Thursday, August 20, 2009

Sock Summit the Second

Seriously a LOT of pictures in this post. Hope you don't have dial-up! (Does anyone still have dial-up? I'm so spoiled with the fast internet my husband insists on that if it takes more then 2 seconds to load, I get all twitchy!)



OK, so on Thursday, Donna and I were going to have a leisurely breakfast, go to the Convention Center (CC), take about an hour to set up then mosey downtown and sample some of the famous "cart" food we were hearing about, then we'd mosey back to the CC and wander around the other vendor's booths to see what was available.



HAH! It took us an HOUR just to put together the wire cubicle thingies we bought to showcase her yarn. An hour. We felt completely mental. Other vendors kept walking by and saying, "Oh, I hate those things. We got rid of ours years ago." - but not in a bitchy way, in a very sympathetic way. We got to the CC at about 10:30 and were and we stopped setting up our booth at 3:30. We dashed down the street from the CC to have a tasty meal at Burgerville (fantastic shakes!) and ran back. We were back at 4p and were sort of moseying around, looking at things. We happened to pass the main doors of the Marketplace and saw the crush of knitters waiting to get in.

I did get to take an hour break when I took the Favorite Toe-Up Bind-Offs one hour wonder class with Chrissy Gardinier. Those knitters are clever! I had to run off in the middle to use the restroom and on the way back someone called my name. It was another woman in another one hour wonder class and we had the briefest of hellos as I had to dash back to my class (more on her in a later post).


We were back at 4p and were sort of moseying around, looking at things. We happened to pass the main doors of the Marketplace and saw the crush of knitters waiting to get in. We stopped moseying and hustled back to our booth. There was a countdown at the door and they let everyone in. The next two hours were a blur and we sold some stuff. Then they closed the Market. We threw some important things (cash, computers, ipod, etc.) in our car and went to the opening ceremonies. (OK, that's all a recap of my last post, sorry.)

The opening ceremonies were a good time. Tina and Stephanie (of Blue Moon Fiber Arts and the Yarn Harlot, respectively) had a longish speech all put together where they talked about how Sock Summit came about and what it took to get there. They talked about the trials and tribulations of trying to put together a convention of Sock Knitters as none of the rest of the world would really take them seriously. They were delirious and hilarious. They were completely loopy and kept cracking up or tearing up. It was funny and touching and they are lovely women.



Here's a better picture of them....


After their speech, they introduced all the teachers and said the teachers would be hanging out for pictures and such. I took full advantage of that and got our pic's with as many as we could...

Heather Ordover...
I took her Podcasting 101 class on Sunday morning and she lives in Tucson - my old stomping grounds! Very sweet woman!

Clara Parkes of Knitters Review fame....



Cat Bhordi...

What an amazing mind she has!

Angela Davis....

She and I had a nice little chat where we discovered we both used to live in Tucson and we both hated it! She was quite funny!

The ever-lovely Sivia Harding...

She is so petite and pretty!

Nancy Bush....

Love her books!

Lucy Neatby....

There were a group of women (must've been about 30 0f them - all different ages) who were walking around with these swathes of pink or blue in their hair and I didn't get it until I re-met Lucy. Yes, I said "re-met" (and not just because I like to make up words). When I was a fairly new knitter (a year, maybe two into it?), I met Lucy in Tucson. She came to give some classes to the knitting guild and she and her hostess stopped by the shop. Tracy (my knitting guru) introduced me and told me about her book (Cool Socks, Warm Feet). I had NO idea I was meeting knitting royalty! I wish someone had told me.

Abby Franquemont and Denny McMillan....
See the beer in Abby's hand? My kind of teacher! Also, I don't think I ever saw Denny w/o a spindle in her hand. Very cool!

Anna Zilboorg and Cookie A.
I have to say, I honestly didn't know who some of these people were. Of course, I know who Cookie A. is! Great sock designer! But Anna Zilboorg... didn't know who she was. I'll tell you more about her later but suffice it to say, I would love to spend a lunch or two with this woman.

Carson Demers and Melissa Morgan-Oakes...
Two more teachers that I recognized by their name but couldn't tell you much about them. Donna took Carson's KnitteRx class and raved about it! He stopped by our booth to get his present and chatted with us for awhile. He is the sweetest guy - I just want to put him in my pocket!

Now, this next shot is probably one of the best ones of Donna and I but probably the worst ones of the teachers....
Amy Detjen (probably spelled wrong - sorry Amy!) and Meg Swansen...
I want to be Meg Swansen when I grow up. She is one of the most elegant and gracious women I have ever met. Amy is her assistant. She is hysterically funny! And cusses like a sailor - I love her. She is a bit intimidating at over 6' tall, with a boisterous nature. I made customized Stitch Savers for all the teachers. Yes, I am a kiss-up but it also gave me an opportunity to meet all the teachers and get autographs and have them come by our booth (we also put a mini-skein of Donna's yarn in each little baggie)! When I told Amy to be sure to come by our booth to get her present she said, "You have presents for us?? Fuckin A!" I said, "Fuckin' Hell right!" And then my next thought was, "Wow. We really shouldn't cuss around Miss Swansen like this." But she was unfazed - used to it, I'm sure - and later dropped a couple of undainty words of her own at the Luminary Panel!

