hangover

Yep, I am suffering from a Sock Summit hangover. I'm a little out of sorts. There's stuff all over the place and chores to be done but all I want to do is crawl into bed and pull the covers over my head.

I made it home in one piece with Gladys' luggage and her shiny new shoes plus a stroller that got left behind in Portland. It was a leisurely drive home with a stop in Centralia for the outlet stores (didn't buy much), a brief stop in Marysville for a late lunch, and long break in Bellingham to pick up a spinning wheel, a split bearing for my Traveller (which I ended up swapping with the Traditional because the new one was a smidge too big), and a little Finn fiber.

I'm sure you're dying to see what I bought.

I shopped for other people and this is their loot:


This is my yarn purchase plus a set of carbon fiber dpns:


And this is my fiber haul (approx. 3.5lbs):


Most of it is Polwarth except for the Sheep2Shoe kit which is superwash merino and the pencil roving. The white blob is the Finn. On the far left was my biggest splurge - 50% camel/50% silk. I couldn't resist - it's sooooo soft.

My door prize:


And here's the spinning wheel that I picked up for my niece:


It's an Edammertje and a Dutch made wheel. From what I understand, it's a competitor to Louet. The company is no longer in business so if it ever needs repairs, etc., I will have to use parts from other spinning wheel makers. I've cleaned it up and oiled it. It treadles very smoothly but 4 out of the 6 bobbins are incredibly noisy.

There are a few things missing from the pictures like my Sock Summit swag, a coupla t-shirts that I bought hubby from the Saturday market, See's candies, goodies from my Fabric Depot trip, and some clothes that I bought. I didn't exceed my duty free limit ($750) but I was pretty darned close. Phew!

Sock Summit Day 3

Today was my last day of classes. I had sooooo much fun in my CSM (circular sock machine) class. We made straight tubes, short row heels/toes, and learned how to get the ribber working and switch the needles around. I did not end up with a wearable sock but I couldn't resist trying on my practice piece.


As it happens, two of my practice heels are exactly the length of my foot so I may actually be able to salvage a sock out of my 5 ft long tube.


The CSM wasn't scary to use. A bit tricky at times but not unmanageable. By the end of the 3 hour class my hands were covered in black machine oil. My finger nails look like they belong to a grease monkey rather than a knitter.

I realized this morning that I didn't have my picture taken with any knitting celebrities (aside from Gladys). So I tracked down someone famous and begged for a picture.


This is Caro from splityarn. She's an awesome crafter. I know Caro before she became famous. We used to work together back in the day when we both had desk jobs.

In the afternoon, I showed up at Gladys' lecture with my cow bell and I'm still alive to tell you about it. The lecture was a lot of fun. Many people were inspired and I believe there was a mini stampede to several booths to stock up on pooling yarn. I might've been one of them even though I said I wouldn't do it again.


So that's it for classes. I'll head back to the convention center to pick up my spinning wheel and my door prize!!! Wonder what I won.

knitters are officially crazy

... and not too bad at dancing!

postcard from Sock Summit 2011

We and IT are here.


Sock Summit has officially started. Gladys is having a great time teaching and I'm having a great time learning. We definitely feel like we've been transported to another world:


If you don't get the reference, look it up! BTW, the show - in all it's incarnations is filmed just a few kms from where I live.

We are both enjoying the shopping ;) I will take photographs of my stash when I get home but just trust me when I say, "WOW!". As you can probably guess, most of it is spinning fiber :) While I did bring my spinning wheel, I do not have it to try out my new fiber. It is with one of the Fleece to Foot teams and it was be participating in Sunday's competition.

Tomorrow is my last class and Gladys' lecture. My supplies are packed for class and so is my cow bell for the lecture. She is going to KILL me.

6 more sleeps

... til Sock Summit 2011!!!

So there's a flurry of activity here. I'm finishing up the Tour de Fleece. One of my goals was to spin thicker and fiddle with my wheel settings a bit more.


This is 4ozs of Falkland spun up into 230yds of 2 ply. Very soft and skwishy.

I've also been spinning on Marilyn, my vintage double drive wheel. Another one of my TdF goals was to make friends with her. I finished filling one bobbin and when I had to switch it out, I couldn't get the whorl off until I remembered that it's lefty tighty, righty loosey. I filled the second bobbin and plied it today. I need to wind it off before I take a beauty shot. The fiber is a mystery as it was a gift from my friend, Gail. So what to spin next? I don't want to start anything new on Clementine or Matilda because all 8 bobbins need to be empty for Sock Summit so that leaves Marilyn. Guess I'll have to toss the stash.

