my sock summit adventure, part two

I arrived in Portland without further incident. I was to stay with friends Paul and Sarah and their baby, Miles. I met them at the last Sock Summit. Well they had their little boy in the meantime and I was looking forward to meeting him. Because my plane was an hour late, Paul graciously picked me up by ZipCar so I didn't have to take the train in.

The next day, Sarah and Miles

Rachel H. letting Miles play with her badge

and I went to the convention center and took a look around. The first person I saw there after checking in

Stephanie Pearl-McPhee at the check-in counter

was Cookie A. I truly had arrived at the biggest convention of sock knitters in the world.

Sarah and Miles were eager to fill the empty booth with yarn!

let's get going, already!

my shipment

Then the helpers arrived!!! Nance (middle) and Mary (right) of Mike and Mary, tore into the first box already.
Miles prefers to look at the world upside down.

Then, Erin from Portland Store Fixtures arrived with my rented booth display grids...she was well prepared with her clipboard -

The next couple of hours are still a blur. We set up the booth display the way I had imagined it, the way I had gone over it with Erin, and, at home, with my mechanical engineering student Tall Son.
The way we had all figured it, it did not work. The grids kept collapsing, even with no yarn on them. Sarah is an architect by trade, and she finally found a solution...it did leave some dead space, but it was workable, and nothing collapsed.

We called it a night, and went to have dinner.

Convention Center MAX stop.

Walk home through Portland.

The next day, I achieved this:

But not before I had another collapse, followed by frantic phone calls, after which one of the owners of the fixtures store spent 45 minutes under the grids as if under the hood of a car. She finally got the walls stabilized enough that I was going to be ready for customers. Oh yeah and in the morning? My palette of boxes had been INSIDE my booth, so I had no way of moving and unpacking. Thank goodness Mary's husband Mike was a volunteer at the loading dock that morning and was able to help me get the boxes and the palette out of my booth.

But finally Finally I was ready for customers! Thanks to my helpers. Melissa showed up, whom I met last time, and whose picture I forgot to take.

My wonderful, kind, funny, friendly booth neighbors, Stitchy McYarnpants and her friend Caro Sheridan, and Caro's mom, were ready  too for the market doors to open for the first time on Thrsday afternoon at 4:30 pm.

We had been debating which one was going to be the "it booth" of the summit. Which booth would be stormed by attendees? Last time people were sprinting to the Sanguine Gryphon booth. This time, word had it, it was either the Plucky Knitter, or GothSocks.

GothSocks won.

Within minutes, they were tossing yarn into the mob.

They were sold out about an hour later, and had no yarn to sell for the whole rest of the summit. Three more days with no yarn. I honestly don't know what I would have done.

Meanwhile, people fouond me. Here's Teri making a purchase, who had made a Labyrinth shawl for me to display...and which I also must have forgotten to photograph....but if you click on the link above, you can see her shawl. It's the first photo.

Someone is picking out the perfect skein.

Also the parade of stunning knits coming through was endless.

Here's Kathy, a faithful reader of my blog, who drove up from California to attend. She is showing me her Wandering the Moors shawl she made in five days last summer, with my watercolors II yarn. Please you must read her blog -- she took classes and everything and blogged really nicely about it. She's a fabulous knitter.

Later on, a sighting of Franklin Habit.

And even later, a wonderful dinner with Mike and Mary, and strike three for not taking a picture when I should have. (You can see them here in this post about the last sock summit.)

Mike and Mary adopted me last time I was in Portland, and they did so again this time.  Rides every morning from the house where I was staying; use of their car for yarn storage; and dinner at a gluten-free and vegan friendly restaurant which meant I could eat without worrying.

mushroom ragout with white beans on a bed of steamed veggies and sesame sweet potatoes. yum.

