Tantrums Aren't Attractive

Saturday at the Sock Summit....

It started out beautifully! We figured out why we'd been taking cold showers for the past three days - John and Melissa's guest shower has opposite markings! Turn to cold to get hot. Who knew?

Then, the outstanding breakfast! I'd requested oatmeal and Melissa put on an oatmeal that won't soon be forgotten but will often be copied. On the counter next to the real (quick, but not instant) oatmeal was the following:

white sugar, brown sugar, little spice bottles of cinnamon and ginger (cinnamon is appreciated, ginger is genius! I mixed them both in) and on the table was a huge bowl of various fresh berries, cut-up bananas and cantaloupe.

Best. Oatmeal. Ever!

The Marketplace was surprisingly slow. It was a long day but still fun and got to meet some amazing people!

At the end of the day, though, the whole trip had caught up with Donna and I. We were exhausted. Beyond fatigue. And we still had to eat and make it to the Ravelry meetup!

Imbrium and two of her friends asked where we wanted to eat. The choices were a restaurant 5 blocks away from the Convention Center (walk 5 blocks, eat, then walk 5 blocks back to catch the train for the Ravelry meetup) or a bar that was kind of on the way (take the train, walk a bit, eat, walk back to train to Rav meetup). We opted for option 2.

By the time we got off the train, Donna and I were already toast. We walked to the bar. It seemed like miles. I remember Donna and I were walking behind the others and at one point I had a little stomping, "Why the hell aren't we there yet??" fit. Thankfully, Donna was the only witness to this pathetic spectacle. (On Monday, I discovered it was only about 3 blocks.)

Then when we got to the bar, we had to wait. It was Saturday night, after all, and the place was packed to the gills. They asked if D and I wanted to go somewhere else. I said (OK, may have snapped it) no, let's just wait and get something to drink. It was a brewery and all I wanted was a bucket of water to drink. (Being in the CC building all day is like being in an airplane all day - the air is so dry and it sucks the life out of you!)

The wait was actually only about 5 minutes and we got a table. We ordered and I was feeling a little more social and a little less like taking someone's/anyone's head and putting it on a platter. The food was delicious! I ordered the thin crust pizza appetizer with pears and prosciutto and a crumbly white cheese that wasn't feta or bleu (can't remember what kind). D had the fancy mac and cheese. We ate and laughed and talked. I remember being so tired that my speech was actually slurring as if I'd been drinking a bucket of beer instead of water!

By the time we were done, D and I were truly done. What were we thinking?? Super tired, so let's order bread/pasta and cheese. We opted out of the Rav meetup. I was too tired to even be bummed about it! I was so tired that I vaguely remember seeing a HUGE white Hummer at the intersection and thinking that was the funniest damn thing I'd ever seen! We were waiting for the train back to the CC (where our car and a 20-30 min. drive awaited us) and I couldn't stop laughing at having seen that ridiculously large car!

Probably the most uneventful day in the whole trip but there it is!

Hey! I forgot to remind everyone about the R.I.P. Challenge!

I had so much fun with it last year, I'm doing it again this year. I believe you can join at any time, so have at it!

I'm tackling the first 4 books of Stephen King's Dark Tower Series. I've already finished the first one. It seemed a bit disjointed and vague but I think that was part of it's mystique. Also, looking at the inside of the title page, I saw it was published in pieces in a short story magazine (they still had a few of those in 1978 when it first came out!). My only beef is that the big reveal at the end had me asking, "Who?!" Maybe I missed something but I don't remember that name being part of the book at all! OK, maybe "not at all" isn't quite right but it was mentioned briefly enough that I couldn't even find it when trying to skim back through the whole book to get more info on that name.

But in Book Two (already started), King gives a brief overview of Book One and tells more about the name.

The Challenge host is also doing Short Story Sunday - very cool! I've been working my way through Strange Attraction - I only bought 3 books last year and this was one of them. It's very cool!

R.I.P. Roarin' and Ready, Ruth!

A Month Ago

A month ago today, I came home from Sock Summit. Wow! Time flies when you're not blogging. It also flies when you get home from a 5 day trip out of state and realize that you have to pack up your whole house and move it to the next town over.

But we won't discuss that today. We won't talk about my strained back, my strained nerves, the fact that if this moving doesn't end soon I'll be eating strained peas in the VA psych ward.

We will talk about Day 2 of the Sock Summit (or, Day 3 of my Portland Trip)....

