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.

Someone at Sock Summit ’09 said to me I read your blog a lot. Which made me realize a couple of things. (1) Oh, yeah. I do have one of those blog thingies. Right. (2) Anyone who reads my blog a lot has been reading the same thing for a long time now. (3) (ok… three things. that still qualifies as a couple, more or less) I did sort of say I’d be back after Sock Summit. And — new realization here — sadly, Sock Summit is pretty much over.

Ahem. Let’s begin at the beginning, shall we, gentle reader?

sock hop socks

Part of my prep for Sock Summit included knitting socks to wear to the Sock Hop. Even though, sadly enough, I didn’t actually make it to the Sock Hop, I did wear my socks at SS09. These were tons of fun to knit and embellish. They feature mind-hurting techniques like intarsia-in-the-round and other stuff that I made up as I went along (so you know I was enjoying myself!). The stripped foot was inspired by a picture of a 1950′s candy-striped refrigerated door. The rock ‘n’ roll lettering recalls retro color-block advertising and is bordered by a diner tile pattern. The sheep and musical notes are my version of a poodle skirt. And, yes, they are fraternal. The yarn is Blue Moon Sock Candy — a wonderful cotton yarn with just a bit of bounce added that saved me from having to wear wool socks in the summer. (The colors are Granny Apple, Chocolate, Butter Cream, Borage, Dusty Blue, Sunlight, Poppy.) The beads, silk ribbon, tiny buttons, and glitzy package wrapping string that I used for the embellishments came from my craft stash.

The week before Sock Summit it was over 100 F in Portland for days on end (that’s more than 38 C). I note this in passing only because I decided that I needed something new to wear to SS09, I didn’t have much time to knit it, and knitting wool at that temp seemed like crazy making stuff. But I had some linen in my stash — Louet Euroflax, to be exact. Although the end result is lovely, and gets softer and more drapey with every wash, it’s mostly like knitting with twine. Lovely twine, to be sure, but twine nonetheless. Here was one place that the heat actually served me well. Damp hands helped to soften the yarn. I know… ewwww… but I washed the finished Clapotis a couple of times. I put tassels on all four corners, just because I could, and scattered just a few beads in the tassel strands. I didn’t get a good picture of it, but Rachel and Angela — who insisted on being all fan girl — did. You can see I had bad hair that day. Yes. It’s true. I got to meet Barbara Walker. When I had Very. Bad. Hair.

voodoo to you too

I apologize in advance for the quality of the following pictures. For some reason I just could not remember to bring my camera with me anywhere I went. All of these were taken with my iPhone. It’s not the best camera in the world, but hopefully you will get the idea. As always, click on the pics to biggie-size and pop up the little slide show thingy.

My Sock Summit week started a little bit early. Lorilee Beltman from City Knitting was just one of the amazing array of teachers that Stephanie and Tina gathered together for SS09. Lorilee arrived in Portland a few days early and I offered to… show here a good time.

We started out at Voodoo Doughnuts. Lorilee tried the eponymous Voodoo Doughnut, and I indulged in my favorite bacon maple bar.

lots of cheese

Fortified by Voodoo, we headed for Tillamook. Our first stop was the Tillamook Cheese Factory, where they are celebrating their 100th birthday. From one side of the observation floor, you can see big vats where the milk is cooked and curdled and the cheese is actually made. On the other side, we watched big blocks of aged cheese whirling around conveyor belts and such while people cut them into smaller blocks and weighed them and packaged them for sale.

There’s an ice cream counter on the observation floor. We may have stood in line and indulged in a cone. It was their 100th birthday, after all.

Lorilee and friend

Our next stop was the Tillamook Air Museum, where Lorilee found a friend!

