crazy Brian's week of socks

Why, yes, I’m a little late getting this post out, gentle reader. I can only plead life and this little book thing that is still a tremendous time-suck, and which seems to now be rushing along way faster than I’m ready for it to do, which in turn is just a little terrifying. But, hey… it keeps me young, or something.

So this is the long-lost SS09 post. Alas, I have only a few pictures because I didn’t have my camera with me. I only had my cell phone. It’s just not the same. So what I have are a few grainy photos and a lot of amazing, wonderful memories.

This is crazy Brian of Skacel, who is knitting a weeks worth of socks all at once. I love the way he has all of the yarn balls in the plastic shoe caddy pouches hung up on the wall. Awesome idea for keeping things untangled. I can’t wait until he has the heels turned! He’s crazy, I tell you, crazy. But in the best possible way.

OMG I'm in class with BGW!

On Friday I got to sit in on Barbara Walker’s mosaic knitting class (yes, THAT Barbara Walker).

I sat over to the side between Stephen Houghton of hizKNITS and Y Knit (who’s been blogging about as much as me), and Amy Singer of knitty.com. We were briefly introduced and applauded politely, and then the class got down to the real work of the morning, which was learning how to knit your own amazing mosaic patterns.

I wish I had a better picture of the sweater that Ms. Walker was wearing. It was really amazing! Search out on the interweb and find someone who was smart enough to bring a real camera and get a good picture. It was all sparkly and mosaic-y and very, very cool.

BGW's socks

And, yes, it’s true that Ms. Walker was selling some of her old socks. I bought some. They were $5. I mean… these are Barbara Walker socks! Interesting construction, too. It turns out she knit them flat and then seamed them up the top. I really wish I’d had a chance to find out more about them. But it’s really amazing that I even got to sit in on her class.

Contrary to rumors, I did not snatch the socks out of the hand of some poor, defenseless knitter. There was a pair still there on the table when I picked these up. Really. And I went back a bit later and bought Ms. Walker’s tarot deck and a little tiny bag that is hanging from the mirror of my car. It’s all orange and sparkly and makes me smile.

At one point Ms. Walker asked if anyone had scissors she could borrow. I may have beat Stephen with my knitting needles in an attempt to get there first. It’s all sort of a blur. But I know that BGW did use my funky little leopard print scissors. (Really, Stephen will be fine. Nowhere near as much damage as the poor gal who sat on her needles and stabbed herself through the leg.)

world record ticket

After the BGW class, I participated in the World Knitting Record Attempt! This is my ticket. And I still have the little swatch that I knit. I used some yarn from China that was a gift and my Lantern Moon straight needles (you can see them in my hand). We had to knit on straight needles for 15 minutes without stopping.

Cat Bordhi handed out Japanese food skewers to all of the teachers, just in case we didn’t have straight needles. If I’d had some fingering weight yarn handy, I would have knit with those. But, alas, I did not. I still have the skewers, though. It was pretty fun to see Cat knitting on straight needles – really not her thing.

world record setters

Finally, here’s a picture of a few of the world record setting knitters. I have not heard if it is official yet or not. I’m keeping my fingers crossed. I know that a group in Australia were re-setting their own record at the same time. But I think we beat them.

Those are all of the picture I have, I’m afraid. But it was truly an amazing experience.

I’d really like to thank each and every one of my students. They were amazing, every one of them, and I enjoyed having them in my classes. It was the most fun I’ve had in a coon’s age!

The marketplace… yeah, it was pretty amazing. I had very little time to shop – just the few hours during the book signing – and really the only thing I bought was… (drum roll please)… a swift. Don’t worry, I’m not abandoning my tinker toy swift. But this was about as close as I could get to tinker toys. You can see it here. It comes in a great little bag, and you can take it all apart when you’re done with it, and I love it. If I were winding with a ball winder, it would be perfect. Since I wind by hand, though, it has more drag than I like. I control the tension while I wind, and having drag on the swift is tiring.

Suggestions for ball bearings or something that I could use to reduce the drag?

Luminary panel… amazing. Just to be in the same room with all those luminaries was amazing. And on Elizabeth Zimmerman’s birthday! Who knew that they would all be so warm and witty? Oh, wait… they’re knitters, so why should I be surprised?

SS09 was really wonderful and amazing. Thank you to everyone who was involved in bringing it together!

Now back to my mundane life. I will be teaching my four week Socks Without Rules at All About Yarn in Tigard starting next Monday. I think the first session is full, but I may be teaching a second session if there is interest.