And That’s a Wrap!

We have a winner from the finals and it is Dyveke of For Whom the Ball Rolls. Congratulations, Dyveke! And great job to all of our competitors, too.

Prize winners from rounds 5 and 6 will be announced soon. Have a great weekend!

Pattern 7 – See You Later Socks

We’ve finally reached the end of Sock Madness 3.  It’s been great and here is a pattern that we feel proud to present as the grand finale.  We hope you find it worthy.

What more can we say?

Pattern 7 – The Very Last Round

This pattern uses about 340 yards variegated sock yarn like Cherry Tree Hill Sockittome or KP Felici.
It was test knit with Pagewood Farms Alyeska.

The specified needles are US 1 – 1.5 (2.25-2.5 mm)

The gauge is 7.5 stitches per inch.

 This pattern also requires 4 vinyl-coated paperclips or paperclip-like stitch markers. It clearly states that regular stitch markers won’t work.

 We know how anxious you all must be to have a champion so, with that in mind, we’ll start this round bright and early on Thursday, May 28^th between 7AM and 10AM.

 Good luck to you all.

Pattern 6 – Fire on the Mountain Socks

Our round six pattern comes from Julie, a long time sock madness member. Not only has she been a participant but this year she was a huge help in doing loads and loads of test knitting. Seriously, Sock Madness 3 might not have happened if it weren’t for Julie and her mad test knitting skillz.

Turns out she’s a pretty good designer, too. And here’s what she has to say about her latest sock pattern:

When planning this pattern for a recent sock swap, I started with the simple idea of something HOT. Not long after that, I ran across the gorgeous Kilauea sock yarn by Rock Creek Yarn which I felt was the perfect “hot” colorway. I combed through stitch dictionaries searching for a two color pattern that felt like lava, settling on pattern number 56 from Latvian Dreams. The rest of the sock flowed easily from there. I knew I wanted to start off with a tubular cast-on followed by two color ribbing. From there, I used the first few lines of chart 162 (also from Latvian Dreams) which reminded me of mountains or volcanoes. The eye of partridge heel gives a little more cushion to the back of the heel and the sole of the foot is done in a fun check pattern. Pay close attention, the orientation for the start of the round changes to keep the stripes at the side of the leg. This pattern should be easily adapted for 2 circulars or the Magic Loop method. To make the pattern pop you should avoid any overlap in color between your two yarns but if you’d like the pattern to be more vague then such an overlap can work to your advantage.

Julie has a tutorial for a tubular cast on here, if you need some help with that particular technique.

Remember, only 1 person from each division moves forward this time. Welcome to the Final Four!

Round 6 Specs

Hope you are ready for round 6 because we’re about ready to be done with this already release it.

Here’s the info you need:

Yarn: 1 skein self-striping fingering weight yarn 400 yards/86 grams (model: Kilauea superwash %100 merino from Rock Creek Yarns), 2 skeins solid fingering weight yarn 185 yards/50 grams (model: Louet Gems %100 merino). The test knitting was done with Knitterly Things Vesper Sock Yarn and Louet Gems. You will not use all of the 400 yards of self-striping but you will use most of the solid yarn.

Needles: Size US 1.5 DPNs, set of 5. Size US 1.5 DPNs, 7-inch, 2.

Gauge: 9.5 sts per inch in chart 2 colorwork pattern.

The pattern will be released late Wednesday evening, between 8 pm and midnight, our time. Only 1 knitter from each division will move forward.

Dimpled Diamonds Errata

Just a quick note.  There have been a few errors found in the pattern so far and we’re posting them here for the benefit of all the knitters still working on these socks.

• The center-back marker needs to go after st #19 and not after #18. I think all the instructions after that are correct (the “k18, slip 3,…” ones), once the marker is in the right place.
• Toe, Round 2, the bracketed instructions should read: “k1, kfb, k to last 3 sts on ndl, kfb, k2”.
• Foot, Rd 9, instep should end with “k4” instead of “k5”, to make 5 knit sts altogether.
• Ankle, Rd 3, the marker should go after st #19, and the plain round before the final expansion is Rd 28, not Rd 29.

We hope hat this helps.

Pattern 5 – Dimpled Diamonds

Here is pattern 5 for Sock Madness 3. It’s from Mt. Mom who is familiar to us all for her past involvement in Sock Madness. The first year she was a player and last year she provided one of my favorite SM2 patterns – the Godmother Socks. 

This is one of those patterns that will work with many different yarns.  I chose to use a slightly variegated yarn but it ought to look fabulous with a brightly colored yarn or a stripe.  the possibilities are endless!

The picture was taken when I was not quite finished with sock 2.  My daughter cleverly posed to hide the incomplete cuff.  They’re done now and they’re great but please note that there was very little left from either skein of the Plymouth Happy Feet. 

