Design for Glory

We have a winner!

We were looking for something a little out-of-the-ordinary—a design for a sock that could be knit by a team of five at the Fleece to Foot Challenge. This pattern needed to be a modular pattern, where the sock is knit in pieces and then assembled at the last minute. There were quite a few talented knitters out there that came up with such a pattern.

We were blown away by the quantity and the creativity of the submissions for the Design for Glory. Congratulations to everyone who submitted. The finalists were selected after our judges’ tech editing for creativity, feasibility and sockitude.

With over 1600 votes for all of the finalists, one pattern rose to the top. Congratulations to:

 

At the Summit by TAAT Designs

At the Summit was designed to represent the journey from the Oregon coast to the Cascades. During Sock Summit, friends come together from all over the world and are able to enjoy all of the beauty Oregon has to offer. Beginning with a smooth stockinette toe to represent the sandy beaches, the foot of the sock becomes a pebbled pathway to the mountains. A whirlpool heel symbolizes a fresh mountain lake while the leg’s tree motif honors the evergreen trees which are so prevalent in the Pacific Northwest and a rippled lacy cuff represents the ever-present cloud cover. The five-part design contains pieces which vary in complexity, allowing knitters of all skill levels to participate, and is assembled using simple grafting and seaming techniques for a speedy completion!

The toe is a standard wedge toe, bound off after reaching the desired stitch count. The cuff is knit top-down, beginning with a stretchy cast on and ending with live stitches which are later grafted to the top of the leg. The leg is begun with a provisional cast on for half the stitches on the bottom edge and a long tail cast on for the other half. It is then worked upward with a tree motif centered on the front. The top leg stitches are left live and later grafted to the bottom of the cuff. The foot is worked by casting on at the toe-edge, which will later be seamed to the toe piece. A pebble stitch is worked over the top of the foot piece, while the sole remains in stockinette. The heel is formed using a standard whirlpool construction and bound off at the desired stitch count. Once the cuff/leg and foot/toe pieces have been attached, the leg and foot pieces are grafted together over the instep before the heel piece is seamed into the remaining opening.
 

Finalists


Five Easy Pieces by Anne Berk

This challenge truly captured my imagination.  Other minds will come up with much more creative and impressive ideas, I am sure.  However, this sang to my competitive spirit. If I were competing, I’d be in it to WIN.  Every design choice I made was to eliminate the possibility of error, so no time would be lost. Two of the pieces (toe/heel, and foot/leg) are identical, so teammates can partner up and help each other out if needed.  The 3-needle BO is fast, and I use a larger needle for the BO, to increase stretch.  I put the seam on the outside, for foot comfort and also to add a design element.

The pieces just cracked me up.  I wanted to find a 5 year-old and say.” hey, what can you make with this?”  It’s a great puzzle.  And although it is a quick and dirty design, I really am happy with the end result, and had a blast doing it.


 

Massively Modular Socks: Variation 2 by sarah-marie belcastro and Madison Stuart (MadStuart)

The idea for this pattern evolved directly from the Design for Glory description “The pattern will be knit in separate parts, so that at least five pieces can be worked on at one time. What those parts are is up to you. Cuff? Sole? Heel? Instep? Toe? Sideways? Spirals?” The initial concept was simply to divide a stockinette toe-up sock into five parts (toe, foot, heel, leg, cuff) except that’s both obvious and boring. The word “spirals” inspired converting the leg portion into a set of textures that would spiral around the leg. Then, to de-borify the other parts of the sock, these textures were exported to them. But there are so many ways to place textures on sock parts… and the design was already modular… The temptation to create a mix-and-match sock became too great to resist, and therefore an entire set of patterns were born.  Only a few are being submitted for the competition.

Here is how it works:

The pattern works by first knitting a toe-up toe, a combined sole and heel (again, toe-up), a foot top, a leg (again, toe-up), and a cuff (again, toe-up), and then assembling them in toe-up fashion with grafting and seaming.  To achieve the spiraling effect on the leg with a minimum of mental gymnastics, the leg is constructed from eight strips with slanted ends that are seamed together.  A schematic and photos are included in the pattern.


 

Frankensock by Gretchen Graner (Gretcheng)

My goal was to produce a simple comfortable sock that could be knit by committee and require as little seaming as possible. The foot is composed of 2 identical pieces, and the cuff is composed of 3 identically-shaped but differently-patterned pieces. It would have been a more elegant solution in four pieces, but the rules specified a minimum of five, so that’s what I designed. Nothing earth-shattering here, but I think it’s kind of cute!


 

Modular Sock For Glory by Sarah Hauschka (SarahSeattle)

This should be billed as the international cross-continental sock! We were driving across Canada to a big family wedding in Minnesota when I found out about Design for Glory. Fortunately, I had some yarn and needles to do some preliminary experiments.