We got up, ate another wonderful breakfast, spent another exciting, fun-filled (albeit exhausting day) at the Marketplace. I had a class with Deb Robson from 9-12. It was called Cross Your Cables and Dot Your Purls and was about the publishing industry. It was very informative and quite fun! Deb actually lives not too terribly far from me and she said yes to me taking her to lunch sometime and picking her brain! Deb Robson is another of the Knitterati that I'd met previously and had no clue I was in the presence of greatness.

(We moved to Colorado Nov./06. We were broke and stressed but happy to be out of Tucson. The following April, for my birthday, I told Dave that the only thing I wanted was to go to the downtown Tattered Cover (independent bookstore) and see the Yarn Harlot speak (it involved some quite expensive childcare). So I got to see her for the first time! I got there a couple hours early and sat with some lovely women. One of which was Deb Robson!)

Donna had a class from 10-11a and we were lucky enough to have a helper from Lotus Yarns cover our booth. Donna's class was the KnitteRX I'd talked about previously.

So we spent the day selling and meeting and taking turns wandering the Marketplace floor (dangerous business that). If I remember right, this is the day Anna Zilboorg came to claim her present.

She was so funny! When I sell a Stitch Saver, I say, "I hope you never need it" as a sort of blessing against angry Knitting Goddesses. She laughed and said that was unlikely. She went on to tell me a story...
"Let's see... how can I turn this into a knitting lesson? I had a friend who was 40 when he was to discover he had a very bad cancer. He joked and said, "I always knew perfect health was a temporary condition." That's how I feel about knitting. I always know perfect knitting is a temporary condition!"

She's lovely and I would like to take her to lunch sometime! (Does anyone know if she has a blog or public email or anything? I've tried googling her but only come up with Sock Summit and book stuff about her.)

After Market, we met up with Imbrium and set off to find the Sock Hop. (We changed our clothes and pretty-ed up in the Convention Center bathroom.) Imbrium got a tip on an outstanding Lebanese restaurant. So. Damn. Good!

After eating we made our way to the Art Museum where the dance was held. We arrived a bit later then most and the place was well filled with lots of people sitting at tables they'd set up at the top of the stairs. Why would you go to a dance to sit around at tables? To knit of course! And to socialize. And who is sitting at that one table??? Cookie A.! I kind of recognized her but didn't go talk to her.

Some older women were gathered around one of the statues on that upper level. I was coming back from the bathroom and wondered what they were up to. A lot of Sock Summit attendees (including myself) made wee socks and pinned them to our shirts for roundabout town identification. One of these older women had taken her sock and put it on the tiny penis of one of the full-sized nude statues! They were taking pictures and giggling like crazy! One of the women had to put her finger at the base of the... sock to keep it from slipping off - so it looked like she was pointing at the... sock. So crazy!

I did the stroll and hung out with people and laughed and even danced with Tina (of STR fame) and Stephanie (of Yarn Harlot fame) at the same time! I believe, on her blog, Stephanie mentioned how Rachel H was born to a poodle skirt. It's so true! And Rachel H seemed a bit tipsy and giddy but maybe it was the lack of sleep. I remember thinking, "heh, she gets tipsy and silly just like everyone else!" I'm a dork.

I also talked with Lucy Neatby again and we were joined by JC Briar and, a bit later, by Joan Schrouder. When Joan walked up, JC introduced us and then leaned over to me and whispered, "Joan is the reason that I'm a teacher now. She's the one who taught me!" Then JC had Joan lift her long skirt and show me her socks. They are a beautiful masterpiece of knee high, cable, twisted Bavarian stitching that has a genius wedge of cabling in the back that creates the calf shaping. Stunning!

I asked Joan, "Wow! Those are so beautiful! How long did it take you to knit them?", then, feeling a bit stupid for asking, I added, "Probably not too long, right? I mean, you probably knit really fast."

She smiled and said, rather ruefully, "Ten years."

I looked at her, stunned, and said, "Stop it.", thinking she was teasing me. She wasn't. She went on to explain that she did the cuff and leg parts in about 3 months. Figuring out the heel shaping was giving her such a hard time that she threw them in a closet and only pulled them out to finish them last month so she could give the class at Sock Summit for them! So, actually, 4 months. Ten years and four months. Hah! Does my heart good to know such amazing teachers also have their own personal Closets of No Return just like me!

