Photos, photos, photos!

Wow, I'm exhausted. But I had the time of my life. Sock Summit was like a convention of 2000 of your best friends, where you could drop into a conversation about the best cast-ons in the world and talk for 20 minutes — and not get bored, and not be boring. And then switch into the fart jokes and everyone *gets* you!

If they ever do this again, I'll go, even if I don't get into any classes. Because Sock Summit was about so much more than classes. It was about finding my people, who are just as obsessed as I am about yarn and the perfect needle and the perfect cast-on, or cast-off, or just fine-tuning that very last stitch in a sock, so that you don't have a bump downwards in the line of your sock.

A quick photo post. Here's the photo that Dotty took of me and my Windowpane socks in the Sock Museum.



The Sanguine Gryphon's Bugga! sock yarn was the sell-out of the show. Here's the Bugga! rack about 7 minutes after the doors opened on Friday morning. Yes, that 7 minutes was timed, by Gryphon's husband.


I have been a fan of Barbara Walker since I bought her feminist mythology books, and I was so thrilled to be able to meet her in person, and even take a course from her. Would you believe she sold off her hand-knit socks for $5/pair to students in the class? I was one of the last ones to get into the classroom so I totally missed it, but I was stunned when people told me about that.

Here's Cecilia, aka qiviutqueen on ravelry. She's the sweetest, warmest person in person, and her husband was soooo patient and (mostly) understanding, if a little flabbergasted, in the marketplace.

From left to right: Dotty, Lorie, Rebecca and me. We met Lorie for the first time on Friday, and she was soooo funny to hang out with! That's what I mean about Sock Summit. You meet people and it's like you've known each other for years, just after a few minutes of knitting jokes and sharing tips.

I think we were tempted to take Lorie home with us. She lives in Edmonton, so poor Rebecca (who lives in New York) was surrounded by Canadians. (And Canadian chocolate, which I think made up for the cultural gap. It's a ZED, not a ZEE, folks!)


And Ro sent beautiful Lord of the Rings books for my boys, and they were very happy to open their lovely gifts this morning. They're so beautiful and I'm going to be so happy to share that magic with my boys, in their own special editions.

It was the kind of conference where Cookie A would duck in front of you as you were getting your photo taken. Where you would go to the bathroom and just see Barbara Walker talking to friends in the hallway. Where you would meet Amy Singer auditing BW's course, and sit next to Judy Becker (yes, the inventor of Judy's Magic Cast-On). Or just catch the tram (free from the convention centre) to Powell's and see Lucy Neatby on the tram too. And none of this magic is namedropping -- it happened to *everyone*.

And I haven't even talked about Cat Bordhi's class yet, where she opened up all sorts of doors for me. Wow, just wow, my brain is still trying to recover its footing from being pried wide open and all sorts of stuff poured into it.


And did you know that Barbara Walker invented the SSK stitch? Seriously, she admitted to it in the closing panel session.

Stephanie and Tina, please please please do this again. It was a total blast, and a heroic accomplishment.

(Even if you didn't have any Klingons in the Red Lion lobby -- oh wait, that's the other kind of con that I'm used to going to.)