We were home for two days (during which I picked up some real sock yarn from stash which wouldn’t conceal the structure). The sock was knitted during a trip to Eugene for the Bach Festival, and I put it all on the computer when we got back on the 4th.

I wanted to make a sock which (within the guidelines) was relatively quick to work, with techniques familiar to most knitters. I also wanted (or needed) to use a couple of unfamiliar techniques, which were either more elegant, or faster (for me). I would think that alternate techniques, which achieve the same look and stitch count would be acceptable. For example: Japanese short row technique vs. any other short row technique which maintains the stitch count; figure 8 cast-on vs. crochet cast-on or knitted on cast-on picked up from both sides; 3-needle bind off worked with a crochet hook as the third needle vs. actually using 3 needles.

The appearance is that of a typical cuff-down sock. However, the toe and bottom of the sole are worked toe up. The instep is worked perpendicular to the sole, and the cuff and heel cup are worked top-down.

I made the cuff very short, which can be easily lengthened at the discretion of the editors. I thought that speed was of the essence, and the increased rows on the cuff would not add any technical difficulty to the knitters. The three—needle bind-off does not create a hard ridge where used, and is a necessary design element.


 

All Your Sock by Robin Dunkin-Chadwick

The idea for the pattern actually evolved as I knit it. Originally, I intended to have an openwork seam down the side. However, the first sock I knit incorporated that, and I was not happy with that part of the design. So, I revised it using a mattress stitch seam down the side, and I am much happier with the look.

The sock is knit in five parts:

  1. The ribbing (knit in the round) and back of leg (knit flat)
  2. The heel and gusset
  3. The toe (knit in the round) and front section of sole (knit flat)
  4. The front of the leg
  5. The top of the foot

My original intent was to make all five pieces as close to equally sized as possible. Then, it occurred to me that some part of each team would probably start knitting before all the spinning was complete, so I made the pieces different sizes so that the last 2 pieces to be knit are smaller than the others. All of the horizontal seams are grafted, and the grafting can be done in parallel rather than waiting for one graft to be done before starting the next, The mattress seams down the side are the last step.

Honourable Mentions

We had many creative and unique submissions (many more than we were expecting actually). We’d like to thank and acknowledge the designers who took the time to develop, test-knit, photograph and submit their patterns. We look forward to seeing their socks knit out and about in the world. Without further ado, and in no specific order:


FROHNCKENSHTEEK by Lisa Grossman
SOCK WOOLIGAN: from Fleece to Foot to Ewe by Mary Ellen Langieri

Igorina by Katie Boyd and Stephania Fregosi
It’s a Mod, Mod, Mod, Mod, Mod Sock
by G. K. Green

Sockie Sock by Noriko Ho
Come Together by Ikumi Kayama.

Massively Modular Socks: Variation 1 by sarah-marie belcastro and Madison Stuart (MadStuart)
Massively Modular Socks: Variation 47 by sarah-marie belcastro and Madison Stuart (MadStuart)

Fleece to Foot Contest Sock by Pinkfeather
Sock Summit Mash Up by Alice Rohrssen (AltyGrae)

Field of Daisies by Claire Nemeth (PoodleAccountant)

Design for Glory Rules:

  1. The pattern needs to be submitted before July 8th.
  2. The pattern must call for fingering/sock weight yarn.
  3. The pattern must be based on stitch counts and rows/rounds, rather than measurements. (For example, “Knit 9 rounds then…” rather than “Knit one inch then…” This makes it so all teams are completing the exact same amount of knitting.
  4. The pattern will be knit in separate parts, so that at least five pieces can be worked on at one time. What those parts are is up to you. Cuff? Sole? Heel? Instep?Toe? Sideways? Spirals?
  5. The parts can be fashioned and joined using any style or stitch you like, but only knitting and traditional making up skills can be used. Grafting, mattress stitch… that sort of thing. No macramé, glue or staples.
  6. The pattern must be test knit before submission, so that you know it’s accurate and it works.
  7. Please don’t share the pattern on Ravelry or your blog (or anywhere else) until after the Fleece to Foot Challenge on July 31st. We don’t want the teams to have a heads-up or advanced knowledge.
  8. We’ll post photos of the finalists here for voting.
  9. You maintain ownership of the pattern. After the Sock Summit Fleece to Foot Challenge is over, you can use and distribute it as you see fit.

Submissions:
Please send photos and a written copy of your work of genius to attend@socksummit.com with “Design for Glory Pattern Submission” in the subject line by 5pm PST on July 8th. In your email, please include:

  • a short paragraph about your idea for the pattern
  • how it works
  • a brief bio, including a URL where we can link to you

We’ll do a second round of tech editing for all submissions to make sure that they will work for our purposes. The finalists that pass the test will go up here, on the Sock Summit website, so sock knitters everywhere can vote on the one we use for the Fleece to Foot Challenge.

Prizes:
The winning designer gets all the glory we can shine on them, along with a $100 donation made in their name, to the 501(c)(3) charity of their choice.

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