Sock Madness

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!

Some of you may have noticed a quiet little post on one of the Ravelry threads from Dragoncelt.  She realized late yesterday that she made a mistake with her toes that resulted in faster decreases.  She has given up her spot for someone who finished correctly.  Unfortunately, we’re having a hard time figuring out who that twelfth person ought to be because many socks posted to flickr don’t have divisions listed.  Please, remember to identify yourself when you post because it helps everyone.

For now, we need to settle on who will be Tennessee number 12.  Here’s how we’re going to do it.  If you are in the Tennessee Division, have a finished pair of Slippin’ Stripin’ Socks, and you are NOT one of the first eleven – please post a picture and email us with a subject “Tennessee 12” by 7pm (my time) tonight.  We’ll choose one random knitter from among you to take the last spot.

As of 9:20 this morning the divisions are up to date and the numbers look like this:
Baylor Ball Bands: 14

UConn Cast Ons: 24

Maryland Merino Madness: 20

Tennessee Twisted Knitters: 16

Looks like this round is going to go on for a bit longer so those of you struggling to finish still have a really good chance!

On an administrative note, we cannot stress enough how important it is for you to send in the correct information when you finish your socks.  You need 3 things:

1. a link to your finished photo over at flickr

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

3. your division

Simple, right?  So, please please please for our sanity, be sure and include the correct stuff in your email.  Thanks!

Carole and Hillary

Well, tomorrow is the first pattern release so here are a few last minute comments and details.  It’s mostly random stuff so I’ll give it to you in bullet points.

• 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.
• You should have received a “Test” message this morning.  We just wanted to check and make sure that all of the emails are working so that you all receive the pattern tomorrow without difficulty.  Very few messages bounced back.  If you didn’t get a test message from us this morning - please let us know right away.
• The Maryland and Tennessee colors are ready and they are great.  You can find announcements on Ravelry and Flickr with links.  If you want to find the yarn, you can find the link to the Knit Front & Back etsy site here, on the prize page, and the supplier page. 
• The Creative Awards - we’ll wait about about 10-14 days after the pattern is released to select the socks for your votes.  I think that it will depend upon how quickly you are all finishing.  We’ll probably give you a day or so of notice that all socks posted by X (insert time & date here) will be considered for the Round X creative award.  We will choose our favorite 10 versions of the sock and present them in a poll for the general public to vote on.

Please remember to post to flickr as well as Ravelry so that everyone can benefit from the discussion.  Have a great time.

How do you like this teaser?

Do I have your attention? I hope so because this post is pretty important – especially for newbies. It lays out the timing for the rounds and what you should expect.

Things will be a little different this year.  ALL of the rounds will be strict time trials.  You’ll be essentially competing against the rest of your division.  For each round, we have set a certain number of players who will advance.  We’ll post it at the beginning of the round.  For round one it is 40.  The first 40 players IN EACH DIVISION to post a completed pair of sock and email us the link per the rules will advance to the next round. In each round the number of advancing players will shrink a little.

Many of you are concerned with swatching and knowing what’s ahead. We’ll post the specifications - yarn requirement, needles and gauge if available - within 48 hours of the close of the last division in each round.  For example, when we have 40 players in each division who are listed as finished, we’ll have 48hours to let you know the specs for the next pattern.

Are we all clear so far?  Good, then let’s move on.

 To try and keep things moving while still allowing for people to rest their hands, do the laundry, eat, sleep - we’re going to plan on starting the new round within 3-5 days of when we post the specs.  We’ll determine the start date of the next round with an eye towards keeping it close to the weekends - but it won’t always fall on a Saturday or Sunday.  We’ll post the start date for the next round with the specs so there will be time to prepare yourself.  This way you’ll all have time to plan and prepare.We will try to avoid releasing patterns on Easter and Passover.  I’m not sure how we’ll work around it but we’ll figure it out. Next week we’ll have the specs for pattern 1, details on how the creative awards will work, and probably the Tennessee and Maryland yarn info. Whew!  It’ll be a busy week!

From the look of things, many of you are busy getting prepared for the start of Sock Madness 2. You are winding yarn and readying your needles. You might also want to make sure that you have a collection of about 20 safety pins ready. One sock calls for a Japanese short row heel which requires them.

Another thing that you might want to do while preparing for SM2 is try out toe-up socks. In the line up for Sock Madness 2 there are a few toe up patterns. It’s really not that hard. Try it – you’ll like it. The most difficult thing may be settling on the method of casting on that pleases you most. I usually go for the Turkish Cast On but recently, for one of the patterns, I tried the Magic Cast On for the first time and I really like it. Google “toe up cast on” and you’ll get a buch of good hits. Try a few of them and I’m sure you’ll find one that suits you.