Here's a much better picture of Meg...



I'm gettin' this next one framed.
Miss Barbara Walker...

She's sweet and soft-spoken and brilliant!

OK, so you've lasted through all these pictures. Now I have the total amount of Stitch Savers that I sold at Sock Summit 2009.....
313. sigh.
So with the magic of the random number caller (also know as T) - Heide wins! I have a collection of small goodies I got at the Sock Summit and a skein of yarn to send your way - and of course a Stitch Saver (seems I have a few left over from the show). Just email me your addy!
More Sock Summit Shenanigans later, Ruth!

Thursday, August 13, 2009

Sock Summit, The First

So. What an exhausting and exciting time we had!

One of the funnier things that we experienced, happened before we even got on the plane! We (Donna and I) decided to pay the small fee for the carry-on bag and we packed the top (zippered) half of the suitcase with her yarn.

Of course, the bag was overweight so we unzipped the top and, Man, I wish I could've snapped a shot of the airline worker's face! He looked completely dumbfounded and stammered, "Uh. Most women pack shoes."

We arrived Wed. afternoon and had these grand plans of stopping at a store to get a few things we needed for our booth, setting up our booth and going about a leisurely evening hanging out with my friends. (John and his fiance Melissa were graciously letting us stay at their house for free.)

What a laugh! We got off the plane, got our bag, got our car, raced out to J and M's, got our boxes, loaded up the car, found a store to buy our purchases, raced to the Convention Center, checked in, flung our stuff at our booth, then drive out to the Kennedy School for the Lantern Moon "vendors only" meet-up. It was lovely! We got free drinks, had a little bowl of amazingly delicious soup. Met some very nice people (namely the Abstract Yarns people and Jennifer of Holiday Yarns). Then we drove back to J and M's for a light, late dinner at a pub and dropped dead asleep in the inflatable beds they provided.

Our plan for Thursday was to go to the Convention Center, put our booth together in an hour, find Downtown and experience the "cart" food we heard so much about, then come back to Marketplace and leisurely peruse the other booths. HAH! It took us FOREVER to put that booth together! We arrived at about 10a and finished up at 3p. Just in time to race down the street to Burgerville (which was quite yummy!), throw some food down our throats and race back to our booth before it opened up at 4:30p for the students only day!

2 hours of sheer madness but we did manage to get a picture with our friend Marisa and....

Amy Singer! (editor of knitty.com)


Here's pictures of our booth...










Next post, I'll talk about the Opening Night Ceremony. So many pictures!
Can't Summit it all up in one post, Ruth!

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

SS09 Here We Come!

I have some pictures for y'all!

This is a Bucket O' Naked Stitch Savers...


There's 1,260 in there.


Here it is next to a Box O' Stitch Savers...

There's roughly 2,500 in there with another 1,500 (ish) in the bag next to it. The Box has the ones that are completely put together and bagged. Donna and I mailed 3 boxes of Stitch Savers, stuff and yarn. The first box we mailed weighed 72 pounds!! We are staying with some friends of mine (John and Melissa) and when they got the first box, John emailed me and said, "72 pounds?! You better not have sent me a box of meth." I said, "mmmmmMethmmmmm" then went on to explain that it was all keychains and yarn!

I made about 5,000 Stitch Savers. Burnt out a bench grinder. Spent the weekend before last of nothing but garage time to make up for waiting for the new bench grinder (and by weekend, I mean Friday - Monday). Came to HATE my garage but I got them all done!

About 1500 away from finishing "dressing" the naked ones - I ran out of keyrings!! Not sure how but apparently I've been getting a lot more LYS orders then I'd previously suspected. I have a rush order that's been sent to Oregon, hopefully they'll get there.

Since I've been lax in the blogging due to ruining my back and hands making these lovely little buggers for the Sock Summit Marketplace it's time for another contest.

Guess how many I will sell. As I said, I made 5,000 - I may've made a bit more, we kind of lost count somewher in there but I know it's at least 5,000. The person who comes closest to guessing how many I'll sell (w/0 going over) will win something special! It will very likely be Stitch Savers + a yarn bought from SS09. I'll tally my sales and announce the winner when I get back (so sometime btw Wed. and Friday next week). (Oh, and anyone guessing 0 or 1 will be summarily slapped.)

It's 4:30am right now and Donna and I fly out at about noon. Our schedule while we're there is going to be fun but brutal. I'll try to blog about it as much as I can...


Too excited to sleep, Ruth!