So where were Donna and Imbrium during all this? They were wandering around and meeting people too. They aren't as star struck as I am. I know, total dorkasaurus - not a real rare breed though, right? I mean, when I meet these Knitting Stars, I'm cool and casual. I try to be anyway. I don't often succeed. Like when I met Casey and Jess at the dance. Casey and Jess are the creators of Ravelry.com, maybe you've heard of it? I think I said something brilliant like, "So... Ravelry... good job there!" I'm a dumbass.

We met a bunch of other people, too! One woman (who turned out to be Volunteer Extraordinaire as she was introduced at the Luminary Panel "Thanks" speech) had on a pair of lovely socks! Socks that I had just bought the kit for that very day. They are the Nine Tailors sock kit from Tsarina. I was admiring them and saying how I'd just bought that kit and was looking forward to tackling it when I got home. She said that the panel of color was the hardest part, "I mean, 8 colors! Whew! But once you get past that, the rest is a breeze!". Whoa, whoa, whoa. 8 colors?! I thought it was a ball of variegated yarn!! It's not. It's a ball of eight separate strands of color to do some stranded colorwork with! What the hell did I get myself into?! Sigh.

Donna and I were both tired from our Marketplace day so we (along with Imbrium) left the dance by 10p. We got home at around 11p as we took a wrong turn and were (mis)guided by signs through town to the freeway (signs that promised but never actually delivered the elusive highway), then got on the highway the wrong way.... drag.

But we finally made it to John and Melissa's house where we reinflated our beds and tumbled in. Those inflatable beds are never very comfortable, are they? They always seem to deflate a bit during the night so in the end it's more like sleeping in a hammock! But we were usually so exhausted that we slept like the dead anyway!

More Sock Summit next time, Ruth!

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!

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!

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!

Blank Stare Productions

I've had this idea in my head for awhile and the Dye For Glory contest has inspired me to go ahead and give it a shot. (For those of you not on Ravelry, the Dye For Glory contest is a contest exclusively for dyers who will be selling their wares at the Sock Summit.)

I present to you, Dear Readers, my Blank Stare Productions yarn....

I'm getting sock blanks and staring at them until I see what I want to paint. I bought one blank a few months ago and have been trying to decide which of the ideas I want to try first. Then one morning I was in that half awake state and the picture formed in my head. I shot upright in bed and said, "BACON!"

The contest has been the catalyst for me to make bacon. This is the my entry for the Out of the Box category...

Colorway: Better 'n Bacon

I love this colorway. It makes me laugh every time I see it! Better 'n Bacon as in, "The Sock summit 2009 is gonna be better then bacon."

This yarn, like all my blanks, is 462 yards of double knit 75% Superwash Merino/25% Nylon. You unravel the two strands and, using your favorite two at a time sock knitting technique, end up with super matchy-matchy socks!

My next entry is for the Predictable Striping category and goes a little something like this....

Colorway: Crater Lake

If you ever in your life get the chance to see it, Crater Lake in Oregon is one of the most beautiful bodies of water available. I've tried to capture some of that beauty here. I've made the deep swirling waves of water surrounded by the pine trees. The cool thing about this one is that the tips and toes will be the dark green, complimenting the deep water blue in the middle of your socks!

If you're on Ravelry, don't forget to go vote for you favorites, whatever they may be! You have until August 1st and you can place your votes here.

mm

mmmBaconmmmmm, Ruth!

P. S. Both colorways are available in my Etsy store.

With Bullets

• The winners of my last contest are: Nake-id Knits for her button (the only entry) and Needlegrrl is the other winner.

• I have found that four year olds and 80 year olds take the same amount of time to tell a story. They also use the same half sentences where you have to fill in the blanks and guess what they are talking about.

• I hate my garage and am about 1000 away from being done making the hooks. I'm about 2000 away from having them all put together.

• I want to ship them all next Tuesday.

• My bench grinder died on Saturday. (Best $5 I ever spent, though! Got it off Craigs list and it made it through sanding about 2500 hooks.)

• The new one I ordered won't be here until tomorrow (Thursday).

• Next Tuesday is not looking good.

• SciFi channel changed it's name to SyFy. I'm pronouncing it Sih-Fee. I'm also pronouncing it stupid.

• My friend, neighbor and boothmate for Sock Summit (booth #200) is making some really gorgeous yarn! Her store is Skeindalous.etsy.com - go say hi!

Drive by blogging, Ruth