Earlier this week Carole and I settled upon the final list of patterns and their order. We wound up with twelve patterns to consider and selected a bunch that, we hope, will offer a nice progression of difficulty and variety of design elements. Charts, cables, and lacy bits are all represented along with other neat stuff. We’ll be using patterns from some of last years designers, some of last years players and a few folks that are totally new to us.

As the excitement builds, it’s hard to believe that just a few months ago I was worried that there might not be enough interest for SM2. At some point, in desperation, I promised to send a yarny gift to a random designer. The designers really delivered and now I will. I made a list of all the names (regardless of whether the patterns were chosen or not) and let the Random Number Generator do it’s thing. Here’s part of what I’m sending to the winner - TechnoKnitter.

Oh, by the way, the first pattern will be sent out one week from today - March 13th! Watch for details, including the first pattern specs, soon.

Hillary

In case you haven’t noticed, all 4 divisions are now posted.  Have you figured out the connection between the names?  Hmmm?

We have fixed many of the blog links but know a lot of them are missing.  Could you all please check the division lists and make sure that your link is working?  If your name isn’t linked to your blog and you would like it to be, please send us an email (not a comment to this post, please) and tell us the division you are in, your name as it’s listed in the division, and the blog you would like to have linked to your name.

This is also the time to email us with any corrections to your listing.  If you want to go by a nickname and we’ve got you listed under your real name, etc, NOW is the time to tell us.

Getting the divisions listed and making these corrections is very time consuming so we respectfully ask that you follow the directions.  Only corrections sent via email will be made and any corrections, updates or changes need to be emailed to sockmadness@gmail.com by this Friday,  March 8th.  After that we won’t be able to make changes so get them in now.

Thanks!

Carole and I are super busy getting everything organized and ready to go but there are things that you need to do too.  Of course you need to check the stash and make sure that you have all of the supplies that you’ll need.  From what we’ve seen this is one thing that you are all totally on top of. 

You all need to watch the divisions as they are posted and make sure that the information we posted for you is correct.  Remember, there will be 4 divisions so if you don’t see your name yet, wait until all 4 are posted before you panic.

The last thing that you need to do is become a part of the flickr group.  Here is the information on that as we posted it last year.

In order to sign up you need to got to the group page http://www.flickr.com/groups/sockmadness2007/.   Follow the signs to “join this group”. It will tell you that you need to request an invitation.  Request an invite and we’ll be happy to approve it.

Once you’re signed up for flickr is how you need to know how to use the pictures posted there in other places.  On pictures that you post you’ll see “all sizes” listed at the top of the picture or “different sizes” listed to the right of it.  Either option will bring up a spot where you can resize the picture.  Choose thumbnail and below the picture you’ll see 2 options for linking the photo on other websites.  Copy link #1 and send it to us or use it on your blog.

In the competiton, in order to show us that you have completed the round, you will need to send us a picture of the finished socks according to the rules listed here (http://sockmadness.wordpress.com/rules-and-admin-stuff/rules/).  I suggest that everyone go check the rules out.  Newbies need to become familiar with them but the returnees need to become reacquainted too.

There is all kinds of stuff happening behind the scenes.  There has been even more loot added to the stash.  Can you believe it?  There’s a Longaberger basket and enough sock yarn for 2 more pairs of socks.  We’re going to have so much fun giving all this stuff away.  So. Much. Fun!

There’s a lot that will happen before we start giving stuff away and we’re putting all the details together just as fast as we can.  In fact, the first of the 4 divisions has been posted.  You’ll note that the names of the divisions are different this year.  Can any of you guess what the theme is?

Back to the lists themselves.  Go on over and check them out as they get posted.  See if you can find yourself and make sure that the info we have listed is correct.  Send us an email if there are additions or corrections.

I hope to post one division a day until they’re all up.  We really appreciate your patience.

Ok, at long last, here is the supply list. It’s presented in no particular order for a few reasons, chief among them is the fact that the pattern order hasn’t been set yet.  Where available, we’ve included information on the yarn used by the designer and the test knitter.

Please note that there are really no specifics as far as colors but there are a few suggestions if you want to achieve a look similar to what the designer had in mind. Sock A includes instructions for using a cool dying method to finish the sock off. If you want to try it you’d want to use a white or light yarn. Sock B was intended for a moodier yarn. Sock E has a bit of lace so a light or semisolid will probably yield the best results. Sock G is wild so go for it! I chose a variegated yarn rather than a solid and it’s working out just fine.

* This is the requirement for an optional round that we hope to slide in there.