SM4

This will be the last post here on the Sock Madness Blog.  Hillary and I have mixed emotions about letting this go but we know the time is right and so, we give you, a word from your new Sock Madness Coordinators . . .

As many of you already know, Sock Madness will continue with SM4 in March 2010. There will be some changes, one of those being that Julie and I have decided not to carry on with the sock madness blog. We are going to continue to use the sockmadnessatgmaildotcom addy. All information about SM4 will be available in the Sock Madness Forever group on ravelry. If you have yet to join ravelry, this is the time to join if you are interested in keeping up with SM news. To join ravelry go to Ravelry.  A direct link to the Ravelry Sock Madness Forever group is http://www.ravelry.com/groups/sock-madness-forever

Julie and Tricia(Julie and zemy on ravelry) are your new organizers for SM. Julie entered the SM fray as a competitor in SM2 after following the blog of Carole, one of SM’s most recent organizers, who was a competitor in SM1. For SM3 Julie submitted the design Fire on the Mountain, which was the 6th round pattern. Julie also did an amazing amount of test knitting this year and was the photographer for many of those cunning teaser shots of various designs. I have submitted a design to sock madness all 3 years. For SM1 Painted Madness was the 3rd round pattern, for SM2 Odds ‘n Sods was the 7th round pattern and for SM3 Tokena was the 2nd round pattern.

Julie and I met late last year when she test knit my design submission Tokena.for SM3. Julie and I started to chat as she test knit Tokena and then when SM3 started, we chatted on ravelry more and more. We have talked about SM, socks and just generally got to know one another. One thing was very clear to both of us, we are quite passionate about SM. When Carole and Hillary made the decision to step down, there was not much question that Julie and I were ready to step up and continue the madness. The next big thing to happen will be a call for design submissions for SM4. So, please join us over on ravelry as we continue the madness.

Julie and Tricia

The End

Sock Madness 3 finished up a little over a week ago with Dyveke as our champion. It was a great finish to a really good competition. As usual there was lot’s of great knitterly behavior. Knitters connected, supported each other and shared lot’s of laughs. As times it seemed like s tight little community which is remarkable when you consider that the community includes people in countries that cross time zones and speak different languages. Truly this is proof of the power of knitting.
Since the competition ended Carole and I have heard all of the lovely comments and we really appreciate all of the nice things that you say. It’s great to think that you want this to continue. It makes us both proud.
I wish I could say that Carole and I will be doing this again but we both feel that the time has come to pass the torch. I started Sock Madness after competing in another knitty event and thinking that I could do better. I bet that there are some among you who’ve had the same thought. That’s the kind of energy that Sock Madness needs and that Carole and I really can’t offer it anymore. It needs new blood and excitement.
If you think that you could be the one (or team) to take Sock Madness further and make it even better then contact us at sockmadness (at) gmail (dot) com. We’d love to see it continue in new and excellent directions.
To those of you who have expressed the desire to design for next year or help in other ways we thank you and we’ll pass your info along to the new Sock Madness Mods.
Thanks! It’s been great.

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 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!

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.

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.

Round 3 Specs

Round 3 will start on Monday, April 20 between 1pm and 4pm (my time of course).
This sock will require 2 skeins at 209 yards each of fingering weight yarn. It was designed using One Sheep Hill Superwash Merino and test knit with Yarntini semi-solid sock yarn. The pattern specifies US 1 needles (2.5mm). No gauge is specified.

The magic number for this round is 12. So what do you think? Are YOU faster than number 13?

A Rule Clarification

A question has come up recently about what is okay to change in a pattern.
We wish to make it perfectly clear that patterns are to be knit as written.
Only the length of the leg and foot are okay to change.  These may be made longer than the pattern says but not shorter.
Any other changes are considered changes to the design itself and therefore they are not allowed.
We apologize if we did not make this clear.
For those of you who have changed the gusset on the Tokena sock to make it color work instead of knit with a single color – if you have gotten past this point on your first sock we will not require you to go back and reknit it.  However, future changes of this sort will disqualify you.
Please let us know if you have any specific questions.
Carole and Hillary

Pattern Two – Tokena

A bit of colorwork for pattern number 2! Our test knitter says you all will really enjoy this one – and we hope she’s right.

Here’s what the designer, Tricia, has to say:

In 2006, my husband was granted a 1 term sabbatical and we chose to spend it in New Zealand. Having spent some time in New Zealand when I was footloose and fancy-free, I was delighted to return. Even when that meant finding temporary homes for 3 animals and all the hassles of taking 3 kids out of school and transplanting them in another country. It was all worth it and once again I was in awe of the sheer wild beauty of the country. This time round, I kept noticing the beauty, ingenuity and intricate design of the Maori kete (baskets).
I have made just enough baskets to be dangerous and I think my meager knowledge of basket weaving recognized the skill, workmanship and the intricacy of the design of the Maori kete. Kete designs are passed down in families in much the same way that knitting designs are in communities that have a lengthy history of a particular style like Shetland.
I have 4 avid photographers in my family, so the only place I took pictures in New Zealand was the Auckland Museum. The museum has an outstanding collection of Maori and South Pacific baskets, carvings, and so much more. This sock design is based on one of the baskets from that collection. The word Tokena is sock in Maori.
Enjoy!
Tricia(zemy on ravelry)

And this is Tricia’s version of the pattern.

The first 20 knitters in each division will make it through this round. And . . . knit!

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.