SM8 - Round 1

Finished Round 1 of Socks Madness 8 today. The cutoff is tomorrow at 10am eastern, so I'm skating pretty close to the wire. I blame early procrastination and the an ill timed cold. Still, I made it and they're all done!

The pattern is Brucie, and you can find my project page here.

SM8 - Round 1 Specs

So the specs and materials list for Round 1 was released today.

The pattern was written with:
Wollmeise Twin in Spina de Pesce 510 yds/150g 80% merino/20% nylon
Needles: US1.5/2.5mm & US2/2.75mm
Gauge: 8 sts, 12 rows per inch stockinette with smaller needles
Tester used: 450 yards Pennyrose merino/nylon, Orange
Yardage used by tester: about 150 yards per sock, 300 for pair
Notions: stitch markers

With the thought of choosing my short list of yarn came an idea for some advice I could offer people getting into Sock Madness for the first time. Advice that may have been more timely before folks started ordering yarn, but oh well.

You should consider the texture of your yarn before selecting it for a pattern. Smooth, non-splitty yarns are best. One year I used Noro Sock and while I love it, it is the stickiest sock yarn I have ever used. You cannot knit at your fastest when you constantly have to tug the yarn free from itself.

You should also consider the color of your yarn. If you want to truly be competitive you will likely find yourself knitting in sub-optimal situations. Dark yarn can make it very hard to see your stitches and keep track of where you are. Even if you only knit in adequate light, a lighter color of yarn makes it easier to see the stitches and helps prevent eye strain.

Truly the best advice though is to use a yarn you like or even love. Even if you disregard both the previous bits of advice and are using a sticky dark yarn, if you love it you will find a way. If you find yourself staying up 2 hours past bedtime or getting up extra early to knit before work and you HATE that smooth white yarn? Well, you're probably going to hate the experience a little bit more too. In the end, this is supposed to be fun. So follow your heart.

Personally I try to have 1 or 2 choices picked once I have the materials list, so if my first color choice seems wrong hopefully the second will work out. I'm planning on using one of my darker colors for this first round, since I know the time frame we have to work in. If my eyes get tired I can afford more breaks this early in the competition. Also, I won't be winding my yarn until I see the pattern. In later rounds I'll have yarn that needs it wound into a center pull ball before we get the pattern, but again I have time to spare this round so I will wait.

I think maybe Teaser #7 will be the one to match our pattern.

[Edited 3/17 - it turned out that the teaser for this round was #6]

Gearing Up for SM8

It is almost time for Sock Madness 8 to get under way. We were given our materials list the first week of February, giving us ample time to acquire some yarn, buttons, chocolate, cardboard, ruler, and drinking vessel. Some of the supplies are matter of course, but some of them are a bit puzzling.

Since then we've seen teaser photos coming out, in no particular order. It would spoil the surprise if we new which teaser we'd be knitting in what order. In the past they've been quite sneaky. The mods will post pictures of the inside of a test knit, or upside down, or a real close up of a gusset stitch to try and throw everyone off the trail.

It's always fun to see people speculate on what a pattern might be based on these clues, between the pictures and the materials list. The forum is full of lovely and bright people. And sometimes silly youtube videos about llamas.

I'll post the 8 teaser pictures from this year below a cut.

Today is the cut off for signups. If you've been on the fence then I think you should sign up and go for it. Every year there are new people and they always seem to have a great experience. For details you'll need a Ravelry account, and this is the Forum for our crazy group. This post will tell you who to email and what information they'd like from you.

Now we wait....

SM7 - Round 4

Sock Madness 7 round 4 was the pattern High Button Socks and my project page is here. In case it isn't obvious from the name, there were buttons on these socks, and they're completely functional too. The leg of the sock was knit back and forth, rather than in the round.

SM7 - Round 3

Sock Madness7 Round 3 had a really interesting construction, both on the sides of the foot and underneath, on the sole. It also involved a new stitch for the bind off that tripped a few people up. The pattern was Greenhouse Socks and my project page is here.

SM7 - Round 2

Sock Madness 7 Round 2 was quite the color work trick, but the result is pretty amazing. Using short rows Flying Dutchman creates the image of a sail boat on ocean waves. My project page is here.

SM7 - Round 1

We're getting close to the end of this trip down memory lane! Today we start Sock Madness 7, which was last year's competition (2013). The first pattern of the year was Sockdolager and you can find my project page here. The self-striping yarn just worked perfectly with this pattern, and it was fun to knit too. The best combination.

SM 6 - Round 5

That's right, Sock Madness 6 was the year I made it through round 5 for the first time! The pattern Roosimine was another new set of techniques based on an Estonian knitting technique. I modified the pattern to use two contrast colors instead of one. You can find my project page here.

SM 6 - Round 4

Sock Madness 6 round 4 is a pattern that looks more complicated that it was. The pattern is Mosaica and my project page is here. They might be a hassle to do, but I love how striped soles look.

SM 6 - Round 3

Sock Madness 6 Round 3 was I Want to Beleaf and my project page is here. These make me laugh because the patterning of the yarn was so similar that it really just looks like I stepped in a muddy puddle.

SM6 - Round 2

Sock Madness 6 round 2 was Frick n Frack which were designed to be opposites of each other in every way. Including working one toe up and the other cuff down. My project page is here.

