Sock Camp, Part 2

Oh yeah. I was going to do this "tomorrow"... Yeah, right. Happy Friday, my friends...

So where was I? Wednesday...

Wednesday was sock monkey day. WARNING - SERIOUS SOCK MONKEY CONTENT COMING. TURN BACK NOW IF YOU ARE OFFENDED OR CREEPED OUT BY SOCK MONKEYS.

Wednesday was project day, and from 9:00-ish to 2:30-ish we worked on sock monkeys. Okay people - I never had a sock monkey growing up. I don't think I ever knew what they were until around 5 or 10 years ago, if that long. I get that they were from "olden days" when you made your own toys, and appreciate the Americana aspect. But dudes. They're ugly. Even when you make them out of gorgeous Blue Moon yarn, they're ugly.

Mine turned into "Rasta Monkey." Basically, I was lazy. You were supposed to make an I-cord around a pipecleaner for the tail, arms, and legs, so they'd be bendable monkeys. I hate making I-cord (I have a little cheater machine at home for when a pattern absolutely, positively requires them). So I thought that I could cast on, knit a row, then bind off. Get the same approximate girth, just less stiff. So first I made a leg this way, out of the same yarn as the body. The leg curled out to the right. The second leg, I decided to do in stockinette (which naturally curls into a tube) and in the other color. Looks okay. For the arms and tail, I did the other color, but did the CO/K/BO trick. I have a very limp monkey. DM, on the other hand, did it right, and came up with Downward Facing Monkey, to which she gave a really cool Indian-sounding name, and which I couldn't remember for the life of me. It was great.

After that, we made sock puppets. Not into this at all. I tried to make a Roaring 20s puppet, but she cheaped out on me and turned into Sock Harlot. Not pretty. Lucky for us, participation in the puppet show Friday night was voluntary.

After the monkey and the puppet, we still had some time to KNIT, so I continued to work on the entrelac socks, but then it was time to hit the road and find a yarn store! We ambled over to town (the only one on the island, I think) and found Poppies, a very cute little store. Rumor had it that she had gotten in some Conjoined Creations' Flatfeet - and she had! That very week, she had finally gotten her shipment of 28 or 30 of them, then the knitters descended, and by the time we got there at 4:30 on Wednesday, she had 4 (count 'em, 4!) left. Three in the bin and one she was working on. Someone had already bought one out from under her the day before, so she was adamant about hanging on to this one, so I selected one from the bin. It has a very intriguiging X-pattern. It will be interesting to see how it knits up.

We then had a fabulous dinner at The Inn at Ship Bay. Amazing and wonderful. Cauliflower soup with a float of a housemade crouton holding a slice of brie, ivory salmon over butter-tender Yukons and sweet onions, and a warm pineapple sundae with homemade vanilla ice cream. It was wonderful, and a slow-paced meal, so by the time we got back to the Resort, we had missed the underwater knitting contest (it was held indoors - no knitters were frozen during the making of this contest). Heard it was funny, heard a good time was had by all, but you'll never see pictures because cameras, camera-phones, and video devices were banned - Cockeyed promised to chuck any such thing in the pool if she found you with one!

Later that night, I opted out of the hot tub soak in favor of - knitting! I finished the monkey (such as he was) and went back to the entrelac socks, then I think that was the night we caught 3 episodes of Reno911!. A good way to end the day.

Oh yeah - there were also deer all around the property - even in the hotel parking lots.

Part 3, tomorow (sure...).

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.

Up to the room, did a little knitting (shock!), then asleep by midnight.

Part 2 tomorrow (hopefully).

Back from Camp

What.
A.
Blast.

Fun with Steph and Cat and JC and Cookie and Cockeyed and Hot Flash and Tina and Hizknits and mom and Chickenknittle and ever buddy.

Pix (and stories) to follow.

Happy Ending

The Worldwide Tube Sock Shortage is over. Well, at least for me... Ross ("Dress For Less") had 'em. Of course, you have to buy a bag of 6, but at least that's 6 pair instead of 0 pair. We will be able to share with other campers who may still be in Shortage mode.

Off to camp next week, Camp Crow's Feet - sock camp! - up north of Seattle. Me and 79 other knitters knitting socks all the livelong day! And probably night, too. With majorly illustrious designers (Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, Cat Bordhi, and CookieA, and I can't remember the others) as teachers! W00t!

Our Sock Camp homework was to create a toilet paper cover. For those of you who haven't seen the work-in-progress, I give you Franken-TP-Birdhouse! (After I took the pictures, I added an "opening" to the side with the blue and red yarn... gotta make sure the Peeps-bird-crows can get in!)

For now, off to Sunday Afternoon Knit (and Crochet!) Club at Madonna Needle Works.

