specs for you AND a little something extra.
The next sock will be the sock formerly known as “E” and it requires:
Yarn: 340 yards fingering weight - Some Assembly Required “Wool Socks for Summer” in Tonal Apricot / Socks That Rock in Cobalt Bloom
Needles: US Size 1.5 (2.5 mm)
Gauge: 8.5 st /in
You’ll also need about 12″ of smooth scrap yarn in fingering weight and a crochet hook of an appropriate size (2-2.5mm) for a provisional cast on. Those of you who, like me, use the magic loop, may also want to have a few dpns on hand. (same size as your circ)
Oh, and y’all are in luck. Carole and I have been having so much fun we decided that there will indeed be a SM3. I hope that this little tibit redeems me for my tardinees a bit.
May 5, 2008