SM6 - Round 1

Don't worry, you didn't miss anything, I did. I did not sign up in time for Sock Madness 5, so skipping over that we move on to Sock Madness 6 round 1. The pattern was Dicey and my project page is here. The cable frequency was determined by rolling dice every few rows, which was pretty fun.

SM4 - Round 4

Sock Madness 4 round 4 brought a whole new level to the madness. KNEE HIGH SOCKS IN A SPEED COMPETITION! Yeah, it was pretty crazy. But you wouldn't want it to be too boring, so on top of the necessary shaping there is also a crazy knot work cable. The pattern is Emma and my project page is here. (Note: socks are pictured on the wrong legs so that the cable work is easier to see.) Once again, round 4 was the last round that I successfully completed.

SM4 - Round 3

Sock Madness 4 round 3 was GAMs and my project page is here. Something about the combination of the stitch pattern and the bright sunny yarn made these socks a breeze to knit.

SM4 - Round 2

Sock Madness 4 Round 2 was a pattern called Cool Beans, and you can see my project page here. I love these socks. I love my color choice, and they're coffee beans, and they fit great.

SM4 - Round 1

What a treat! We're up to Sock Madness 4, which started in 2010. This year had many of my favorite patterns. Between unique constructions, and the fact that my finished projects came out lovely I was very happy.

The first pattern was Simple Side to Side Socks and my project page is here. These were knit flat, with a hole left for the heel. You sew it up into a tube and then pick up stitches to knit the toe and heel on after the fact. They look really cool in variegated or self-striping yarns.

SM 3 - Round 4

Sock Madness 3 Round 4 was where I was knocked out. Despite finishing one sock (except the heel) in 24 hours, I was not fast enough. It ended up taking me 4 months to get around to finishing the second sock. I'm not a fan of the colors I used for these socks, but I was able to use up yarn left from other projects. The pattern for round 4 was Lucky Diamond and my project page is here.

If you'd like to see all the patterns from Round 3 you can find them here.

SM3 - Round 3

Sock Madness 3 Round 3 was the pattern Talia's Wings. My project page is here. I finished these socks on my birthday, in time to move on to the next round.

SM3 - Round 2

SM3 Round 2 taught me a valuable lesson in regards to choosing yarn for colorwork. Despite how much I loved the two yarns next to each other, having a shared color between them led to quite a mess. The pattern was Tokena, and my project page is here. I'm including two photos this time to show what a difference it made when I switched my contrast color to one that actually contrasted.

SM3 - Round 1

Sock Madness 3 started in March of 2009 with the pattern Tropical Mer-tini. I think this sock was where I learned the german cast-on method for socks. It may also be the only sock pattern I've used that came with a drink recipe. I never did make the drink, but I could have used one after the rocky start that my sock had. The link to my project page is here.

Tropical Mer-tini
1 ounce Hypnotique
1 ounce Vodka (Passion Fruit flavored might be nice)
a splash of Blue Curacao
add Pineapple-Banana-Orange Juice blend to taste

SM 2 - Round 4

Sock Madness 2 happened to be occurring during the year that I got married. Round 3 went with me to my bachelorette party, and it enjoyed the beers immensely. Round 4 started the same time as our honeymoon, I think. I don't seem to have made a project page for those socks and they never got completed. They did however get to see Hawaii which is a rare treat indeed. The pattern was Something's Shady and was meant to be dyed when the socks were completed. I did end up using the yarn for a different pair of socks in a different year.

That was as far as I went with any patterns during Sock Madness 2, but if you have a Ravelry login you should be able to find all the patterns from that year here.

SM 2 - Round 3

For round 3 of Sock Madness 2 we knit a pair of socks holding two strands of lace weight yarn together. If you hold two strands of the same color you get a solid color stripe, alternate and you get a heathered look. These are some of the softest socks that I own.
The pattern is Slippin' Stripin' Socks and my project page is here.

If you click through to my project page you might find an embarrassing picture of my poor cat Cabbit dressed in a cami.

SM 2 - Round 2

The second round of Sock Madness in 2008 was Reversai. You can see my project page here.
The hook for this pattern was that it was knit in such a way as to be the same inside as out. Pardon the bad focus on the picture, that will probably be a recurring theme of pictures here though. When it's a race, you don't always get a flattering picture at the end.

Going Way Back - Sock Madness 2 - Round 1

I'm going to start off this blog going way back in time to the first year that I participated in Sock Madness. The year was 2008, and it was the second year of Madness. The rules were different then, and I had more free time for goofy photos.

Our first pattern was for Zombie Socks. My project page is here.

The photo that I'm most proud of is the one that I got Jeff to pose for. It does not show off the pattern in the best way, but it's hilarious as you will see. These socks have felted a bit with wear and I don't recommend the yarn for socks because of this, but they're still cozy and have no holes.

If you'd like to see what the socks actually look like, then I suppose you can see them here.

There is frequently a new or rarely used technique in the patterns that submitted to Sock Madness. In the case of Zombie Socks, it was dropped stitches.

Sock Madness Project Links

I have so much fun knitting during Sock Madness, but I don't really have time to document it properly. I plan to edit this post to add links to Sock Madness projects this year, as well as years previous.

Sock Madness 1 Patterns

Sock Madness 2 Patterns
Round 1
Round 2
Round 3
Round 4

Sock Madness 3 Patterns
Round 1
Round 2
Round 3
Round 4