Megpie Knits (and writes, too): Sock Camp 2008, Part 1

It's a long way to Orcas Island, Washington. About 2 hours on a plane to SeaTac, a 2-hour drive to the ferry landing at Anacortes, an hour and fifteen minutes on the ferry, then a 30-minute drive from the Orcas Island ferry dock to the Rosario Resort. But when you're with Chickenknittle, hizKNITS, and his mom, the time rather flew! Especially with a Taco Time fish burrito and Mexi-fries!

Lovely setting, nice and comfy room. Stayed long enough to assemble the TP cover, then skedaddled back down to the building where all the activities were going to happen. We were greeted by a line-up of staff and teachers wearing the official t-shirts - and sunglasses, arms crossed in the universal symbol of "go away, the store's not open yet!"

A little noshing, a little talk from Tina Newton, master dyer (or Depraved Dyer, as she prefers) for Blue Moon Fiber Arts, then the store opened and all yarn hell broke loose. I didn't believe DM when she told me what a crush there would be. Sock knitters were grabbing Rare Gems (one- or two-of-a-kind colorways) and mill-ends (flaws, knots, odd color combos) by the armful, mumbling "stay away, mine, stand back." I got sort of caught up in the frenzy, but actually just got some worsted weight yarn (Twisted) to fill out what I had at home (oh, and maybe a little bit of sock yarn slipped into my arms - Silkie).

Tuesday morning dawned early (okay, so we didn't get up until 7:15 or so) and we got a shuttle down to the resort's mansion, where the breakfast buffet was waiting for us, then over to the Discovery House, our playhouse for the week. First class was Tina and Stephanie Pearl-McPhee (the Yarn Harlot... in person!!) talking about socks and color and gauge and pattern and needle size. It was a great class, with Stephanie talking about how to construct a sock around the parts and how to deal with the gauge and color, and Tina talking about how the color is affected by many things, including gauge and pattern. They had us knit a circular sample in differently dyed yarns. The first sample was with a yarn that only had one color plus the undyed part. Second was 2 colors plus undyed, then 3 colors, then 4, then the last one had 5 colors with nothing undyed. I really liked this class, not only for the theory, but because I LOVED working with the colors she chose.

Box lunch, then into Cat Bordhi's classroom for her class on sock architecture. Ya know, I read the book and understood the theory, but hadn't put yarn and needles in my hand to really get it to sink in. Well, there I was, yarn and needles in hand, and Cat explaining what was going on... and I got it. We made a little bowl, practicing her heel turn twice (totally coooooool!!!!), then went on to make a little sock using one of her crazy architectures (I picked Coriolis). It all worked! And it made sense!!

That night, our little gang of four wandered over to a little local art gallery that just happened to have a small cafe in it, Olga's. Good, basic food, followed by a great raspberry cobbler that was truly yum. Then, back to Discovery House for the Judging of the TP Covers. What a hoot. I thought I had done a good job. I did not; I did a crap job compared to the others. "House of Flusher"? Van Gogh's "Starry Night"? That socktopus? I'm a total slacker. After the awards, we got into a circle and while Cockeyed read a story, we swapped covers (hidden in bags) left or right, until we fell over laughing and no one wound up with their original cover.