Worldwide Tube Sock Shortage

So when a post on the Rockin' Sock Club blog said we should bring "a tube sock or even a pair" as part of our Sock Camp homework, the question of "why?" wasn't the first one to cross my mind. (Actually, it's sometimes best not to ask questions like that at all...)

The first question was, "when will I have time to get to the store to buy tube socks?" The answer was, yesterday. Unfortunately, there is no joy in Mudville, as there are crew socks and low-cut socks and knee-highs and pom-poms and no-seam and ladybug and polka dot and tennis and striped and wick-away socks... no tube socks. Target, Mervyn's, Long's, Walgreen's, Payless Shoe Source. No, no, no, no, no. I see them online, but not in stores.

D suggested a sporting goods store, the other D suggested the dollar store or dd's discounts. If all else fails, I can knit one. Hey... maybe that's Tina's intent... we all should knit one! Damn.

The Horror! The Humanity!

ACK! Standing in the shower this morning, DH comes into the room whimpering, holding them up for me to see: socks... the second pair of socks I made him, and the first pair with any kind of a pattern, the socks that now have a hole in the ball of EACH foot!

Oh woe, oh woe... At Sunday Knit Club today, I tried to mend them, but alas... it seems they are too far gone. The holes are too big to simply duplicate stitch or darn across, like trying to throw a rappelling hook with nothing to grab on to. Sad, so sad.

These socks are made from JoJoLand Melody yarn. It's lovely yarn, nice and soft on the hands, and I adore the slow-moving changes. But when I was making them, I thought maybe I should use a smaller needle... and talked myself out of it. It was towards the beginning of my sock odyssey, and I hadn't yet learned to trust my sock instincts. Oh well... another reason to cast on - with smaller needles.

Ravelraiser '08

Okay, Fiber Friends - have you donated to Ravelry yet? Here's your chance to donate and win some juicy prizes. Here's the Ravelry thread that explains it; unfortunately, only Ravelers can get to the thread and, therefore, donate.

C'mon! Nevermind that "Momma needs a new pair of shoes" bizniz; there are now over 105,000 Ravelers now - Casey needs a new server!

Seriously - can you even imagine life before Ravelry?? Not me.

Entrelac Progress

I finally started a new tier, and the first block did NOT turn into a little pointy pyramid! Yay! Here's a picture from the last tier.

A Story

I was telling Kadootje a story about me when I was younger (much younger) playing in the rain, and since it's raining here on the Left Coast, I thought I would post it here, too.

It seems I was the perfect little First Born Girl, always doing what I was told (if it suited me) (if it was what I wanted to do anyway) (if I could do it my way). So Mommy had told me that if I was out playing when it was raining, I had to wear my boots, and being the good little girl, I always did.

Comes a rainy day, and I was out playing in a field near our house. (Minor aside: Unlike many kids today, rain did not stop us from playing outside back then... So you got wet. So what? Go outside and play!) I had fun, splashing in the water with my friends, and when we were done, I came home. I went in through the side door (like a Good Girl), where I was met by Mean Mommy, yelling at me for wearing my boots.

Man, was I confused. You said I should wear my boots when playing in the rain, I wore my boots when playing in the rain, and now you're yelling at me. What did I do wrong?

Hm. Splashing in mud puddles while wearing boots are one thing. Wading around in knee-deep water while wearing boots that barely went above my ankles... Um, perhaps that wasn't quite how it was supposed to work. Mom turned a great shade of red, told me to clean up and change into dry clothes, and we never spoke of it again until I was a good number of years older.

In 1996, my mom was visiting for my graduation, and we went out to dinner with a dear friend. J said something about what I must have been like as a little girl, and my mother said that when I was growing up, I intimidated her. She didn't know where I had learned to be so strong, or how I had learned to reason through things like that. I think what came to be known as The Boot Episode must have been one of those moments where she wondered what planet I fell from and why the hell I landed in her cabbage patch. Sometimes I wonder, too.

I still don't like the rain, but I like remembering this story.

Bettah

Yeah, last week was a bummer week. Things are better now...

Good news: The previously-owned house (DH and his ex) has sold and we're just waiting for the funding to come through, which will put a few drachmas in our pockets.

Good news: She (the ex) was asking for a ridiculous amount of money, the judge said nuh-uh, you don't get that much.

Good news: DH has a consulting job next week. It's a one-shot thing now, but has the potential to turn into more gigs. Not quite a 'regular' job, but $$ is better than no $$.

Good news: Knitting mojo is back! Bistro shirt front is half done, beehive tea cozy is 75%-ish done, and a wee mini sock - done! (Okay, so it wasn't so good to find out that I need to frog my SIL Jaywalkers because they won't fit over her - or anyone's - heel, but at least I know what to expect!) Oh, and the entrelac socks are coming along - even though I keep needing help to go from tier to tier!