Sock Summit Wrap-up

This post was several days in the making, I keep getting lost on the Ravelry board reading every one's comments and following links to pictures and video. There is a list of some of my favorites at the bottom of this post.

Blogger joys: You arrange your pictures in a certain order and Blogger does something where they load differently. I really did plan to have these in a better order, but I'm not going to rearrange now.

This is the mini sock necklace I wore.

At the Guinness World Record attempt. I stole this picture from this blog because that's my back, standing in the yellow shirt. I was a ticket taker for the event, we took tickets to verify the number of people and then in front of everyone and the judges and witnesses, we turned them in.

For more information about this there are several news stories online, two at Oregon Live (also here) and one from Channel 6 which was way to cutesy.


Some cute quotes:
When Tina was about to call time on the Guinness attempt – “Just one more row!”

Me (trying to be grateful but not fangirl) to Yarn Harlot:”Thank you thank you thank you - I’m having a great time!”
Yarn Harlot: “No, Thank you. Think what an idiot I’d look like if you hadn’t come!”

Another stolen picture. This is the line up for the Market Place when it first opened, at the end of classes on Thursday. I think that was the most crowded time. While everyone was waiting Stephanie led them in "99 skeins of Yarn on the wall" (link to video)

From my class with Cat Bordhi, she would have us come up in groups to watch her knit.

Cat with her demonstration sock.

Back side of mug I bought (I told you Blogger rearranged my pictures)

Front of mug from Jennie the Potter

Here's the yarn that came home with me, I was quite restrained.

1st skein : from Briar Rose
Next 2: www.paradisefibers.net Zauberball Crazy Sock yarn
Then 3 skeins of Socks that Rock from bluemoonfiberarts.com
And last (it was on sale) from www.dyedreams.com


These were the stitch markers I took to swap. I found some cute umbrella charms at a bead store. Then I went into my stash of polymer clay bead I made a number of years ago. I let people choose which one they wanted and the polymer clay beads were very popular.

The gentleman at the Skacel booth was knitting 7 pairs of socks on one very long (I think 120") circular needle. There's more on the internet about this, I just don't have a link right now.

Several stories from sock summit are being written about on blogs and Ravelry:

The young woman who was sitting next to me in Cat's class brought her wedding veil that she was knitting. She got many of the knitting luminaries to knit on it including Barbara Walker. Check out her blog post which has a link to her Flickr pictures.

One woman impaled herself on straight knitting needles, the paramedics had to be called, they cut the needle off with huge bolt cutters and took her to the hospital. She was back quickly and only has a band-aid to show, but quite the story.

More Quotes:

As my friend Lucy Neatby says, if someone is down by your feet examining your socks closely and criticizes them… just kick them in the face. - Cat Bordhi

Just as the bird’s wing evolved to fly, the human hand evolved to manipulate. An idle hand is not a happy hand. We really need to use our hands; they’re not happy if they’re not doing something. -Barbara Walker

If knitting were widespread, we probably wouldn’t have wars. -Cat Bordhi

In the context of starting an independent business: All you have to know is the one next step. -Deborah Robson

Responding to the question “How did you end up in this business?” I was brainwashed. -Meg Swansen (daughter of Elizabeth Zimmermann)

I had no income, which is kind of liberating, because if you haven’t got anything, then you’ve got nothing to lose. -Lucy Neatby

When asked what was the most important knitting thing she learned from Elizabeth Zimmerman: You are in charge of your own knitting. -Meg Swansen

and my favorite… Question: Do you think that was easier or harder because you’re a woman? Answer: I don’t know. I’ve never been a man. -Meg Swansen

A couple more links:

The Knitmore Girls


and a You Tube Video Report

If any of my links don't work, please let me know so I can fix them. That's it, back to normal life.

Sock Summit Marketplace

It was huge, something like 150 vendors selling yarn and knitting related products. There was so much gorgeous fiber, a total visual overload. I got to the point where I just couldn't go in there because I would want whatever I looked at. During my last excursion I found myself with my arms full of yarn, and I put it all back (that store sells everything on-line, so I can get it later).

My last morning I quickly shot a bunch of pictures to record some of it. You can click on any picture to see more detail.

The biggest booth was probably Webs (www.yarn.com)

This was Blue Moon Fiberworks, I purchased some Socks that Rock yarn.
Throughout the marketplace they had winding stations set up so you could get your purchases ready for immediate knitting.
Paradise Fibers had this huge winder that was motorized on their booth, they also donated the winders that were used in the stations mentioned above.

The Sanguine Gryphon always had a huge line. This was right after the market opened on Saturday morning.

A lovely display of socks.

And my LYS store was there, here is Andrea in front of the booth for Apple Yarns.

Sock Summit Prep

I'm very excited to be attending Sock Summit this week. I'll be driving down to Portland on Wednesday, staying through Saturday.

In an OCD moment I made these bags to organize my yarn. I started with a quart zip-lock bag, added an eyelet hole for the yarn to feed through, and sewed the bags at the bottom to make them shorter to fit the yarn more snugly. I'll let you know how they work, at least packing each skein of yarn in it's own bag will help keep things neat.
On the Sock Summit forum at Ravelry, there was some discussion about making mini socks to trade. They are great fun, but I'm having problems with the heal flap on the toe-up pattern I'm using. I don't think I'll have many for trading, it's good practice on the cast on technique I'm suppose to know for my class.

I'm taking an all day class on Thursday, volunteering for the Opening Reception and the attempt to create a world record Knit In, and then being a teacher helper for a class on Saturday. It should be a fun filled 4 days with time for shopping. Just imagine all that yarn (150 vendors) in one place!

Here's a couple of pictures of bouquets of flowers I picked yesterday, should have taken the pictures then when they were fresh, but they still look good. It continues to be warm so I'm watering daily which is getting to be tiring.