What I really should be doing is getting all my Sock Summit bits together. It's supposed to be summer hot in Portland. None of my summer clothes are out because it's been so cold here. Really - I was wearing long pants last week. I had on wool socks the week before. What I have been doing is working on my shopping list and boy, is it looooooong! Must remember that my duty free limit is only $750 (and I already had stuff shipped to Portland so I have even less to spend at the marketplace). My list so far is a sweater's worth of Socks That Rock Heavyweight (leaning towards one of the Raven colourways). I want to make something like Cassis or Redhook. I might buy a little bit of sock yarn. I mostly want fiber for spinning and a few spinning accessories like a spinner's control card, and a split rear bearing to update Clementine a little. So little time/money, so much to buy.

odd'n ends

Here are some Sock Summit tidbits that don't really fit anywhere:

- While anxiously waiting for the marketplace to open for students Thurs afternoon, we started singing "99 skeins of yarn on the wall".
- Gladys and I were probably one of the first 10 people to enter the marketplace.
- The rush for Bugga! at the Sanguine Gryphon booth was insane and I was insane for being in the middle of it.
- Meg Swansen admitted to being spanked by Elizabeth Zimmerman. This revelation sent Stephanie into a major fit of the giggles and she disappeared behind the podium for several seconds.
- Aug 9th 2009 was the 99th anniversary of the birth of Elizabeth Zimmerman.
- We sang happy birthday and there was cake.
- After thanking everyone, Tina read out to Stephanie, "Thank each other - or not". They gave each other a bear hug and got a standing ovation.
- Hotels have low flow toilets. You must hold the handle down longer when flushing.
- If a mosquito is trapped in the van with myself and Gladys as the only occupants, it will bite me 5 times in the back of the neck, once near the elbow, and once on my wrist before it is killed. I don't think Gladys got bitten.
- I was right when I predicted that Gladys would be mobbed because of her pooling stole.
- Gladys gave a pooling stole to a friend who wore it everywhere during Sock Summit and she was mobbed, too.
- The trio of stitch pattern books by Maria Erlbacher is being combined into one volume and translated into English by Schoolhouse Press. Twisted-Stitch Knitting should be available in the coming weeks.
- Hubby took it upon himself to freeze the blueberries that I left in the fridge. He did this without consulting me or washing them first. He gets to wash the blueberries when they are thawed.
- My cousin took me to Chipotle and I ordered a chicken burrito and it was awesome! If you're ever near one of these, give it a try.
- I tried some Signature Needle Arts dpns. Oh my. They are the sexiest needles on the planet.

And for the part that a lot of you have been waiting for - what I brought back from Sock Summit:

Sock Summit souveniers

GothSocks (Elegant Gothic Lolita & Barbigoth) and Stranded In Oz Italian sock (col unknown)

My world record knitting. I will be framing this.

Cat mysteries and Moonsinger's Friends for me and Orson Scott Card for hubby.

A black sheep wearing purple socks mug by Jennie the Potter, a 4.5mm (between a size G & H) crochet hook, and underneath is some lovely knitting hens fabric (a gift from my friend, Mel aka Stranded in Oz)

My stack of autographed books

Last but not least, Socks That Rock - ST-2 in med & light on the left. The rest are mill ends - ???, Puck's Mischief, Lover's Leap, and three skeins of ST-2.

Can you tell that I love STR?

Woodsock

It was intense and mind-numbing but both my classes were awesome. I took Bavarian Stockings and Don't Knock Knee Socks. My instructor for both classes was Joan Schrouder. She is a fabulous instructor. Very funny - she didn't wear a poodle skirt to the Sock Hop. She wore a strudel skirt. Ha ha ha! I learned several new cast ons. And my brain truly did hurt after navigating the charts for the twisted stitch cables/motifs (but Gladys' brain hurts more after Cat Bordhi messed it up). It took me over 5 hours of knitting to make this tiny little sample (front then back):



Here are all our samples together:


In Don't Knock Knee Socks, we learned how to measure our legs and we learned about gauge and the different ways to create extra fabric for my *ahem* shapely calves. And we knit a sample with a simple ribbing increase/decrease. I walked away from the class with a bunch of black dots on my right leg. Call it my new sock tattoos.

