Yes friends, I may be crazy but we’re going to do it again! There are several changes to how things will work once again this year, so please read the following carefully before you decide to sign up. I’ve tried to highlight new things by underlining them.

What is The Summer of Socks?

The Summer of Socks is a two month knitalong* designed to help us celebrate the warm weather while preparing for the day when we’ll want all those cozy socks to keep our feet and those of our loved ones warm again. Socks make a great project for taking on vacation and for keeping us at our hobbies and learning new things in those warm months when you just don’t want a sweater or an afghan on your lap (but I didn’t have to tell you that right?!).

*This along will be exclusively for knitters this year. There has not been enough interest in the past to warrant a separate category for crocheters. Sorry!

When is it?

The along starts on June 21st and ends on September 1st. During the course of the two month along, you can knit as many or as few socks as you like. No pattern requirements, no yarn requirements, do as much or as little as you want! The whole point is to have fun and relax while knitting along with others. The ways in which you choose to participate are completely up to you! But there are some fun ways that can help you make the most of your two months.

Who can play?

Anyone can play who loves knitting socks! The only other rule is that you *must* have either a blog, a Ravelry account and/or a Flickr ID.

The contests

Yes there are contests involved if you want to exercise your competitive spirit while you crank out your new socks.

Most socks contest – For each pair of adult sized socks you knit, you will receive 1 point. Whoever has the most points on September 1st will win a fabulous prize! In order for your socks to count this year, you must post a picture to the Summer of Socks 2008 Ravelry group (and while you’re at it you might as well put them up in Flickr too). Each two week period will have it’s own thread for posting completed socks. (ETA: Please note, the use of a CSM is NOT PERMITTED for this contest. Hand-knits only please!)

Socks on vacation contest – Take your socks on vacation! No matter where you are going to go to relax this year- the back yard, the local pool, the mountains, the ocean or somewhere else- take a picture, include your sock in it and e-mail it to me to enter the contest! Our participants will vote to determine the best picture and the winner will also go away with a fabulous sock-y prize!

Bi-weekly raffle – Every two weeks we will have a random drawing of all the pairs of socks completed during the given two week period. For each pair of adult socks completed in the two week period you will receive one entry into the drawing. The winner, drawn at random, will win a socktacular prize! In order to qualify, a picture of your completed pair of socks should be posted to the proper thread in the Ravelry group for the given two week period.

*****PLEASE NOTE! Each of these contests must have at least 15 people entered in order for the contest to run. NO EXCEPTIONS!!!*****

Spin-off groups – This year I would like to encourage those of you with an interest to create your own spin-off groups as part of the along. Would you like to organize a swap? Coordinate a charitable effort? E-mail me at Zarzuelaknits [at] gmail [dot] com with a proposal. If approved, you will be given your own thread in the Ravelry group for coordinating your spin-off group. You will take on full responsibility for all efforts to coordinate your group and its success or failure, so please consider carefully before creating such a group.

Ready to sign up?

Signups are OPEN NOW and will close on May 15th. Since we have Ravlery and Flickr this year, there will not be a separate along blog. I will be posting updates and links to all the participants right here on my personal blog.

Want to be a sponsor??

If you are a vendor of materials that might be of interest to the members of this along and would like to make a prize donation, please sign up for that on the donors page. You’ll find full instructions there and I am happy to answer any questions you may have. Feel free to e-mail me at Zarzuelaknits [at] gmail [dot] com.

Questions about the along and how it works? Please post a comment and I will answer it here so all may benefit.

So are you ready to sign-up?? Then click HERE!!!

Looking forward to another fantastic summer of sock knitting!

And once again this year, we all need to say a huge THANK YOU to Risa for her coding magic that made all the sign up stuff happen. THANK YOU RISA!!!!

Related posts:

1. Summer of Socks 2007 – It’s on!!
2. Summer of Socks 2007 redux

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 30th, 2008 at 6:23 am and is filed under Summer of Socks 2008. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.