Frog Pond

Yep, frogged. The Secret Garden vest was frogged back to the armscyes today. I re-checked the pattern and don't think I knit it wrong - I just think the math in the pattern was wrong and I blindly followed it. Didn't think to really look at what I was making until it was almost time to seam the shoulders. (And denial being what it is, even then, I made some adjustments and went ahead and seamed the shoulders. Rookie mistake.) Elizabeth Zimmerman is cursing me from her grave.

So, I re-did the math so that the fronts are the same width and the back is centered. I've already done 2 or 3 increases and except for the part where I did the increases so that they totally wonked off the pattern (apparently my math skills are only good for a certain number of minutes [seconds?] a day), I'm happier about having frogged it back.

And speaking of denial, I won't mention the fact that it doesn't quite fit. Fit me, that is. Oh well; it will fit SOMEone.

(Picture is of vest as I'm about to seam the shoulders. That would be the pre-frog seaming of the shoulders last night. Not sure if you can tell but there's a partial pattern repeat hanging off the right side of the back. And that's just one of its problems.)

Garden Paradise

We braved the heat this week to do a walkabout of the Back 40 garden (i.e., the patch of dirt that bareley sustains life).

Lookie! Our first watermelon! And our first eggplant! Aren't they cute?? I know, at this point in the season, they should be big enough to harvest. Nuh-uh; not with our soil... no way. We're lucky they're even this big.

Too hot outside; will spend the day indoors, making progress on my Secret Garden vest (only around 25 more rows to go), and then doing a short job for RP. Thank goodness for air conditioning!

Have been back from SS for 2 weeks, but still feel the 'epic' after-effects. I believe if I don't put those purchases away, the magic will continue.

Slow Progress

My "Secret Garden" vest has been languishing on needles since... um... 2006, I think. It's an easy pattern, basically a 2-row feather-and-fan. You'd think I'd have had it done years ago, but for some reason, I have found other things to knit instead.

So, after realizing that the designer, Joan McGowan-Michael of White Lies Designs will be on the "Couture & Color" train trip to Santa Barbara, I decided that will be my impetus to finally finish it. Now that I have an end-date in sight, suddenly I'm making progress on it... imagine that.

Picture is from progress in 2006; there's probably close to another 5" in it now. (It's not as garish in person as the picture makes it seem...)

More Sock Summit

Well, I realized I had posted little bits about the Sock Summit, but didn't do a full recap. So if you're interested, here goes...

8/5, Wednesday, Day 0:

Early flight, no issues (except ONE of our group didn't want to wear her Hallowig...). Grabbed a cab to the hotel. Already talked about the cabbie getting pulled over for doing 50 in a 25 zone. That was fun... Arrived at the Residence Inn, and waited in the lobby while they found a room for us. Good timing; ChickenKnittle got to the hotel (she was driving) just as we got to the stairwell. Found ourselves in a gorgeous 2-story, 2-bedroom, 2-bathroom penthouse suite. Lovely! Room for all 4 of us. Made our way to the Oregon Convention Center, where we were like second in line for registration, which was a touch delayed. It appeared that a magic box of registrant folders had gone missing; once it showed up, registration began and we were done in a snap. While we were waiting, we kept seeing Tina and Stephanie and all the ST-2s scurrying about, making sure things were in order. I was already beyond excited at this point. While we were waiting to register, LMKnits gave Tina a Hallowig and made her an honorary wacky wig woman. Harlot took pictures, saying "so that's how this is gonna roll, huh?" Ayup. Made our way to a farmer's market and met CG's friend Whitney, bought toooo much fruit, stopped at a Safeway, then met up with Knitterliness for dinner at McMenamin's. (Picture: Tina laughing at the multi-colored Hallowig LMKnits had just given her, with LMKnits and Yarn Harlot looking on.)

