The Knitting Universe

Judges Sandi Rosner, Cat Bordhi, and Lucy Neatby with an armful of socks — not to mention of bag of prize money!

"Sandi Rosner, Lucy Neatby, and Cat Bordhi judged the Think Outside the SOX Contest — and awarded $21,000 in prizes.

"It was an immersion in a world of socks," says Sandi Rosner who, with Lucy Neatby and Cat Bordhi, judged Knitter's Think Outside the Sox Contest.

"It was so much fun to see the work and the love that people had put into their entries for the contest. Things that we've never seen before — it was delightful."

"It was fun going around the room together," says Lucy Neatby, "and we'd be absolutely grabbed by something, and we'd all gravitate. Once in a while, there'd be one, out of the corner of your eye, pulling you in."

"There were socks that we all gathered around," says Cat Bordhi, "because we did not know how they had been done. We had to turn them inside-out, and think about them, and talk about them — that was so wonderful!"

Think Outside the Sox Contest Judges — Queens of Socks themselves — Sandi, Lucy, and Cat had two Herculean tasks: to choose the winners among a field of hundreds of incredibly exceptional entries, and to award — yes, it's not a typo, not $2,100, but twenty-one thousand dollars in prize money, with $6,000 going to the Grand Prize Winner.

The socks were identified only by number, so the judges did not know how the knitter was, and, "We'd love to meet this knitter!" was often heard as the judging progressed.

So what were the Judges looking for?

Picking up a pair, Cat Bordhi says, "Workmanship, beautiful design, and appropriate choice of color and yarn… I have to show you one thing I love about this sock: you can fold it like this, and the heel makes this lovely diamond, and it's a twisted rib so that makes it very strong, and elegant, and beautiful…"

Listening to Sandi, Lucy, and Cat was like being in a Socks Master Class. Enjoy our video excerpt — 16 wonderful minutes and 31 seconds with Sandi, Lucy, and Cat — of our Think Outside the Sox conversation.

You won't want to miss the full coverage of the Think Outside the Sox Contest. More from the judges, the sponsors, and the winners — in the next issue of Knitter's Magazine.