Exercise Before Knitting

Voting has officially ended in the Socks Revived Design Contest! At long last, I can conclude this design contest and share with you the lovely prize baskets. Moving from Kansas to Ohio a few weeks ago, we packed two adults, two kids, two aging dogs, the mortgage papers, the kids’ vaccination records, and contest prize yarn into a tiny car. I know you would have done the same; after all, fancy yarn is important!

As all of the judges will attest, picking winners was quite challenging because there were so many terrific patterns from which to choose. I had hoped that a large panel of judges would result in a little something for everyone: easy, hard, simple, complex, mindless, and anything but. Happily, the winning patterns do indeed reflect the diversity of sock interest on the panel. I hope you will see work you like too! It is my pleasure to announce the five winners in order of the number of votes received followed by the beautiful prizes the contest sponsors generously donated. Each winner will receive yarn for three pairs of socks, a gift certificate for yarn for another pair, a Wee Lil’ Pouch from Splityarn, either a circular or DPN set in sock sizes, and tasty baked goods from me. I would like to add that I stalked the winners’ Ravelry pages for their color preferences when divvying up the yarn into five equal prize baskets; that is, I made no value judgments in deciding which yarns went to whom, only color judgments. Without further ado, here are the five winning designers and their patterns:

• 1st Place:
  
  Brocade Socks
  by Lauren Osborne [ lauren0 ]
  
  • 2 skeins Spud & Chloe Fine in #7806 Calypso
  • 1 skein Dream in Color Smooshy in #16 Velvet Port
  • 1 skein The Plucky Knitter 100% Merino Superwash Fine in Honey Wilkes
  • 1 gift certificate for 2 skeins of Simply Socks Yarn Solids in her choice of colors from Simply Socks Yarn Company
  • 1 Wee Lil’ Pouch in the her choice of print from Splityarn
  • 1 32″ 2.25 mm Addi Turbo Lace circular needle from Skacel
  • Not pictured: soon-to-be-baked goodies from me, likely involving heavy amounts of sugar, fat and chocolate (unless other ingredients are preferred)
• 2nd Place:
  
  Burning Stripes
  by Susan Luni [ lunitink ]
  
  • 1 skein north loop yarn superwash merino sock in spring grass
  • 1 skein The Plucky Knitter 80/10/10 MCN Fine in Bennett Farm
  • 1 skein Dream in Color Starry in #VR480 Midnight Derby
  • 1 gift certificate for 2 skeins of Simply Socks Yarn Solids in her choice of colors from Simply Socks Yarn Company
  • 1 Wee Lil’ Pouch in the her choice of print from Splityarn
  • 1 pair 6″ US 2 (3 mm) Addi Natura double-pointed needles from Skacel
  • Not pictured: soon-to-be-baked goodies from me, likely involving heavy amounts of sugar, fat and chocolate (unless other ingredients are preferred)
• 3rd Place:
  
  Denature
  by Margaret Mills [ MGMills ]
  
  • 1 skein Fleece Artist BFL Socks
  • 1 skein hazel knits artisan sock in #228 ShannyPants
  • 1 skein The Plucky Knitter 80/10/10 MCN Fine in First Crush
  • 1 gift certificate for 2 skeins of Simply Socks Yarn Solids in her choice of colors from Simply Socks Yarn Company
  • 1 Wee Lil’ Pouch in the her choice of print from Splityarn
  • 1 pair 6″ US 0 (2 mm) Addi Natura double-pointed needles from Skacel
  • Not pictured: soon-to-be-baked goodies from me, likely involving heavy amounts of sugar, fat and chocolate (unless other ingredients are preferred)
• 4th/5th Place (tie):
  
  Angler’s Loop Socks
  by Andrea Mules [ knittingbybicycle ]
  • 1 skein The Plucky Knitter 80/10/10 MCN Fine in First Crush
  • 1 skein sundara yarn sock in end of day
  • 1 skein Dream in Color Smooshy in #22 Tokyo Creme
  • 1 gift certificate for 2 skeins of Simply Socks Yarn Solids in her choice of colors from Simply Socks Yarn Company
  • 1 Wee Lil’ Pouch in the her choice of print from Splityarn
  • 1 24″ 2.75 mm Addi Turbo circular needle from Skacel
  • Not pictured: soon-to-be-baked goodies from me, likely involving heavy amounts of sugar, fat and chocolate (unless other ingredients are preferred)
• 4th/5th Place (tie):
  
  Graveyard Socks
  by Mandy Powers [ zigzagstitch ]
  
  • 1 skein Dream in Color Starry in #VR480 Midnight Derby
  • 1 skein The Plucky Knitter 80/10/10 MCN Fine in First Crush
  • 1 skein Mama Blue Knitting Goods Troika Sock in Juniper
  • 1 gift certificate for 2 skeins of Simply Socks Yarn Solids in her choice of colors from Simply Socks Yarn Company
  • 1 Wee Lil’ Pouch in the her choice of print from Splityarn
  • 1 24″ US 3 (3.25 mm) Addi Turbo Lace circular needle from Skacel
  • Not pictured: soon-to-be-baked goodies from me, likely involving heavy amounts of sugar, fat and chocolate (unless other ingredients are preferred)

Congratulations to the winners! I wish to thank all entrants, judges, and sponsors for contributing your time and efforts. All participants will receive a free copy of the goofy little sock pattern I designed for the contest, Culture Socks, which can also be found on Ravelry for those of you who did not participate in the design contest. I hope you like it. More importantly, I hope you feel this was a valuable experience.

This contest could not have come about without the generous support of the following sponsors. Please thank them for their contributions! Now, let’s go queue and knit some socks, shall we?