Saturday, August 8, 2009

Sock Summit

As many of you may already know, this weekend is the first if what one hopes will be many years of an ongoing tradition: Sock Summit. Held in Portland, OR., Sock Summit is the equivalent of Shangri-la to legions of sock knitters.

It was/is organized by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, better known as the Yarn Harlot, and Tina Newton of Blue Moon Fiber Arts. It sounds like one of those casual ideas that you'd toss into conversation, which then turned into a monster on steroids. Tina and Stephanie expected a larger response than the people they were dealing with did. It sounded as though those who deal with the other end of conferences thought that they were crazy when the two of them said that they expected a good response. What they didn't expect, however, was that when they were finally open for online registration, there was such an overwhelming number of people trying to register all at the same time, that all the servers crashed. That's a lot of excited sock knitters!

They have AMAZING teachers at this conference, with equally astounding classes. Including Kiwi's Heather Ordover who is teaching three classes. Big names from Barbara Walker to Cat Bordhi. Cookie A, Nancy Bush, Priscilla Gibson-Roberts, Sivia Harding, Lucy Neatby, Meg Swanson! Wow! To breathe THAT air!

One of my friends through the knitting lists and Facebook is Judy Sumner, whose new sock knitting book based on Japanese stitch patterns, Knitted Socks East and West has just been released. Judy wrote yesterday that she wished we could have been there to see all of the knitters stand up and applaud Barbara Walker when she came in. We all, as knitters, owe Barbara Walker more than we can ever possibly imagine.

And then there are the vendors! Geeze Louise! Everyone you can think of, and a lot you haven't come across yet.

There are events such as the opening night reception, the Sock Hop, the Luminary Panel. Have you ever heard of a conference with a swift and ball-winder area? Shipping from right there at the conference center? These ladies know how to shop! I'm getting light headed just thinking about it.

Check out the website, do some fantasy shopping and classes. Imagine yourself there next year. Hmmm... Maybe a Tucson contingent, traveling together?

1 comment:

KiniaCat Crafts said...

Greetings Lynda, Lynn and Kiwi folks!
I wanted to drop a note that I was so very lucky and blessed to go to most of the Sock Summit.
Moreover, I got to attend Judy Sumner's "Night for Knitters" event at Powell's Book Store! She gifted us with a lovely talk - the background of the book and her explorations of and delight with the Japanese Stitch patterns. She very graciously signed our books and was quite charming.
The Summit was astounding. So many amazing teachers, classes, events, vendors...a bit overwhelming. I'm probably still suffering from an overdose of Yarn Fumes. I did get to participate in the (probably successful, but pending confirmation) breaking of the previous Guinness World Book record for Most Number of People Knitting Simultaneiously.
I am so tickled that Tucson was represented in the Sock Knitterati by Heather!
I'm hearing the next Sock Summit might be in Canada. We'll see what happens next!