Saturday, July 30, 2011

Sock Summit, Day Four: Crazy Good!

Today I took JC Briar's sock pattern writing class. It was only a half day class but we tried to convince her it should be six hours. Or maybe one of those two-day intensive workshop things they do after Stitches. Or hey! How about an entire WEEK. The only reason she didn't run from the room screaming is because we had the door blocked. Ahem.

It was a great class with a ton of information. I'll hit the highlights of this, and my other classes when I get home and get my notes organized.

Another cool thing about Sock Summit, besides the flash mob, is getting to see new books and meet the authors. I saw Ilisha Helfman walk by and asked if I could take some photos of her stunning scarf. She showed me her new book Jazzknitting, An Introduction. It has some of the most amazing knitting I've ever seen! I'd never heard of jazz knitting until I talked to Ilisha, and I would love to take a class.







Isn't this amazing? Click on the close up below. Gorgeous!






 

It's been almost overwhelming at times. Not only have I gotten to hang out with Donna Druchunas, but today I'm walking around the convention center and in a matter of a few minutes I see Cookie A, The Yarn Harlot, Carrie Sullivan, Shannon Oakey, Tina Newton, Anne Hanson, Cat Bordhi, Franklin Habit, and Anna Zilboorg. I swear I almost had to sit down, I was so verklempt. But it gets better. Sivia Harding happens to be standing there wearing her fabulous new sweater. I tell her how gorgeous it is AND SHE TAKES IT OFF AND HANDS IT TO ME. No, not to keep, but so I could see the construction. I know I got all fan girl on her but I don't care. Sivia is just the nicest person you could ever meet and is stunningly beautiful too.

I don't know how they can possibly top Sock Summit 2011, but I'm sure Tina and Stephanie will come up with something.

Friday, July 29, 2011

Sock Summit, Day Two: The Mother of all LYS

A prudent spouse will only say that she showed great restraint and practicality. Color me prudent at the yarn market today. Ahem.

Let me instead divert your attention to the world's largest sock:


It's been on the needles since 2006, and has travelled to many shows and knit shops where knitters are invited to jump right in and knit a bit. Takes about 45 minutes to knit one round of the 1500 cast on stitches. Think about that next time you're freaking out about a shawl with a 350 stitch cast on. Skacel is promoting this behemoth. I should have counted the number of circular needles in this bad boy when I sat down and knitted a needle's worth. See the binder in the center of this crazy mass of yarn? The hosting group invites knitters to sign the guest book after they've taken a turn. So far, they've filled five binders.

The sock will probably take a few more years. The plan is to make the leg twelve feet long before they start the heel. Right now it's seven feet long.

There's a sock hop tonight, and everybody is supposed to show up in 80's style clothes. I just can't make myself revisit the nightmare of spandex and gigantic shoulder pads, so I'm showing up in skinny jeans. Or as skinny as jeans can get when they're on my ass. Double ahem.

I'll leave you with an iPhone photo I took just before we started our decent into Portland. Extra points if you can name this mountain.


Thursday, July 28, 2011

Sock Summit, Day One--The Madness Begins


Here's a few photos to make you wish you were here. Details will be forthcoming when/if I make it out of the yarn market alive.

The first photo is the line outside of the yarn market, right after they opened the doors. The yellow arrows are pointing to the line to get in. I stood on the stairs where I took this photo, for several minutes and never saw the end of the line. Crazy! I'm half hoping they'll buy everything before I get there. I only brought one suitcase.


This is the dragon where people were going to meet today, to trade stitch markers--the stitch markers I forgot to pack. Fortunately, DH has Fedexed them to me, and I'll do my trading later.


The convention center hangs banner from the different conventions and meetings happening here. I think this is the banner from the very first Sock Summit two years ago. I'll show you this year's banner in another post.

And finally, just for fun:


I wish you all could be here!

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

One More Reason to Never Watch TV Again


This is going to be a totally random my-god-what-is-she-talking-about kind of post because I've recently discovered I'm allergic (or sensitized) to sunscreen, and at this very moment I'm having a reaction to the sunscreen I put on a little while ago. So yeah! Good times!

These are some of the stitch markers I made for the Sock Summit stitch marker trade. Yes, I'm going, and yes, I realize how lucky I am, and yes, I'll bring you back something. Giveaway time! W0ot! Stay tuned... If I can put two coherent thoughts together tomorrow, I'll blog a little more about Sock Summit and some book related things, and if I haven't started to pack by then, I'll ask for volunteers to kick me in the butt.

Totally off-topic and random: DD just turned the TV on, and it was tuned to the TLC channel. Some guy was talking about his addiction to pulling hair out of drains, and he was wondering how to tell his girlfriend. I cannot make this crap up. And yes, I'm sober. I think I'll kill my TV now.


