Portland, here I come!

This is just a flying post, because it's Wednesday, and I really do have this goal of posting twice a week and Wednesday somehow seems like the middle of the week and therefore a good day for posting.

It was also the day of Sock Summit registration.  Which means that noon Pacific time found me in my office, with the door shut, email shut off to conserve bandwidth, credit card and class list in hand, waiting for the "register now" button to appear on the Sock Summit site.  (OK, in the interest of full disclosure, I will admit that I was pretty much staring at the computer, class list and credit card in hand, starting at about 11:15.  Thank goodness I had a friend on email who could keep me company, because goodness knows no-one around here would have understood what I was doing!!)  Honestly, you would have thought I was about to ski for Olympic gold, the way my heart was pounding.  I was like Secretariat at the starting gate, except I was not leaning back against the fence.  I kept reminding myself that Sock Summit is fun with or without classes, that the list of available classes is insanely long this year and filled with amazing options, that the less money I spend on classes, the more I have to spend in the marketplace - and I believed all of that, I really did.  But there's something about being poised over the refresh button that gets the juices flowing.  (Or is that just me?)

I am dying to hear the stats again this time, because I think that the site only barely managed to avoid crashing by a hair.  It certainly hung up, but once I was in, things went very smoothly (none of the heart-stopping glitches of last time), and I got everything I wanted!!  (Well, again in the interest of full disclosure, there were a LOT more classes I wanted to take, but I decided to at least attempt to be sane, which meant leaving some open time to hang out with people and to shop in the marketplace, as well as choosing not to take any spinning classes so I wouldn't have to stress about getting my wheel to Portland.  I may regret those decisions later, but right now I am at peace.)

The schedule, you ask?  Here it is:
Thursday 
KnitteRx (1 hour class on knitting ergonomics)
Friday 
Even Cooler Socks, with Lucy Neatby (6 hours on doing stuff with socks I've never done before)
Saturday
The Deeper Meaning of Socks (a 1 hour lecture with Anna Zilboorg)
Sock Yarn Stories (a 1 hour lecture with Clara Parkes)
Writing Sock Patterns (3 hours with JC Briar)
This is Your Brain on Knitting (1 hour lecture with Stephanie Pearl-McPhee)
Sunday
Kilt by Association (a 3-hour class on kilt hose)
Perfect Rib (a 1-hour class with Cookie A.)

How cool is that?  The only one that I may regret not taking is a class on recreating traditional folk socks - it's a 6-hour class on Thursday, and I think it would be really interesting to learn how to "read" a historic sock in order to recreate the pattern.  Next time, maybe?

Is anyone else going?  What classes are you taking?  Where are you staying?  (Note: I still have no plane tickets or hotel room.  That's the next step.)

In other knitting news, I have finished the Daybreak Shawl, and will (with luck) block it tonight.  Given that our humidity levels were around 7% yesterday (I think today they made it into the teens), it'll dry pretty quickly, I think.

And in non-knitting news, I got the coolest cookie cutter in the mail recently from Stella, after I admired the little breads that she was making for her kids' lunches.  So I made some bread dough - very plain, just white bread with millet - and cut out shapes and baked them to freeze.  Tell me what you think:

I made a few coyotes for good measure, but the frogs just took the cake.

I do still knit

Even if it's not looking like it these days.

Thank you all so much for your supportive comments on the rant of a couple of days ago. I alternate between feeling that surely something can be done to make the system work better for everyone, and a deep sense of despair because I haven't the faintest clue how we can make that happen. I'll keep you all updated on how things go this semester in my little patch of education-land; judging by the comments, though, I'm not the only person out there who's facing this kind of situation, so all of you keep letting me know how it's going, too.

Now, a last gathering of little tidbits from Sock Summit, and then I think I'll have that all caught up, and I can start letting you see some knitting.

First, since Sallee and I knew that we would (finally!) be meeting at Sock Summit, she took the chance to deliver to me this stunning beauty.
Is that not the most classy needle binder you've ever seen? I adore that cover fabric (you wouldn't believe how patient she was while I dithered over all of the beautiful pictures of fabrics she sent me!), and look at the button:
It's just perfect with the spirals! The inside is filled with the softest fabric pockets for holding needles, both dpns and circs. Finally, a holder worthy of my lovely Celtic Swans and Signature dpns.
Plenty of room for everything. (Although I admit that I was a little embarrassed to see just how many of some sizes of needles I have. I mean, how many size four Addis does one person need? Quite a few apparently. Oddly, though, there was nary a size six to be found. Weird...)

The needle binder is Nana Sadie Rose's new Violette, and I can't tell you how happy I am with it. I feel organized, and it's cheerful and elegant to boot. How often does that all come together in one useful object? Very William Morris...

