Sock Summit Recap

You know how it feels when you find a person who understands your passion about something -- who doesn't think it's frivolous or weird or laughable, but nods excitedly and gesticulates animatedly and confirms that your passion is worth every minute, every blog post, every hand cramp? Now imagine being surrounded by thousands of them.

It's not often that I have felt surrounded by people who accept and understand me, on that level -- I can really only think of two other periods in my life like that, and I look back on both of them with a lot of fondness. Now I can add a third.


There was a real feeling through the weekend, of talented women together, supporting and lifting each other (not that there weren't also some men, both those who were knitters and those who were husbands-in-tow.) When I saw this plaque in the Convention Center, I had to take a photo because I felt it really encapsulated something -- the inscription reads: "This country fosters a kind of woman who never seems to bother about who she is supposed to be, mainly because there is always work, and getting it done in a level-eyed way is what counts most. Getting the work done, on horseback or not, and dicing their troubles into jokes. These women wind up looking 50 when they are 37 and 53 when they are 70. It’s as though they wear down to what counts and just last there, fine and staring the devil in the eye every morning."

It was a weird weekend, being in the presence of so many of the kniterati -- the first time I was face to face with Stephanie (coming out of the ladies' room) I was too shocked and excited to even pull together a proper smile, so I think I grimaced at her. By the end of the weekend, I'd seen her so many times (she was walking around amongst the rest of us like a Normal Person!) that I just shook my head endearingly at the fans that clustered around her for a photo. Myself, I am too Canadian (or too shy or too awestruck) to go up to the knitting celebrities that I was within arm's reach of, like Stephanie or Amy Singer or Lucy Neatby or Jessica or Casey and Jess or Cirilia (who wanted a photo of my bag!) or Sandi Wiseheart (but yeah, I will drop some names.)

As I mentioned, I didn't make it into any classes (which I hear were fantastic, alas) but I spent copious amounts of time wandering around the Marketplace, just soaking it in, and buying many many skeins of yarn.

Some Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks that Rock in Koi Koi, which I've wanted for yonks

More BMFA STR in Crabby McHappypants (yeah, the name won me over as much as the colourway)

Madelinetosh Sock in Lichen is the first find I made there that I just couldn't walk away from. I think this one is destined to be a mobius wrap (On a side note, I was entranced once by another yarn called Lichen -- it was the first 'expensive' yarn I ever bought myself)

Hazel Knits superwash fingering in Strawberry Lemonade (the photo doesn't do this one justice at all -- I saw it the first day in the Marketplace, and the colour haunted my thoughts all night until I finally went back and bought it the next day)

A sock kit from the Sanguine Gryphon, who are completely awesome and I have stalked online for ages but never before bought anything from (extra points if you know which kit this is)

Some handpainted merino silk also from the Sanguine Gryphon (admittedly I promised myself not to buy more fiber until I have spun what I already have, but how can I resist something so perfect and shiny (and called Transmogrification, to boot))

Some Louet Gems Fingering in Cloud Grey and Caribbean, for a double-knit hat in the current Vogue Knitting

Some wonderfully variegated Zauberball which I have already separated into two balls for socks -- I came back to this and held it and stroked it every day, until finally weakening enough to buy it on the last day of the Marketplace

The Luminary Panel was also amazing -- we were all so awestruck by the whole group of knitting crones (and I mean that in the respectful sense, before you get all wound up) that our emotions were incredibly heightened. I shed more than one tear just hearing them speak, and I'm sure we all cherished every moment of it. It was something you can't explain to most people -- at one point, Meg (swoon) Swansen told a story of a funny incident in one of her classes. Apparently Barbara Walker was in there, auditing the class, and when Meg mentioned the SSK stitch, she turned to Barbara, and asked if she had indeed been the inventor of the stitch. Barbara nodded quietly, and the other instructor of Meg's class just burst into tears. That's how amazing it was to be in the presence of these women. But how do you explain to someone that the woman who replaced SKP with SSK made you cry in public, just being near her?


As for the rest of Portland, it was still pretty great -- my hotel was totally posh and very friendly and was a great place to crash, exhausted, every night. Powell's Books was awesome (obviously) and I scored a couple of fantastic books there. I even made a little stop, at the last possible minute before I checked out and went to the airport, at the Portland Doc Marten store, where I scored this truly wicked pair of Docs.


Cupcakes are so last year. How about some freshly made donuts from Coco Donuts (right next to my train stop for the hotel) -- this one even looks like a skein of yarn (or am I just drunk on fiber?)

It was an amazing weekend and I am still in recovery. There is so much more to tell (like setting a Guinness World Record.) I finished some socks (duh) while I was there, but I will show you those next time.