The museum is housed inside a blimp hanger that is the largest free-standing wooden structure in the world. It covers more than 7 acres and is more than 15 stories tall – all with no internal supports. The thing is freaking huge! Seriously. I have to admit I’m not all that into military aircraft. It was interesting seeing all of the old planes and really early helicopters that looked like death traps. But the real draw for me, personally, is the sheer size and scope of the building and the interesting story behind its construction. Well worth a visit if you are ever in the area!

munson creek falls

From there, we made our way down a narrow, one-lane gravel road (with, fortunately, plenty of turnouts for passing) to Munson Creek State Park. Munson Creek Falls is the second highest falls in Oregon — only Multnomah Falls is higher — and the highest in the Coast Range. Munson Creek itself is an important spawning area for salmon. The park is situated in a canyon with tall stands of cedar and Sitka spruce all around and, of course, the usual temperate rain forest understory of ferns and moss and berry bushes. There’s a trail that leads, after about 1/4 mile, to the closest point one is allowed to the falls. The picture was taken from the end of the trail. At the trail head right next to the creek there is a cute little picnic area with a couple of tables. (No water or restrooms.)

Munson Creek is another well worth a visit but out of the way place. I had no trouble negotiating the road in my Prius. But there is not a lot of space at the end of the road turn-around. RVs and trailers would not fair well.

blue moon cafe (not related)

Leaving Munson Creek, we realized that it was getting on towards the middle of the afternoon. I had been a bad hostess and dragged Lorilee all over Tillamook without even offering to feed her. And we were both starving.

We drove back into Tillamook to find (a) a likely place to eat and (b) someplace that had decent coffee. And the first thing we saw was the Blue Moon Cafe. I’m sure there is no relation to that other blue moon, but it seemed auspicious. We ordered sandwiches that turned out to be hearty, fresh, and tasty. Thus fortified, we walked a block away to a coffee house. I sadly did not get the name of the place, but the coffee was great.

From Tillamook we drove up to Astoria, because it’s pretty and picturesque and everyone should drive across the Astoria-Megler Bridge (The. Tallest. Scariest. Bridge. Ever.) at least once. And then we followed the Columbia River back to Portland, crossing at the St. John’s Bridge and back to The Kennedy School, the start of our adventures.

Lorilee meets Terminator

Over dinner, Lorilee claimed to be a wine drinker and not to like that beer stuff (or words to that effect). I plied her with introduced her to Terminator Stout. She admitted that maybe this beer stuff was OK. She drank the entire glass.

And that is the tale of my pre-Sock Summit adventure. Next time – and it will be soon – I will tell you all about Sock Summit, where an amazing time was had by all.

double-knit moebius

I just found out that there are two World Wide Knit In Public days this year! Find out why at this link.

Also, if your access to the interwebs suddenly slows to a crawl at 10:00 AM PDT on Tuesday, 05/26/09… registration for Sock Summit opens then. (Are you coming?)

And, finally, Deb Accuardi of Mount Hood Fibers and the wonderful podcast At The Kitchen Table is starting a Community Sock Club. Participants need to be close to Portland, Oregon, because every other month there will be a meeting at Gino’s Restaurant for lunch, sock knitting, and a chance to meet the dyers, designers, and knitters. I was thrilled when Deb asked me if I would like to design a little sock for the club. Can’t wait, because it sounds like so much fun!

The picture is a second double-knit Moebius Klein bottle that I finished last month and gifted to a special friend. It felt too weird to have a blog post with no picture. So there you are!

Larissa Brown and Martin Brown, authors of the lovely book Knitalong: Celebrating the Tradition of Knitting Together are hosting a Barn Raising Quilt charity knitalong. During Sock Summit 2009 the finished works of art will be auctioned or raffled as a fund raiser for Doctors Without Borders.

The Barn Raising Quilt pattern is being offered free during the KAL. They are looking for volunteers to knit squares and then sew them together. This is a really fun, quick to knit pattern, and what better thing to do with all those bits of leftover sock yarn? Squares must be mailed in by June 9th, or local Portland knitters may drop them off at Abundant Yarn & Dyeworks.

You can find out more information on the Knitalong site, or on Ravelry in this discussion thread. (If you’re not on Ravelry yet… why not?)

Of course, the pattern is also available in Knitalong. If you have not had the chance to look at this book, I really encourage you to do so. Not only does it have 20 fun-to-knit projects, but it’s a warm, loving celebration of knitting together; how our knitting brings us closer; and how it connects us with other knitters near and far, past and present. It’s one of my very favorite knitting books.