And now, a word from our Round 5 designer:

Greetings, knitters!  Mt. Mom here. 
I’ve been participating in Sock Madness in various capacities since year one when my cousin Angeluna persuaded me and several others (including our dear Jo) to enter.  In 2007, I was eliminated in Round 3; last year I submitted the Godmother’s Socks pattern; this year it’s Dimpled Diamonds. 

The design idea started with a swatch.   When I get a knitting book through Interlibrary Loan, and see something interesting, I often swatch it before I have to send the book back.  Some books generate *multiple* swatches — I had a field day with Nickie Epstein’s Knitting Beyond the Edge !  I modified her version of Dimple Stitch a bit, replacing some purl rounds with knits, and it just screamed “Sock Madness”.  Too much texture to fit inside a shoe, so it became a cuff and the search for a compatible foot pattern began.  In Barbara G. Walker’s first Treasury of Knitting Patterns I found just the thing:  another (but flatter) scallop pattern on the same scale:  Quilted Lattice.  Little did I know that another designer was considering the same stitch at about the same time: MintyFresh came up with the Leyburn sock (which I have not read, only seen photos after my own sock was complete), while I went this other direction.  Not surprising it’s being used by 2 (or more) designers, since the slip-stitch pattern works so well with variegated and handpainted yarns.
I found the pattern enjoyable to knit:  enough detail and variety to keep me going, but quickly memorized; workable by sight, without constantly referring back to the written directions.  I hope you all have some fun with it too!
-Deborah

Round 5 Specs etc

Sorry to keep you all waiting. Life gets in the way sometimes and this weekend both Carole and I will be living it up (although not together) and away from our computers. Since neither of us will be available for updates or questions etc you’ll have a bye weekend. I wish we had a pattern to offer for you to play with but we don’t. Pull out an old WIP or maybe a bunch of you can pick a pattern to knit as a group or maybe you’ll just relax and enjoy Mother’s Day.

We can offer a little food for thought over the bye weekend. Here are the specs for Round 5. What do you all make of these?

Yarn: 100 grams fingering-weight sock yarn, the designer used Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sock and it was test knit with Plymouth Happy Feet. It works really well with a variegated yarn. One note, the first sock in my pair used nearly every little bit of a skein of Happy Feet. The second is still OTN but it’ll be finished shortly.

Needles: Sizes US 1.5 (2.5mm) AND US 0 (2.0mm)

Gauge: 8.5 stitches/ 11 rounds per inch in stockinette using the larger needles; and 8.75 stitches/ 13 per inch on smaller needles

The pattern will be released early Tuesday morning – between 6-10 am our time. The first 4 finishers in each Division will go to the semi-finals. Yay!

To all of you celebrating Mothers Day – have a very happy day.

More Wieners

Let’s give out some more prizes, shall we?

For Round Three:

A skein of Celtic Memory Sock Yarn in the color Marigold from Jo (of course!) goes to Debi from For Whom The Ball Rolls.

And a skein of Yukon Hand Dyed Sock Yarn in the color Olive donated by Simply Socks Yarn Co. goes to Knitting Suzanne from The House of Seven Cables.

For Round Four:

Two skeins of Mini Mochi from Crystal Palace Yarns, donated by Tricia, the designer of the Tokena socks, goes to Jilstolps from The House of Seven Cables.

A skein of Knit One Crochet Too Ty-Dy Socks, also donated by Tricia, goes to Laurie in Maine from Purl and Prejudice.

And that’s all for now.  Send me your addresses all you winners!

Round 4 – Lucky Diamonds

We think you’ll like this one – you’ve certainly speculated about it enough!

You can certainly get some great results when you pair two contrasting yarns and an interesting pattern.

The designer this time is Melissa Goodale and here’s what she has to say about her design process for this sock.

I like to swatch random stitch patterns when I’m bored.  Some people can sketch their designs out on paper, but I’ve got to play them out with yarn before I ever grab a pen.  I had some gorgeous Malabrigo sock yarn kicking around in my bag asking to be knit, so I grabbed a stitch pattern book and started playing with it.  Nothing seemed to be working, and I decided it needed to be paired with a solid; I love contrasting heels, toes and cuffs.

Playing around with a solid and a variegated I actually stumbled upon a wonderful pattern using slipped stitches.  This later became a fingerless glove design I worked up in two different yarns, but I was hooked on using slipped stitches with two yarns and came back to my Malabrigo and Louet combo.

I wound up taking the slipped stitches and pairing them with cables to make them travel across the sock.  I then looked at my design and tried to figure out what to do with it.  As luck would have it a friend of mine sent me the link to the SM3 call for patterns.  I figured this sock was definitely a challenge and sent it in.  I hope you all have as much fun making this pattern as I had designing it!

What are you doing still reading this?  Get knitting!