On Fri and Sat nights, I ditched my sock knitting pals and hung out with my cousin and her family. I hadn't seen her in about 30 years. It was great to catch up.

I met so many people, made new friends, connected with people from home, and got to see people that I only 'talk' to via email/Ravelry/online. I was in awe to be in the same room building city with such knitting icons as Barbara Walker (super long line-ups for her at the book signing), Cat Bordhi, Cookie A, Meg Swansen (and the legacy that Elizabeth Zimmerman leaves in her), plus many others. The amount of knitting intelligence in one place at the same time was mind-boggling.

I was very sad when the Luminary event ended because it marked the end of 4 days of fun, craziness, and socks. I am energized (despite the lack of sleep) and inspired by everything I saw & heard. It was an experience that I will remember and treasure for the rest of my life.

Woodsock: A sock knitting conference first held on Aug 6-9th 2009 in Portland, Oregon. It was billed as "Taking Sock Knitting Almost Too Far". This conference brought together thousands of knitters, instructors, and knitting vendors from all over the globe under one roof. An attempt to set a knitting world record was made (results still to be verified by Guiness officials). Despite the intense concentration of sharp pointy needles, only one needle inflicted injury was reported that required a quick trip to the ER. The area surrounding the Oregon Convention Center was reportedly covered with scraps of yarn and wooly lint while the faint odour of sheep hung in the air.

That about sums up Sock Summit for me. Sock on people, sock on.

filling in the blanks

We got back very late yesterday night and I'm slowly sifting through all my pictures and my loot. I am still on a Sock Summit high :)

Here are the pictures that I wanted to include with Friday's post.

Crazy line up for the marketplace Fri morning:



That's a lot of people wanting to buy yarn!!!

The famous Powell's bookstore:


I bought 9 paperbacks - 4 for hubby and 5 for myself.

Skidmore fountain in downtown Portland:


In the background, you can see a group of cyclists taking a Portland tour.

And this is what the ballroom looked like just before we started the world record attempt:

I still can't believe that I was really there.

I finally tracked down Gladys and got her picture with her Sock Museum socks.

My brain is mush so you'll excuse me if I can't string together more than one or two sentences today.

apologies to the Aussies

I didn't have any classes today but I was still very busy. After a quick trip to the convention center, I headed downtown to do a little shopping. I picked up some stainless steel water bottle cages for hubby (it's our 11th wedding anniversary in a few weeks and the traditional gift is steel). Then I headed over to Powell's. I was in book heaven!!!! I bought a few books for myself and a few for hubby.

Afterwards, I hustled my butt back to the convention center to participate in setting a new world record for most knitters knitting. The Harlot made us apologize to the Australians who set the record of 256 knitters in June. Then we were told to knit and we did for 15 mins. It's not official yet, but I'm pretty sure there were more than 256 knitters in the room. The experience was out of this world. I had goosebumps the entire time.

ETA: here's a link to a video. Can you spot Gladys? Hint - look for a pooling stole.

The afternoon was spent standing in line and getting my books signed by the Harlot, Cookie A, Cat Bordhi, and Nancy Bush. I did a little more shopping but I didn't buy anything (still lacking in the money department). I bumped into Sivia Harding and I gave her the bootie that I test knit. I also saw Trish from Indigo Moon.

I'll let Gladys post about her adventures but she was basically in Barbara Walker heaven.

My apologies for a pictureless post. Pics are on the camera but there is no available USB port on the laptop.

we're here and it's heaven!

Welcome to Portland!


It was a very unevenful drive (i.e. I slept through most of southern Washington state). We arrived in plenty of time to be the first ones to line up for the marketplace.


Gladys got mobbed by pooling stole admirers. I knew that was going to happen.


I finally got to meet Mel - my upstream Monkey sock swap pal. She's here all the way from Australia!!!! I also saw Caro (aka splityarn). We used to work together when we both had day jobs.


And here's Gladys' mitered square socks in the Sock Museum. I wanted to take a picture with Gladys but I couldn't find her anywhere. The marketplace was amazing - so many yarns, so many people, so many yarn fumes, and so very little money left in my wallet. It's too late & dark to take pictures of our loot but we'll try to remember tomorrow.

After our big shopping binge, we went out with Ravelry friends for a Korean supper. I am now exhausted and looking forward to a good nite's sleep where I can recharge my batteries and do this all over again tomorrow. Can you tell that I'm having fun?