Sock Summit - day 3: some visitors

I kind of had a feeling that the posts about Sock Summit '09 would be trickling out slowly. Or else there would have been the mother of all posts....considering there were many superlatives, like this mock up of a giant swift one aisle over.


Or this lovely bunch of ladies who had a mini meet-up near my booth.



Or: Judy Sumner sitting right across from me, knitting away, at Lisa Souza's booth. Judy came out with her first sock book after having published many many sock patterns. Once I realized who she was - Judy and I have been emailing for a few years, but we had no clue what each other looked like - I ran right over, bought her book, Knitted Socks East and West, and had it autographed. Later that day she was giving a talk and a booksigning at Powell's book in downtown Portland. She was a smashing success!

One of the biggest highlights that day was that Priscilla Gibson-Roberts stopped by my booth for a good long while. I gave her a skein of the colorway I dyed especially in her honor, and she gave me a hug because she liked it so much. In fact I believe her exact words were: "It's PERFECT for me!" Wow. She lives in her denim jeans and the yarn matches all her denim. I called it ''Priscilla's Navy with a Kick and she sure got one out of it!

I can't tell you how much it meant to me that she stopped and talked with me for a while. I got to tell her that her book, Knitting in the Old Way, was the first knitting book I ever bought when I was a college student. I had always been knitting without patterns at all, and her book put things in perspective for me - how neck lines relate to the rest of the sweater, how to do proper sleeve increases, etc. I have gotten so much use out of her book that it is falling apart. I never ever thought I would even get near her, so I didn't bring my copy.

But that hug is something that will stay with me forever.