ok, i know that i am dreadfully overdue in posting my account of the wondrous Sock Summit. generally, the more momentous the occasion, the longer it takes me to summon the insight i’d like to have in retelling it…
so without further heel-dragging, here we go. above you see the line to get into the Summit, at the opening bell Thursday at 4:30. this was the *soft* opening, 2 hours of preview, only open to those who took classes that day. this would be when the infamous Goth Sock near-riot took place, though we were completely oblivious at the time!
as you probably know, i went with the other Knot, Jill, who was a vendor as well as a teacher. the pics above are her booth, where she debuted a slew of new yarns, which was very exciting! see those big giant balls? those are Empire, her 1.5 pound (1280 yds) skeins of gorgeousness, made completely, from sheep to skein, in NY State! i happen to have adopted one of these, but more about that in a future post…
also on Thursday, before the Summit was fully open to the public, we scored the opportunity to attend the Planned Pooling lecture with Gladys We and Karla Steubing. suffice it to say our minds were BLOWN. these ladies are geniuses, and pioneering a movement that Jill and i have been fans of, long before we even knew it existed! and if you think you don’t like pooling, it’s only because you haven’t seen pooling like this. [click on that top photo and just LOOK at what’s on the screen too] if you are intrigued, hightail it over to the Pooled Knits group on Ravelry, and check out the handout which accompanied the lecture…
i taught 4 classes (2 each of 2 classes) and despite the fact that the teacher list was of the highest imaginable caliber, people actually signed up for my classes (i imagine only after the others filled in about 2 seconds after registration went live). we had a grand time crocheting and embroidering on socks, and i regret not taking more pictures. if anyone who took my classes has pics of their projects, please friend me on Ravelry so i can see!
and of course, there was the flash mob. i was a watcher, not a participant; i’m not sure which was more amazing because watching it was a very beautiful thing! you can watch it too. for some reason (and i imagine i’m not alone in this) i am a complete sucker for a flash mob. i get teary even watching the video! and i don’t know why…
i’ll have to do a future post(s) on what came home with me, but for now i’ll just show you my “Rare Gem” Socks That Rock souvenir. i mean, i had to get one of Tina Newton’s skeins; she was one of the two organizers of the event! it would have been rude not to…
and yes, we did get our Voodoo Donuts, thanks to our Donut Angel, who volunteered to bring us donuts (without ever having met us before, mind you) via the magic of Ravelry. those 4 donuts lasted us about 5 days! who knew they’d be so huge? thanks again, Hooliebell! we will never forget you ;n)
well, those are practically all the photos i took. it was quite the whirlwind! between teaching, and minding the booth while Jill taught, there wasn’t a lot of extra time for shopping the marketplace (probably a good thing. trust me, i still managed to find some goodies!) or checking out the contests and events that were happening all over. i never even saw the sheep! but we had lots of fun in the evenings, enjoying Portland, and met so many amazing people.
i’ll have to tell you more another day… but now the sun is shining (for the first time in about a month?) and i must go hang my laundry!
1 Comment