Of course we celebrated our reunion with a bottle of wine. Then we called it a night, because the "real" summit was still ahead of us with three whole days of vending on my part, and full days of volunteering for them. You probably saw Mike or Mary everywhere. They guarded the lunch line and the front door. They were teaching assistants. They collected all the donations from the baby shower on Saturday night. No matter what you may have been doing, Mike and Mary were there to assist you!

my sock summit adventure, part one

A week ago Tuesday, I went to the Albany International Airport, checked my suitcase (for which I had to pay $25 so it was allowed to go to the same place I went), went through security, waved good-bye to my family one more time, and went to my gate to await boarding.

One hour later I sat in a taxi van with a couple that was also supposed to fly to Newark. The plane had been "overbooked" and I was volunteered to go to Newark by taxi, which supposedly was waiting outside to load me in and take me away. Never mind that I had booked my flight in January, reserved my seat then, and made it to the airport in plenty of time. I was identified as a Single Traveler going to Portland, OR with a Significant Lay-Over in Newark, and called to the podium. After much hesitation, feeling the eyes of 50 travelers stabbing me in the back because they wanted to get the heck on this plane and I was the only one holding them up, I agreed to accept the $350 voucher to be used another time.

Outside, there was no taxi. The dispatcher was completely taken by surprise. I may have heard him yell into the radio, "I don't care if you are my wife, I am telling you to come over here and drive these people to Newark!" She showed up, we loaded ourselves into the van, and drove off....to the nearest gas station, where she, the driver, asked us if we could give her some money to help pay for the gas. I very politely pointed out that she was just given a $500 voucher from the airline, and that I had only lunch money with me. She grumbled that she had to go to the ATM.

While the driver took care of business, us passengers introduced ourselves. There was a lady in the front seat who needed to be taken to her doctor's appointment...turns out that the cab was a van conracted by a company that takes disbabled folks to the doctor. We were going to Newark by medivan. Our medivan had very loud and rattly shocks, exactly underneath me.

After we dropped off the poor lady who in turn had to endure a detour to the airport to pick us up, we finally were on our way to Newark. Turns out the driver had never even been to Newark before! I texted my son to look up directions. Newark is 165 miles south of Albany, in New Jersey, across the river from Manhattan. My fellow travellers looked up google directions on their smart phones. The driver did have a gps, but refused to let it talk to her because "it always says the wrong thing". So while she was driving, in between compulsively polishing her sunglasses which she had on over her prescription glasses, she kept trying to read the gps. Thank goodness, I thought, that the New York  State Thruway is a pretty straight road.

Also, she kept popping all of her knuckles. She stated that this helps her arthritis. I offered some ibuprofen. She remembered she had some, and after she ate her sandwhich while polishing her glasses and reading her gps, she took some ibuprofen, which reminded her that she had to take some caffeine pills. She had been yawning quite a bit and apologized for it. She said that taxi companies don't like it when their drivers drink too much coffee because that causes too many bathroom breaks and a loss of revenue.

At one point we all needed a bathroom break, taxi cab loss of revenue be darned. During this break we had to wait for the driver to finish her cigarette, and I got a glimpse as to why the taxi cab company looked down on bathroom breaks.

As we went on down the thruway, my fellow traveler had her iphone in her purse and stealthily looked up directions. Her husband did the same thing in the passenger seat. It's not difficult to get to Newark at all, if you know where to turn off, and by the second turn after the toll booths we were all pretty much shouting directions at our driver, at which point she finally conceded, gave up reading the gps and turned it off.

We made it to the right terminal, on time, and we all jumped out of that van the same second it had come to a halt.

I found some dinner, and made my plane just fine.

We only sat on the runway for an hour before take-off.

back

It's good to be back! Looks like my husband peeked in here while I was gone...and left you with a teaser.
Well I have to let it sit another day. I've been so sleep deprived that I was feeling downright sick today, so I took two naps. Fam is making dinner right now.

