Sock Madness

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

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!

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
2. X Marks the Foot
3. Lunar Zazzle Woven Cable Eyelet Socks
4. Woven Cable Eyelet Socks with ribbed foot
5. Bright Woven Cabled Eyelet Socks

Last week I posted about the state of things and held my breath, hoping that things were better than I thought they were.  It turns out that things are much better than I thought.  We got many emails and comments telling us that you’re looking forward to SM2.  That was nice to hear.  It was even better when we started hearing from designers.  Much, much better because I started to think that maybe we wouldn’t have to let down all of you wanna-be players. 

I wanted to post about the response but I was afraid to because I didn’t want to jinx things by counting my eggs before they hatched. (Care to add a cliche there?)  So I was quiet instead.

Lot’s of you expressed your wish to help out but, like me, you felt unable to get the ideas in your heads down on paper in a way that would make sense to anyone else.  I get that!  It’s just really nice that you wanted to try.

The patterns started rolling in slowly, one here, one there.  I felt encouraged.  By the time I went to sleep last night there were 10 or 11 patterns.  We’re there!  We can go forward with SM2. 

A few people volunteered to help with the test knitting.  We really appreciate the offers and we’ll be in touch.  We just need to figure out what’s need and put together some quick instructions.

Next, there will be site overhauling, sign ups, materials lists, and peeks at test socks. 

I have an idea to change things up in a few ways this year - more time trials, and encouraging creative expression.  You’ll see what I mean soon. 

Please let me know if you, or someone you know might be interested in contributing prizes.  I’ll be offering yarn again but the more prizes, the more fun it is. 

Yesterday was November 1st, the due date for the SM2 patterns.  We have some of them but others remain a mystery.  If you have a pattern that still needs a little polish - please let us know.  We need to know what’s happening for planning purposes and, of course, without patterns there can be no Madness. 

This year has flown by and I, for one, am sure that someone swiped a month from me along the way.  That’s the only explanation I can see for how we’ve arrived at this point.  Whatever the case, even though the due date has passed, if you’ve got a design for us we’d love to hear from you.  (Hopefully right now.)

Well, the deadline for the designers to get in touch with us was last Saturday and guess what?  There are still lots of great ideas out there!  We got emails from a nice group of designers who are all putting together patterns for consideration for SM2.  Among the people we heard from are players from SM1, people who missed playing the first time and a few of the SM1 designers.  How cool is that?  Can you tell how excited I am?

Thankfully, the group is large enough to insure that there will be plenty of patterns to choose from but not so many that we’ll have to turn a lot away.  I am so relieved for a bunch of reasons.  First and foremost, I can now say with certainty that there will be patterns for SM2.  On the flip side, there are not so many that testing them will become a problem.   In other words - it’s all working out perfectly so far. 

I suspect that the updates here will be sparse until the patterns start to arrive.  Then the fun really begins and we get to post teasers.  You know how much I love that.  The more cryptic the better!

Hey there!  Tomorrow is the deadline for anone thinking of submitting a design for consideration to let us know about it.  Officially, we call it a Statement of Intent to Design but what we’re really looking for is a headcount.  As I’ve said before, we need to get an idea of how many designs we can expect so that we know if there will be begging necessary.

If you want to submit a design this is the time to let us know.  All we need right now is your name, your blog info (if you have one) and a quick thumbnail of what your thinking of doing.  We’ll take as much information as you’d like to share.  Just send us an email at sockmadness at gmail dot com.

The next date to remember is November 1.  That’s when we’ll need the finished patterns. 

We look forward to hearing from you! 

I’ve been cruising the web lately, checking all the likely places – the flickr group, Ravelry, other blogs -  to see if I could detect any hints about who may be thinking of designing for SM2.  Part of it is curiosity and part of it is neuroses.  This year, much the same as last year, I was feeling a little worried.  I was having thought of parties without partiers etc.  Yes, I worry a lot.

Thankfully, I’ve seen and heard lot’s of encouraging signs.  I’ve received a few emails already and I’ve heard through the grapevine that there are more to come.  This is good for me and great for you.  What’s really exciting is that a lot of the names I’m seeing are new.  Hooray!  Of course we loved the designers in SM1 and we’d be really happy to see them return for round 2.  That said, one of the ideas behind Sock Madness was providing an outlet for new designers. 

It seems that there may be a few people out there who are still on the fence about designing for SM2.  Maybe you’re not sure how the pattern would be received.  Maybe you’re not sure if your idea is good enough.  Maybe you’ve got a bit of stagefright.  Whatever the reason, here’s a little encouragement in the form of a little list of reasons to take the leap.

·        There’s a first time for everything.  In SM1 there were a few the designers who’d never written a pattern before.  For sure there were glitches and bumps and a bit of editing required but the patterns were great and the second time is always easier.

·        The pattern that’s living in your head right now, nagging at you and begging to break free could be the next big thing.  All design starts with that little something that just can’t be contained.  The design that you feel you just have to share.  Set it free and watch it take wing.

·        The Sock Madness players are possibly one of the best groups to receive the benefit of your hard work.  Stay with me now.  As I mentioned before, some of the designers in SM1 were fairly new at it and some of the patterns reflected that.  There were also more experienced designers.  I believe that they would all say that they benefited from the concentrated discussions of their patterns.  It’s true that most patterns will get blog coverage and you could do a little surfing and gather similar information but what was unique here was the discussion that you could find of each pattern.  Most questions received multiple answers almost instantly and, if I’m not mistaken, the final versions of some of these patterns included modifications inspired by the discussion. 

I’m sure that there are other very good reasons to design but that’s all I’ve got today.

Hello again!  We’re a little more than a week away from the end of August at this point and that means that we ought to be getting a few statements soon telling us that there are folks out there coming up with fabulous designs.  the statement, sent to us at sockmadness at gmail dot com is really just a quick note telling us who you are and that you plan to submit a pattern (or 2).  It’ll put my mind at ease knowing that there is indeed something brewing out there. One thing is for sure, there can be no Sock Madness without sock patterns.  Lets spread the word and cast the net far and wide.

Please remember that if you have any questions at all, you can send them to us at sockmadness at gmail dot com.  We’ll do our best to answer you.

My kids are away at sleep away camp so my I finally have time to do all of the things that I’ve put off - like officially launching Sock Madness 2.  Here we go.

I have revised the design guidelines for this round and they can be found here.  Most of the information that you’ll find there is the same as last time but there are a few notable exceptions.  The first change relates to the theme… or lack thereof.  It seemed to me that the requirement that all patterns include “mad” in the title was a bit restrictive.  This time there is no specific theme.  Instead we simply ask that you be as creative as possible.  We are looking for patterns that are innovative and unique.  Patterns can be toe-up or top down, side to side or anything else that you can dream up.   Cables, lace, fair isle and, yes, intarsia are all welcome.   If possible, the sock should tell a story.  Although use of stitch dictionaries like Barbara Walker are just fine, I think that it definitely adds something when there is some cool little anecdote that accompanies the pattern and gives us insight into what the designer was thinking.  Be creative and challenge us!

The other big change this year is the timeline.  The patterns are due a bit earlier - in November - so that we’ll have more time for test knitting and editing the patterns.  The tentative timeline is up and you can find it here.

If you are a designer or aspire to be one then please consider designing for SM2.  If you know of anyone who you think could design something great for us then spread the word.  Without challenging and fun designs there will be no SM2 so let’s get going. 

If you have questions, feel free to email us at sockmadness at gmail dot com.