Sock Camp, Part Last

So... where wuz I? Oh yeah, Thursday...

Thursday was our second full day of classes. We started with Cookie A's class on traveling stitches. Interesting. Not enthralling, but a basic primer on where you increase and decrease.

Our second class was with JC Briar, and was awesome: A Cornucopia of Cast-ons! We learned little circle cast-ons (to make center-out thingys) and long-tail cast-on done in PURL and Judy's Magic Cast-on (which finally 'clicked' for me! yay!) and why doing a long-tail cast-on on a larger needle does not fix the unstretchiness of it (it has to do with the part that loops at the base of the stitch, not the part that goes over the needle!) and the German Twisted Cast-on (well, I sort of learned that... it was the last one of the day, and well... I was tired; I don't think that one 'stuck,' but Knitterliness knows it, so when I'm ready, she can teach me!).

Thursday night was... Um. Nice? Fun? I'm sure it was; we were hanging around with Hizknits and his mom and Chickenknittle so of course we were having fun! But I wonder what we did and where we went... Monday was Olga's, Tuesday was somewhere, Wednesday was the fancy place, Thursday was... maybe that was our Mexican night. I shoulda tooken better notes, huh? After dinner, though, it was another knitting competition - the "you can knit with anything" competition, where 5 or 6 poor souls had to knit with things like: drill bits, Slim Jim beef jerky sticks, birthday candles, cake slicers, toothbrushes, paper towel roll tubes. Everyone managed to finish, proving: you CAN knit with anything! After that one, the teachers, Tina, and Cockeyed had to demonstrate knitting with turkey basters. Gotta tell ya, after watching the others knit with more challenging items, this looked like a (relative) cake walk! But fun to watch!

Friday was supposed to be an organized charity knitting day, but Nathania (who was going to lead us) couldn't make it, so there were 5 "let's just sit and knit charity blanket" stations for people to pop in and pop out of, and the rest of the time was the ultimate 'stitch and bitch' time - all damn day. Fabulous. A lot of people were working on their monkeys (I think this was where most of them turned into their over-the-top selves); I worked on my entrelac socks, happy for the chance to let the rhythyn of the 6x12 units take over. Oh yeah, I got to hold Stephanie's traveling sock and she held my entrelac sock! Wheee! Giddy with being so close to one of my idols! (It was really cool to think back... back when I was learning how to knit one sock on two circulars from Cat's book, and back when I didn't even know who the Yarn Harlot was, I never in my wildest dreams would have thought that I would ever meet them, much less be sitting between them, talking like they were real people! Awesome. I didn't even slobber too much over them or their knitting.)

That night was the talent show, sock puppet skit, sock monkey show-off time, and thank-the-organizers-and-staff time. The talent show had one knitter who recently learned how to yodel (like real yodeling, not just pretend-Tarzan stuff... who knew?), and a woman who had knit while doing lots of different things but who had never knit while dancing - so she danced and knit! The sock puppet skits (there were 3) were cute; each entry had to include a list of 8 sayings that were heard around Camp for the week, including "It's not Tina's fault!", "Don't touch my monkey," and some others I can't recall. We all sang the official Sock Camp song (an appropriate variation on Robert Palmer's 'Addicted to Love' - 'Addicted to Yarn,' created by Hizknits hizself), then lined up all our monkeys. Similar yarn, totally different monkeys. I especially liked Harlot's and Cat's monkeys: Harlot's knitting a sock on DPNs (toothpicks), Cat's knitting a sock on 2 circs (also toothpicks). Oh, and Stephanie made an argyle vest for hers. Because she could, silly. (The wine at 1:00 am may have helped...)

Cockeyed asked to be surrounded by monkey love (say that anywhere else and it might get you arrested), so her wish was fulfilled.

After that, we applauded and hooted and hollered long and hard for the staff and organizers and teachers who had made this thing come together so well. Tina and Cat and Stephanie and Debbie and Tammy and JC and CookieA and Marilyn and I can't even remember all the others - it was totally awesome and fun and exhilarating and just plain ole' wheeeee!!!!!

There will be a Sock Camp 2009 - I'm marking my calendar!

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.