Hitting the Road

I am a homebody. We all know it. Once in a while, though, I like to take a little vacation by myself and check out somewhere new. Last year I went to Portland for a week, and really felt at home there. When it was announced ages ago that a couple of crazy yarnies were planning a Sock Summit there, I was on board right away and planned my vacation around it. So this year, I am going to spend a week in Portland with a couple of thousand of my new knitterly friends.

Long story short, I didn't get into any classes, but I figure the cash savings from that will serve me well in the Marketplace. I certainly will be going to the Luminary Panel to hear the wisdom of the masters.

I'm off to the airport in a few hours. I have packed minimal books (since I will be at Powell's, where I will stock up) and minimal knitting (since the Marketplace will provide me with much more than I need.) My suitcase is pretty empty, actually. It still remains to be seen how full it will be on the return trip...

See you next week!

the Portland Socks revealed

So I finished my Portland Socks during the last few days of my holidays. This yarn was last year's birthday prezzie from my sisters -- thanks girls! It was a Louet yarn dyeing kit, and it came with the three colours you see: poppy red, cherry red, and blue. At the time I was way into self-striping yarns, and reskeined the whole lot of yarn and made it into three colourways -- one was poppy red with blue, one was cherry red with blue, and one was the two shades of red. Seemed like a good idea, but then I decided that I didn't want socks that had stripes that change colours every third of the sock. Plus I wanted an excuse to try the helix stripes. So I decided to do the toe/heel/cuff in the two reds, and then alternate the other three yarns in helix stripes for the rest of the sock. Still with me?

The helix stripe technique is a bit fiddly. A bit more fiddly than just doing regular stripes. Of course the benefit is that there isn't a column of yarn crawling up the back of the sock, and there is no mismatched join between rounds. Not that you can tell with this yarn, anyway.

In any case, I like them -- I like the way that the alternating self-striping yarns make a pattern that looks almost random. They are warm and snuggly and make me smile.

Other news: plugging away on the entrelac lap throw, but it is slow going... The quilt frame is here and I have basted the whole quilt sandwich together. On with the quilting...

The Lazy Days of Spring

I've just returned from a week in Portland OR, where I had a very nice time, stayed in a posh hotel which had a real sense of humour about itself, exemplified by this exerpt of the room service menu. The weather there was pretty good (no snow, for example) although I did get rained on a bit. Comes with the territory. There was some really nice warm sun the last couple of days, which really made the city look so beautiful and green.


In truth, I had many plans for Portland that didn't pan out in the week I was there. I had, for example, planned to make a trip to a couple of Portland's cupcake shoppes and have an impromptu contest for who makes the better Red Velvet Cupcake. (Admittedly a bit of an unfair contest for Northwestern bakers, as Red Velvet is really more of a Southern specialty, but I never said I was fair.) As it turns out, I only made it to one of the shoppes (but I made it there twice.) For the record, their Red Velvet could use a bit more cocoa. But the cream cheese icing was perfection. Really. Of course I didn't take a photo of the Red Velvet cupcake. I fully intended to, but before I knew what I was doing, there was suddenly a swipe through the pretty icing. And then another swipe. And then a bite. Pictured here are a vanilla cupcake with pistachio buttercream (yum) and a little baby cupcake that is banana chocolate chip poundcake.


I had also planned to do a lot of fabric and yarn shopping while there, but didn't really manage much of either. I spent a lot of time searching up and down the downtown streets for a particular fabric shop, only to eventually realize that it was now empty and up for rent. The other fabric shop I found was rather small and mostly uninspiring. I made one extravagant purchase of some Koigu at Knit Purl (only I would go to the States to buy Canadian yarn, I know.)

I spent a fair bit of time (over two days) at Powell's Books, which truly has to be seen to be believed. It is a full city block in area and even has more than one level. Anything you can imagine is there. I even got a coffee table book of the complete pinups of Gil Elvgren for only $15. Sweet. I actually managed to only buy a half-dozen books or so, but I could easily have bought a hundred.


The last discovery I made before I left town was this little chocolate shop hidden behind Jake's Famous Crawfish. It is called Cacao and when I saw their sign: "Drink chocolate" -- obviously I had to check it out. This tiny little gorgeous shop serves the most decadent chocolate drinks and sells all sorts of international chocolate bars and cocoa and nibs and perfume... amazing. Pictured is the little shot of Spicy Special Dark Drinking Chocolate that I had on my last afternoon in Portland. It was thick and spicy and fantastic. Then I bought a Smoked Bacon Milk Chocolate bar to bring home for my HLM and I. Surprisingly good.

That last photo really captures my time in Portland -- sitting in various coffeehouses (or chocolate shops) with my book and a hot drink. Heavenly.

Knitting content: I was working on a pair of simple socks for my trip, but they are not quite finished. I will post them asap.