Thursday, July 14, 2011

Because not everybody thinks about yarn 24/7



This is an actual made-up conversation DD and I almost had on our way up to the dentist this afternoon:

Me: Cool! Look at those clouds! That group looks just like roving. Quick! Grab my phone and take a picture.

DD: What? Take a picture of what? What the hell is roving?


This is a photo she took on our way home, actually, and no the clouds didn't look like roving anymore.

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Does this blog post make my butt look big?

I have so many *WIPs going on at the same time, it's almost depressing. A couple are gifts that I know won't be finished on time. Some are work related that MUST be finished on time. Others are for me, so they've been pushed to the bottom of the heap. Great! Now that I've written this down I really feel like a slacker, so to distract myself, let's talk about my ass instead.

I've been trying to lose a few pounds--I will settle for ten, although in all honesty it should probably be more like fifteen or twenty. For a couple of months I was keeping track of my food intake and weight loss with this app. The result? Five pounds over two months, not much bang for my depravation buck. It would have been more fun to give myself a Twinkie enema. I know I should be happy with ANY negative number, but I need some instant gratification in my life, especially since everything else I'm doing is all about the Long Term and nothing about the Right Now. Not that I'm knocking the app--it's pretty good for keeping track of your food intact and exercise regimen, and it does a great job of reminding you to log your meals. But I don't know. When I upped my calorie budget because I got so damn hungry I almost ate my shoes, that's when I would lose a little weight--but only sometimes. Most of the time the scale didn't budge.

Now, the website has added this little device you clip on, to record the number of steps you take, your activity levels, and how much and how well you sleep. Apparently, good sleep is important to weight loss and might explain why I suck at it. The Fitbit Tracker wirelessly uploads the data so that's one less thing to think about. Applying my no-fail logic, something with such a dumb name will never work. This means, of course, that it probably WILL work, since my track record for getting rid of my extra ass poundage is pathetic. I know nothing. Do not listen to me.

I've decided to order the Fitbit Tracker and give Lose It! another chance, if for no other reason than to eat better, nutrition-wise. It can't hurt to consume more fruits and veggies and less salt and fat. I'll let you know how it goes, from time to time, but it's not going to become a focus of this blog.**

If you're reading this blog post today, July 13, 2011, please note the fact that today is National French Fries Day, according to the Punchbowl widget in the sidebar. This explains so much...


*Works in progress, for you non-knitters
**Notice how I neatly dodged the whole accountability thing. 

Saturday, July 9, 2011

I've been seeing other blogs...

Here's the linky to my latest guest post on SheeptoShawl.com, and here's another photo from the Cherry Creek Arts Festival:


The kids are busy in the kitchen making pasties--extra points if you pronounce it PAST-ies and not PASTE-ies. Triple points if you know the difference.

Have a great weekend everybody!

Thursday, July 7, 2011

Cherry Creek Arts Festival Redux


I guess it's technically not a redux if this is the first time I've mentioned the Cherry Creek Arts Festival on this blog, but I like the word REDUX and I did tweet about it, so redux it is!

It's probably been ten years or more since the last time we attended the CCAF and it's changed a lot. The thing is absolutely huge--I'm pretty sure we didn't even see it all even though we wandered around for hours. Thank goodness for the ice-cold and not expensive beer stands is all I can say. That was probably the most affordable thing at the festival, next to the free water from Eldorado Springs. When the guy found out we've been customers of their delivery service for a long time, he gave us several bottles. Since it was really hot that day and (for me) porta-potties and multiple beers are a bad combo, the water was appreciated.

Don't get me wrong--there were lots of gorgeous pieces of art but $5,000+ for a painting is way outside of my budget. $500+ for a photo is out of the question, too. I was beginning to think I'd be leaving empty handed, and I was also lamenting the lack of fiber artist, when I came upon this booth:


This is Krista Gorrell of Slim Pik'en Design and she has the most gorgeous hand felted accessories. I bought this infinity scarf:


The colors are stunning and the quality of her work is superb. Plus, her helper in the booth held my beer while I shopped. You can't get customer service like that in a mall. Krista and her associate were a whole lot friendlier than some of the people working the other booths. Call me cranky, but if you're going to ask me to spend a few mortgage payments on your artwork, maybe look up and say hello when I walk into your booth. Just a suggestion...

CCAF is a great place to take the family, even if you can't afford much there. They have a ton of stuff for kids to do--painting, clay, chalk art--and they even let adults participate.




We also got to see the Oscar Mayer Wiener Mobile, which is always fun. Sorry, Wiener fans, I didn't get a photo but I hear there might be something on Twitter...



Here's something I would have bought if I had somewhere to put it:


Aren't they cool? They look almost like they're knitted.

We had a lot of fun and we're not going to let ten more years pass before we attend another Cherry Creek Arts Festival, but I'm hoping I win the lottery by then. Or maybe Krista will come back and I'll just buy her stuff and beer. Works for me!