8/6, Thursday, Day 1:

Day-long class, "Argyle Socks" with Ann Berk. Pretty cool technique, tension is important, not sure I'll ever make a real pair, but I'm pretty proud of the sample sock I mostly made in class (and finished that night). Skipped out of class an hour early to take Merike Saarjnit's "Darn It!" class, where I learned how to PROPERLY darn a sock. Met up with the other Hallowigs (ChickenKnittle, Gromknit, LMKnits) to attend the opening ceremonies. ST-1 talked about how the SS idea was hatched and all the trials and tribulations it took to get where we all were at that point. Many tears were shed - they were very funny and it was sooo emotional. Then we stormed the Bastille, er, the Marketplace. Hit up BMFA for mill ends and perused the others. (Picture: My argyle listening intently to ST-1s story about how SS came to be. You can't see it, but the argyle is wet from laughing tears.)

8/7, Friday, Day 2:

Morning class, "Socks Knit from East to West" with Janel Laidman. She taught us how to think about socks from side to side instead of from toe to cuff or vice versa. Once again, tension - and gauge - is very important. We didn't get around to really going over the heel, but she gave a handout, so I hope it's in there. We had the afternoon open before the Sock Hop that night. I think we shopped some more.

8/8, Saturday, Day 3:

Morning class: "Finding True Sock Yarn Happiness," with Clara Parkes. This was a great class. She walked us through the properties we want in a sock yarn (elasticity, strength, absorption), then talked about the properties of various fibers, giving us little samples of each, then talked about spinning those fibers into yarn, also giving us little samples of different types of sock yarn spun up. Very cool.

Afternoon class: "Seismic Socks" with Lorilee Beltman. Also good class, how to put single stitch lines in your socks. Neat technique. Now if I could just remember when you ktbl and when you don't...

That night: We kinda crashed at the hotel. Excitement and exhaustion took over. We never made it to the Ravelry party; opting instead to sit and knit and talk. Lots of talk. (Picture: Gromknit, ChickenKnittle, LMKnits in a classic pose of repose.)

8/9, Sunday, Day 4:

Morning class - none! I got to sleep in! Had a waffle! Met up with the Hallowigs to get on line for the Luminary Panel, then got out of line so I could swap a ticket from KBlesch's cousin Jauping to a sweet spinner who really really wanted to be there. We had front-row seats, listening to the greats: Lucy Neatby, Cat Bordhi, Deb Barnhill, Anna Zilboorg, Priscilla Gibson-Roberts, Meg Swanson (!!), Barbara Walker (!!!!!!!), Judith McKenzie McCuin, and Nancy Bush. Each one fantastic in their own right, each one funny and gracious, and together - along with Tina and Stephanie - I think the knitting world's axis shifted just a little bit. Cool stories, great people. For dinner, we took a single-car trolly ride to downtown and wandered back over to where the Sock Hop had been (Portland Museum of Art), and found a pasta restaurant for dinner. (Picture: After the Luminary Panel had ended, there was much milling around, and the Hallowigs and I were present when Barbara Walker [right] gave Cat Bordhi [left] her business card! Cat was about as happy as a 6th grader.)

8/10, Monday, Day +1:

Bummer. Have to leave. Don't want to leave. ChickenKnittle took off fairly early - she had an 11-hour car ride home in front of her. LMKnits and Gromknit hopped on the Max and found the Japanese Gardens and wandered around downtown for a bit. I slept in again! Had a waffle again! Head back to the airport, this time on Max, which takes you right to the doorstep! For $2.00! Easy! Quiet flight home, back at the ranch by about 6:00, talked non-stop the rest of the week.

That's the high-level overview of the events... in reality, it was a very profound, moving, fun, emotional, outrageous, incredible, amazing, wonderful experience. It was even more than that, but I'm running out of superlatives. Harlot's 2 blogs following it sum it up far better than I ever could. (I really want to write like her when I grow up.) There was some serious knitting mojo at work every day we were there. Knitting Woodstock. Fabulous.