Sock Summit was fun, interesting, successful, amazing, inspiring, warm fuzzy, fun, and a lot of hard work. But it was fun. :)

The first knit celeb I saw and talked to was cookie a. who helped set up the booth for 'a verb for keeping warm'.
I saw Amy Singer many times, Stephanie Pearl-McPhee all over the place, Tina Newton ditto, I saw and spoke with Lucy Neatby, one of the few instructors to regularly strolls through the marketplace; and I saw Sivia Harding, Cat Bordhi, Franklin Habit, Anne Hanson. My booth was right next to Stitchy McYarnpants and her friend Caro. The nicest people ever.

And I didn't buy any yarn or fiber. I have no idea how I did it.

guest post

While Karin is out of town, I'll be looking after the blog.  Her trip was, of course, not  routine.  I'm sure she'll give you the details later.  She did arrive safely and is setting up her booth.  --John

the road to sock summit 2011

I am leaving tomorrow, and a week from tomorrow I'll be back home again.

In that week, I will have traveled to Portland, OR, met friends I made last time, made new ones, set up my booth, had 4 days of market, dinners out with ravelry and sock summit friends, and a marvelous time.

The yarn, all 1279 skeins of it, is already there.

My dear friends Iryth (several times!!!) and Amy were here to help tag and pack. They were not afraid of the heat and the mess in my house.

Among other things, I came up with a new colorway, called 'a crack in the sidewalk':

And then, knitters knitted me things to take to the summit, for my booth displays.

Celaeno shawl by Romi Hill, knit by Alison G. in merino silk, colorway "avocado".

Ishbel shawl by Ysolda Teagye, knit by Jody, in sock dream, colorway "sophisticated".

 Mulnomah Shawl by Kate Elsa, knit by Alison G. in sock dream, colorway "Yanni T."

Flirtatious Shawl by Jody Mason, knit by Dorah, in 2 skeins of sock dream, colorway "hydrangea".

Flirtatious Shawl by Jody Mason, knit by Jody Mason, in WINK, colorway "girly". This pattern will be for sale at the sock summit, but is also available on ravelry.

Fingerless mitts knit by Karyn (above): Lepidoptera Mitt by Allison Van Zandt and Eliza Mitts by Anne Hanson;

knit with sock dream 'memories of summer'.

Below: Fine Cabled Mitts by Anne Hanson, knit by Carole, in watercolors sock yarn, 'hydrangea'.

Truffle Hat, Bon Bon Mitts, free ravelry downloads, knit by Dina, in watercolors II 'silver lining'.

Ok at this point in the post the picture uploader thingie went a little nuts and most of the pics were sideways or upside down. So sorry!

Left to right: sock knit by Bethm Robena, and Elise, in watercolors 'nutmeg', sock dream 'memories of summer', and watercolors 'past midnight'. Elise and Beth, please leave me a comment telling me what the patterns were!! I forget!!

Waving Lace Socks by Evelyn Clark, watercolors 'cranberry'. This sock and the next one knit by Teri.

 Go with the Flow socks by Evelyn Clark, watercolors II in 'tree frog'.

Marilinda Socks by cookie a, knit by Robena, in sock dream 'memories of summer'.

Thank you to every one of my dear knitting friends from Knit Night; The Spinning Room, and Trumpet Hill yarn shops who took the time to make me these fabulous sock summit booth samples. Not pictured here is an Angee sock by cookie a., knit by Laura, in sock dream 'avocado'; and a wee baby sweater made by Teri, in watercolors 'chick'.
I can't wait to display them all and brag about you.

So here I go, and I am sure that I've forgotten to mention a project sample someone made me. I apologize ahead of time. It is always an honor to see my yarn all knit up in beautiful projects!!!

PS: Teri you made a sock out of watercolors II, a crack in the sidewalk. Which pattern?

delicately

stopping for a moment from the insanity that is dyeing for Sock Summit --

I had a visitor today : right between two drying racks, a supreme master of the fiberarts.

Barely as big as a size 7 / 4.5 mm needle, orange like the color I was dyeing all day...and gone a few hours later, too much traffic and to do where she was, so she relocated herself to where I don't know.