June 27, 2008

Hey there!

So sorry that we left you hanging a bit.  A break from the madness was sorely needed.

Anyway, we did get a winner for the Godmother socks round.  It was Petit Noir with her Godmother & Godchild socks.  They were so sweet.  I had hoped to start the voting for the Odds and Sods but I haven’t seen many of them around.  What’s up with that?  We were really looking forward to seeing lots of different interpretations of that pattern.  Show us your socks!

Another thing that i’m sure everyone wants to see… prizes.  Some of you have posted pictures of your loot and we’re all very jealous.  Let’s see the rest of it.  This is a very timely request because, after lots of procrastinating, we’re finally working on distributing the rest of the loot.  (As much as Carole and I would love to do a little personal stash enhancement and keep it all for ourselves, that just wouldn’t be kosher)There’s plenty of cool stuff to go around and the generous folks who donated it are really excited to send it to you all so, if you haven’t won anything yet in SM3, watch your email.  We’re going to start randomly choosing names among those who haven’t won anything yet.  All we ask is that you please show us what you got!

By the way, in case you’re wondering, we have heard from a few designers with great ideas and we’re encouraged but we’re alwat=ys looking for more cool designs so – bring it on!

Vote For Your Favorite Godmother Socks

We’ve heard from a few people who plan on designing for SM3 but not nearly enough. All we need now is a show of hands and a general idea about what we should expect. Don’ be shy. Send us an email at sockmadness(at)gmail(dot)com if you think you might have a great idea for next year. Don’t assume that we just know you’re planning to design. We need to hear from you.

This next vote is a little late but it’s a good one. These are all very different and very strong contenders for the creative award this round.  Don’t you agreee?
Which of these Godmother Socks are your favorites?
( polls)
The voting for this round will end at 6pm on Friday, June 13th.
 

1. Handspun Godmother Socks
2. Godmother + Godchild Socks
3. Furry Dogmother Socks
4. Beaded Gypsy Dancing Socks (w/shawl)
5. Noro Godmothers

Put Your Thinking Caps On

The voting for your favorite Godmother Socks will start tomorrow.  Today it’s time to talk about the designs for next year and when we need them by. 

There have been lots of great ideas discussed and it’s time to start putting them on paper.  We’re not too restrictive in terms of theme or style but we do have some requests and suggestions.

Yarn requirements – all submitted designs must be for fingering or sport weight yarn.  This year one design used lace weight but it was an unusual case and held double throughout so that it came close to a fingering weight yarn.  The most important thing to note is that socks using DK or Worsted weight yarn don’t work for us and as lovely as the pattern may be, we just can’t use them.  They’d be too quick.  We also recognize that buying yarn for 7 spairs of socks, sight unseen is difficult enough without having to buy a broad range of yarns.  For the reasons – fingering or sportweight yarn only please.

What we look for – something interesting.  We have yet to see the dreaded intarsia design or one that uses an unusual architecture like a sideways sock or a Cat Bordhi type sock but we’re open to it.  We are  also open to any pattern that will introduce something new and exciting.  Socks with stories go over well as do socks that include an unexpected curve ball.  Asymmetry would be good. Socks that have patterning  with different intervals or that changes in some way as the sock progresses. There are many patterns where one motif is repeated throughout the length of the sock.  These are lovely but unless they possess a twist that will make our knitters gasp they are unlikely to work in SM3.  In short – shock us!  Give us a pattern that will have the players quaking in their comfy knitting spots and you’ve got a winner.  Just remember – it’s got to look cool.  Weird for weird’s sake isn’t good either. 

Are you inspired and ready to put pen to paper?  Ok then.  We’d like to see your patterns by September 1, 2008.  Some of you saw my post on my personal blog yesterday and  know that I’m working on another big project right now.  By December and January I suspect that SM3 won’t be my main priority so if this is going to work we’re going to need the patterns well in advance so that we’ll have time to test them well and set the roster. 

Please spread the word.  I know that there are places where designers discuss such things.  We’d be really grateful  to anyone who helps get the word out.  Every year there are people who come to us after the Madness is underway and want to know how to submit a design.  It would be great if we could reach them now.

Let us know if you even think that you may have a design for us.  If our inbox is too quiet it’ll freak us out.  Remember how close we came to scrapping SM2 due to lack of designs?  Please let’s avoid the panic stage this year.  Let’s raise the bar and make SM3 even better than the first 2!

Creative Options

The voting for the Woven Cabled Eyelet socks is over and it’s another tie (1 vote difference really doesn’t count in my book).  Can you believe that.  Apparently you were equally impressed by those pretty blue socks from Fast & Furious Knitting as you were with the highly modified versions posted by Cornflake.  Congrats to both of you, you’ll be hearing from us really soon since we’re finally just about caught up with giving the prizes away. 

Speaking of the prizes – there are still plenty of them left to give away so don’t go anywhere.  I hope to start the voting for the Godmother Socks on Thursday so if you have a great pair that’s not posted yet then please do so right away.  Anyone with a fabulous idea about how to display theirs should get on that too.  You may consider the nominations on this open. 

Even after we award prizes to the fastest knitters and those who received creative awards we’ll still have pleanty of stuff to spread around so keep watching this blog and your email.  The plan is to get a little random action going on so that we can spread the SM2 love around far and wide.