As for the Marketplace, well, I don't need any more yarn. But I got some anyway.

• 2 skeins BMFA STR LW mill ends. Color seems to be Melusine; destined for Cat Bordhi's Spring Thaw socks.
• 1 skein BMFA STR LW mill end. Color is very autumny. Don't know what it want's to be.
• 1 skein BMFA STR LW mill end. Color very Kadootje-y, which is good, because she asked me to get a skein for her. She's a sweetie.
• 1 skein BMFA STR Silkie. Definitely not a mill end. Color is Melusine (do we see a trend here?). Love. This. Yarn.
• 1 skein Periwinkle Sheep II, Orange Soda, and 1 skein Periwinkle Sheep Highlighter. Gave Kadootje her choice of the two and she took the Highlighter. Very Kadootje, too.
• 4 skeins Crown Mountain Sock Hop hand-dyed and hand-spun sock yarn. 2 skeins Aqualung, 2 skeins Buffalo Soldier. Never worked with hand-spun yarns before; it's gorgeous to look at and fondle.
• 1 skein Newton's Happy Feet in some very bright blues. Can't beat 738 yards of superwash merino for $15.00.

(Yes, I know, you're not supposed to wind them until just before you use them. I wind them loosely because when I want to cast on, dammit, I want to cast on, not drag the swift and winder out!)

Still can't believe how awesome SS09 was, still can't believe it's over, still reading blogs and trying to relive it. Not next year, but maybe SS11?

Sock Stars!

Thanks to everyone who let us know that we got prominent placement in The Oregonian's "How We Live" section yesterday. How prominent?

Well, we knew that the photographer (Stephanie Yao) was going to publish the picture, but let me tell you... when LMKnits and Gromknit found the paper at breakfast at the Marriott yesterday, let's just say we were a little flabbergasted. Such a big picture! Totally awesome! The same picture is also in the slideshow at the bottom of the online article as well, which can be found here. (And yes, we each picked up "a few" copies of the paper!)

They also posted a short video of the Guiness attempt. If I'm not such a complete lame-ass, I'll figure out how to post to it here.

Knitters attempt to break Guinness World Record

Actually, we were not the Sock Stars of the Summit. That title rightfully and truly belong to Tina, Stephanie, Debbi, Debbie, Rachel, JoAnn, and the other names that I can't quite remember now. From organizing a sock camp for 80 people Tina et al took the leap and organized a full-fledged conference for 2,000, and they pulled it off with grace, skill, and aplomb, plus a gazillion superlatives. If anything truly went off the rails, it was nowhere to be seen by mortals. Nothing that didn't go perfectly was of any consequence, and 99% of it sure seemed to go perfectly. Even if all they had managed to do was to sucker us into being at the OCC with 20 knitting goddesses, we would have been happy to bask in their glow (and either fangirled all over them or pointed at them from afar).

To ST-1 and ST-2: It was fantastically and truly amazing. Name the year and place, and we'll be back.

Safely home from a completely 'EPIC' Sock Summit in Portland, Oregon. Great classes, outstanding teachers, terrific vendors - three times better than Stitches.

Having an absolutely amazing time at the first ever Sock Summit in Portland. Tina & Stephanie have birthed a wonderful thing.

Almost Free!

Well, now, lookie here... Who could that possibly be, sitting in a chair, bottle of water in her hand, not a care in the world??

Why, yes... it's Auntie Irene! She got the doctor's orders for "lobby privileges," so she got on their case to get her into a wheelchair, strap on the oxygen tank, and take her for a ride. She took turns having my brother, my sister-in-law, and my dad push her around. What a smile. Besides transferring from One hospital to another back at the end of June, that's the first she's been outside since May 17.

In other happy news, tomorrow we leave for Sock Summit 2009! Bags are packed, just need to figure out what's coming on the plane with me. Plenty of room still left in the bag, too. Hm... wonder if I'll need it...? Kadootje, we'll miss you!