Sock Summit Wrap-up

I finished up the test knit for Kathleen. I'm going to write up suggestions for the pattern, so I'm not sure when it will be available. It's a pretty scarf or shawlette depending upon the size needle you use. The shawlette isn't going to give you a lot of depth, but does cover the shoulders nicely.

Sara after being sick with multiple ear infections was able to dye up the superwash merino I had given her for my spinning handpainted socks class. I'd given her some color suggestions and let her have fun:

I think she did a fantastic job and look forward to spinning these up and seeing them as sock yarns to be used.

I picked up some really nice Shetland top from Klaus at Crown Mountain Farms that is softer than the sample I had spun up from Tactile. He also has Finn available and I'll definitely order some for him to bring down to OFFF as well as some of his own Shetland (natural colors other than the white I got). He also had a few ounces of Guanaco and I couldn't resist buying one ounce to go with the one ounce Gail had given me in payment for a massage. (I can spin more to ply together this way and get more yarn to hopefully make into a lace shawl.)



From my classes I learned how to pre-darn and darn socks. Ideally of course you would knit your socks so they don't have wear. Merike likes using a wool-mohair combination for sock knitting and this was also repeated by Judith. These seemed to be heavier socks though. Merike darns from the front. You basically do a mattress stitch up the vertical and then use those as your warp and then weave across the horizontally made stitches. Pick up any loops that are still live along the way. Lots of common sense involved here.



From Janel's spinning handpainted socks class I learned about how to look at rovings and decide if they'll spin up the way you'd like them to. All can of course be used, you'll just get different effects and knowing is half the battle! (what's the reference from?) She also showed us how to spin a finer yarn and that we need to overspin for socks. I actually got it a little overspun where she had to keep telling others to spin more. ;-)

My spinning card:



Part of the color learning involved how to make it striping. Janel shared some predominantly green merino/silk and predominantly blue merino/silk rovings and I took a small handful of each and then divided them up per her instructions and spun green-green; blue-blue and green-blue (two ply yarn). and then plied them. I did just a straight ply, no chaining or navajo plying. These were my results:



I was a teacher's aide for Anne Hanson and her lace knitting class. Someone in class had found highligher tape in the marketplace and I made sure some came home with me. I also stopped into the Briar Rose booth to buy a copy of Anne's Marie Antoinette sock after seeing a student's start of the sock.

I was also an aide for Lucy Neatby. Love her accent and wish I could have been there in the morning, but was busy spinning instead. Lisa (ljcoz), I had met on Wednesday while working the Registration desk and gave her directions on how to get to Powell's and Knit/Purl, is from Australia. Australian and Welsh accents all in the same room, and then throw in spotting Sandi Wiseheart. (Bobbie said that she had fun talking with Sandi in one of Judith's spinning classes too.) Lisa showed me (Rachel, Sara and Carissa too!) the cool way that Lucy taught how to do a ssk in the morning portion, at the Ravelry Meetup. I then remembered it while I was doing the toe portion of my sock during the Luminary Panel. Thanks Lisa for sharing! Lucy also has some innovative ways of doing bind-offs and I'm grateful to both teachers in sharing their class notes with me too.

My Hydrangea sock using Classic Elite's Summer Sox:

Sock Summit Day 3

I woke up with a migraine this morning. I took some meds to try to kick it. It was an elusive thing. It would spike and lull throughout the day.

I did drop off the figs for PDXKnitterati. They were very ripe and I did squish one in my bag. Might just have to go with a jar of jam. ;-)

This morning I spent in Anne Hanson's Lace Knitting class. She actually explained yarn overs and purls such that I understand why the British write their patterns the way they do. It all makes much more sense if you're an knitter that throws the yarn (English) versus the Continental knitter that I am. It will help out I think in the future for any students/friends/etc.

Ran into Rachel just in time to walk her to the World Record that they were trying to set. Rachel kinneared Lucy Neatby as she followed us further back up the escalator. I had forgotten needles and yarn to attempt it with. I did help get people in for a few minutes and took pictures of the massive amount of people waiting to start. Fun pictures of Tracy with yarn and needles over head telling people to please cast on before they go in. I think I even got the Yarn Harlot standing behind her at one point.

I ended up wandering the marketplace and looking inside the booths and running into people that I know after eating a hot dog. I showed great restraint in not buying much. I did buy a few items though - purple highlighter tape. This will be great for chart knitting as it lets you see through for the row you are working on as well as the last one knit. Post-its are great for showing you the row you're on, but sometimes its nice to also see the previous. This was in a booth that didn't have their name on the receipt but it was a small one with lots of wood - sock blockers, hair gadgets and stitch markers (in case you want to get one of your own).

ETA: Michele took a picture of their booth, here's their web site. No highlighter tape visible, but you could ask.

I need to figure out the yardage but was able to get a lot of some cream colored cashmere/merino fingering weight yarn (not good for socks really) for only $20. I could probably get a shawl out of it, but I walked around and petted it for five minutes so knew it was coming home with me.

The only other purchase was 4 ounces of cream colored Shetland roving that is much softer than the 1 ounce I recently spun up. I can combine it with the Finn for a project I'm sure.

Bobbie and I saw a couple of fun sights while in the marketplace and visiting Abundant Yarn. I have pics and when I can get to them, I'll share the whole thing. ;-)

We left earlier than planned and once home, I took a nap. Helped a bit with the lingering migraine, but then made it difficult to become functional again.

Finished up the wheel bag so find out that I shouldn't have had the batting where the draw string is, makes it hard to really close it. That the foam at the bottom shortened the height of the bag and so I have to take off the mother of all to get the wheel in. Brandon was a great help in getting the foam block into the bottom of the bag many times and also cutting out a section of the foam for the post. He also added a design suggestion for the bag to hold the wheel more in place while its in the bag. Ultimately, the bag will have to be redone to make it something I'm really happy with, but it will be functional enough to get me to and from the Convention Center for class.

Off to bed and another early day. Tomorrow though is spinning handpainted socks! Lucy Neatby's class that I haven't had time to do the homework for.... the Ravelry Meetup is also tomorrow night - it is going to be a long day!

I downloaded the pics and then Brandon took the server down when he got home. The motherboard is going bad and he has a replacement server but it was fighting the changeover and causing him fits tonight. So all my pics are trapped on the hard drive. Might not be until Sunday that I can play with pics - sorry!