So… #1 Son had this little mishap with his car (everyone is OK, car is not). Work sort of blew up into this massive amount of… well… work (go figure). There’s this little book thing that’s sort of taking over every spare minute of my waking life (and much of my sleep, as it turns out). And I’m frantically trying to get ready to teach two classes I’ve never taught before (or are at least in a new format) before the lovely Sock Summit organizers (bless them for taking that on!) email me and ask for stuff that I’m not ready yet to give them.

So… I guess it will come as no surprise that I’m sort of on hiatus here at PI. I mean, it’s kinda obvious that I’m not posting much. So I’m making the hiatus official. For the next three months, I will be posting on a very infrequent basis, and only when something special comes along that I really want to talk with you about. I am managing to tweet a bit, so feel free to follow me on Twitter, where I can be found as JudyBecker (I’m so clever with names, aren’t I?). I do try to check Ravelry every day. And the old e-mail in box is always open. I will return. I just need one part of my life to calm down just a little bit.

But today, I also have something special to tell you about!

And I’m doing that in the next post, so it doesn’t get mixed up with this one.

First and foremost and always, I would like to thank Tina, Stephanie and Cat for the wonderfulness and amazement that is the Sock Summit teachers list. I am truly, truly humbled to be in such company.

I learned that I was teaching when Stephanie called me. I was on the ferry on my way to Friday Harbor. The ferry was in the middle of Puget Sound. If you’re not sure where that is, gentle reader, feel free to consult google maps. I’ll wait right here.

Notice how there’s a lot of water between Friday Harbor and, oh, just about anything else? Who knew that you could get cell phone service out there! But, as I calmly knitted on the ferry, chatting with a few other knitters, my phone rang. And it was The Yarn Harlot herself. And through the whole conversation I kept thinking… oh holy $@%* what if I lose this cell phone signal and hang up on the Harlot. Which, fortunately, did not happen. So I knew that I was teaching most likely. But I was sworn to utter secrecy. And I had no idea who else was teaching. And I was excited by the whole idea and it sounded really fun, in an unreal sort of way.

Then I saw the list.

And oh my! What a list! There’s a huge amount of sockerly and knitterly knowledge represented by that list. There are people on the list I value as friends. And people whose feet I would like to sit at and just soak up any tiny pearls of wisdom that might come my way. And people I would die to take a class from myself. And all are people who I admire a huge, huge amount. When all of the people on that list are gathered together in the Convention Center, I’m afraid that the fiberish energy will cause a rip in the space-time continuum and a wormhole will open and we will all be sucked into it and end up in either Star Trek or Firefly (hopefully the latter because I think they had better knitwear).

I gasped when I read that list. Because all of a sudden it started to feel real. Really real. And I started to feel sort of sick to my stomach.

And I thought that maybe I was over-reacting just a little bit. Because excitement and nerves usually do not make me throw up.

And then I realized that I was sick to my stomach because I was, actually, sick. Felled by the virus that is going around. Sick as a dog.

So I started knitting.

Harmonia's Rings

This is Harmonia’s Rings by Sivia Harding. It was a really fun, fast knit and kept me busy while I started down the road to recovery. If I look happy, it’s because I am. (Sorry for the blurry self-portrait, it is apparently possible, although perhaps not advisable, to take your own picture with your eyes close.) I love this cowl. It’s warm and cozy and just perfect.

Yes, my hair looks like that when it’s wet. It looks about the same when it’s dry, except expanded. What can I say.

The Particulars:

• Pattern: Harmonia’s Rings by Sivia Harding
• Yarn: Blue Moon Fiber Arts Luscious Single Silk (50% Merino/50% Silk, 500yds/457m per 8 oz/226g hank) in colorway Bleck
• Needles: US #9 (5.5mm) from my Denise kit
• Modifications: I knit one extra stitch pattern repeat, with increases. Sivia is a tiny little slip of a thing. I, decidedly, am not.