Round One Nears The End

It’s about 10:20 am right now and the division standings are:

• For Whom The Ball Rolls – 33
• Great Knitspectations – 25
• Purl & Prejudice – 24
• The House of Seven Cables – 26

It’s all pretty even except for FWTBR.  I wonder why that is? 

Anyway, we’ve seen lot’s of great socks and a bit of drama too with lost sock and tragic gauge issues.  Now it’s time to put Round One of SM3 in the books so those of you who are still trying to finish your pair have until 6 pm on Thursday, April 2nd to post your socks and get the email off to us.  As always, that’s 6 pm our time here on the Eastern Seabord of the U.S.

Please remember to include your division name, nickname and a link to the picture of your fiinished socks, on feet, in your email to us.  It really holds things up when we have to ask for the forgotten details.  To all of you who got it right on the first try we say a huge thank you!

Lastly, our treasure trove of prizes is growing and we’ll give you all a peek soon.  Meanwhile, if you still want to contribute something then just send us and email.  We” try to put up a list of our sponsors for this year soon.  We know how much you enjoy thanking them the way knitters do – with yarn purchases of course.

Monday Update

The first pattern has been out for a few days now and it’s time for the first status report.

As of 10:00 am here in Washington, DC, the standings are:

• For Whom the Ball Rolls – 14
• Great Knitspectations – 11
• Purl & Prejudice – 9
• House of Seven Cables – 13

As you can see, there is still plenty of room in all of the groups right now so those of you who’ve had setbacks of one sort or another still have plenty of time to get your finished socks posted and noted.

Most of the finished sock emails have been perfect but a few of you are still forgetting key info.  Please be sure to include your Division Name and the name you are listed under in that division, along with a link to the flickr picture of your finished socks in your email.  There are many updates for Carole and I to do and having all of the information in the email makes it much easier for us.

Pattern 1 – Tropical Mer-tini

Here it is, the first pattern of Sock Madness 3.  We hope that you’ll enjoy it. 

As with round one of SM1 and SM2, this first pattern of SM3 is mostly knit and purl so it should be a nice introduction for the newbies and a refresher for those of you who are returning. 

Another thing that this first round will have in common with the past is the number of knitters who get through – 40 in each division.  It will make for a longer first round which means lots of cheerleading. 

And now a word from our Round One designer:
After Sock Madness 2 finished last year several folks were still hanging out in the Ravelry forum and tossing around ideas for sock patterns and I mentioned drawing a sock pattern from the Drunkard’s Path quilt block. No one else ran with the idea so far as I know and I couldn’t get it out of my head. Eventually I played around with knit and purl stitches to get the look of the Drunkard’s Path quilt block. But a simple knit and purl pattern didn’t seem worthy of Sock Madness to me. Casting about for a crazy idea to be worthy, I suddenly thought it would be cool if you could do an afterthought heel that had a heel flap and gusset appearance. And that seemed just about crazy enough. I do not recall any alcohol being involved in that idea but you never know. So here is the Drunkard’s Path inspired, Tropical Mer-tini (with bonus drink pattern) with its Afterthought Heel Flap and Gusset Heel. Enjoy.

And Yet Another Teaser

There’s only one teaser left after this one.

Last Minute Notes

By this time tomorrow you’ll all have pattern one and the game will start in earnest.  There should be another teaser for you today but we wanted to reiterate a few more serious things too. None of this should be a surprise since I lifted most of the text out of posts from this time last year but it’s important so here it is.

 

1.  You are all wonderful and I’m sure that this is totally unnecessary to say but, we ask that you please remember that the designers worked really hard on these patterns and the only reward that most of them will get is the satisfaction of knowing that you enjoy them.  They are out there in Ravelry and Flickr listening to what you all have to say.  If you love the pattern - let them know.  If you have a problem – ask.  All we ask is that you maintain the positive and collegial tone that Sock Madness is known for.

 

I would also add that the test-knitter for most of these patterns is also an active member of the Ravelry group so if you have questions or concerns you should definitely ask the Ravelry group and it’s likely that you’ll get help right away.

 

2. Please note the information you’ll need to send us when you complete each round.  Just send it to us in an email with “Finished” as the subject.

a. a link to your finished photo over at flickr

b. your name/nickname exactly as it’s listed in your division

c. your division

 

 Most importantly, have fun!

Another Teaser

Here’s another teaser to keep you occupied for another day. It’s almost time for round one!

Round One Specs and…

Round one will begin on Thursday, March 19th. Look for the pattern in your inbox between 6 and 9 am EST.

Pattern one will require about 260 roughly 300* yards of yarn – solid or semi-solid will work best. The original was knit with Hazel Knits and it was tested in Koigu KPPM. No needle size was specified so use whatever will give you a gauge of about 8.25 stitches and 12 rows per inch.

While you’re swatching for round one here’s another teaser to ponder and discuss.

* After a bit of discussion with the designer and the test-knitter, it appears that the initial yardage requirement listed was a bit off.  Our alopogies for any inconvenience.

Teaser #3

And here we have another teaser. Are you getting excited yet?

Divided and Tested

The groups are all up now. Just in case you’re curious, there are 199 players this year (it should have been 200 but certain people entered their names twice *you know who you are*. I usesd a decidedly unscientific method to divide you all up into groups – I took the list of 199 and counted off 1,2,3,4…1,2,3,4… simple and random and it works.

I was careful to use the nicknames you requested and linked blogs when they were given. 

By the time you read this I will have sent out a test message to all of the players in all of the groups.  Please check your inbox and your spam filter for it so that we can iron out any problems before the games begin.

Speaking of the games – here’s another teaser to feed the frenzy and add to the speculation.

A Teaser

The rest of the divisions (and the names, too) should be up in a day or two.  Thanks for being patient.

In the meantime, how about a teaser shot?

Have at it.