I think I've mentioned that I got to meet in person (but not spend nearly enough time with) several people whom I've only known through e-correspondence. Another one of those people is Mary Lou, whose blog I've been reading for a while now, and whom I always enjoy sharing an email conversation with. She was working at the Yarnery booth, right down the aisle from Briar Rose, which meant that we were both equally busy, but she made a point of coming to see me right away, to give me the condolence hug she'd promised me (which I so needed right then), as well as the most lovely and thoughtful gift.
Definitely click to embiggen that. It's a set of gorgeous cards (each with a different picture) all in that beautiful blue silk bag. It makes me happy each time I look at it. Thank you!

In the interests of full disclosure, I should reveal that I did come away with some spinning fiber from A Verb For Keeping Warm. I also had a very fun conversation with Kristine, the dyeing genius behind the yarn and fiber from A Verb For Keeping Warm -- talk about an interesting person to chat with!
That is four ounces of a lovely merino/silk blend in the Crocodile Tears colorway.
And that is four ounces of Wensleydale in the Abalone colorway. (You can see that Tilly wanted very much to be involved in the photography.) I'm thinking that this one will be socks; that was also the plans for the merino/silk, but we'll see.

I also got one skein of STR, a Rare Gem.
Last but not least, I came away with some stunning yarn from (of course) Briar Rose. There was this ball of Sea Pearl (I do love me some Sea Pearl).
I haven't decided yet what that will be. But I know what I'm going to do with this.
Two skeins of that heathery purpley gorgeousness (why yes, it is Sea Pearl, why do you ask?) are destined to become the next Wine Dark Sea sweater. My goal is to knit another one, without the little sizing issues that I perhaps could have done differently in the first. I'm swatching now.
I think that will be the bottom edge, but I haven't yet found my cuff edging. I'm in the process of swatching and enjoying it immensely. Chris has to be one of the most generous people in the world, not only providing yarn, but also complimenting my first Wine Dark Sea sweater extravagantly (as did Christy), and even suggesting that the pattern might be good enough to interest other people. I'm not sure about that, but it was sure nice to hear.

I also came away with a lovely little project back, which just happens to match the yarn.
And a button and a pin. I'm sure I'll find good uses for these.
And with that, I think that I'm all caught up from Sock Summit. Whew!

Next time, some socks -- I've finished the first of the Wildflower socks, and I don't think I ever posted pictures of the heirloom tomato socks. I have no less than three hours of meetings each day this week (and some as long as five hours), so I'm guessing there's gonna be plenty of knitting time.

Dazed and confused

I keep disappearing, don't I? I've been so overwhelmed by the work email coming in to my computer this last week that I just turned the darned thing off for the weekend (query: I am not paid during the summer, so why I am I spending hours each day wading through work email?). This reduced my temptation to check email and get sucked in, but also meant that I didn't post, and I wasn't responding to friendly email, either. I need to find a balance point here, and weekends offline may be it, but I'll try to give warning next time.

I was going to write a post about what's going on at work, but I'm feeling peaceful enough this morning that I don't want to haul out that soapbox. I'm going to have to soon enough, since I need to plan out what I'm going to say to students on the first day of class, which is rapidly approaching, but I think I'll keep this morning's fragile peace and think of happier things instead. It turns out that, in all of this chaos, I have been knitting (isn't that what keeps us sane?). I find that the more crazy things are getting in the rest of my life, the simpler my knitting gets. I'm on a bit of a stockinette/garter stitch craze right now, getting my comfort from lovely yarns, beautiful colors, and knitting that feels like a meditation. I'm also sorting through my acquisitions from Sock Summit, and I'll be sharing them little by little as I take pictures of them. I keep forgetting to mention things that happened at sock summit, and things I wanted to talk about, so I've started keeping a little list next to my computer -- how pitiful is that? But I think it reflects the dazed and confused (hence the post title) state of mind that I'm in right now.

For example, I completely forgot to mention that I finally got to meet Wanda in person!
(This is one of her pictures which she kindly shared with me; have I mentioned that I forgot to take any pictures at all?) Wanda was one of the first people to read and comment on my blog, and I have so enjoyed our email exchanges over the last couple of years. It was truly a treat to get to meet her (and her lovely husband Ed!) in person; I only wish we'd had time for a quiet visit, but it turns out that Sock Summit just wasn't the venue for that kind of thing.

I also got some gorgeous sock yarn while I was there (imagine that), from March Hare, who was sharing a booth with Jennie the Potter (I got one of her yarn bowls, too, but haven't taken a picture of that yet; next time, I promise).
Aren't they gorgeous? The one of the left isn't photographing too well; it's a beautiful flame orange/red (the colorway is, appropriately enough, Wildfire). I'm tempted to knit a shawl out of it, I love it so well, but I'm guessing I'll go with socks for now. The one on the right is a colorway called Driftwood, and I got it to make socks for Rick -- it seemed like a good guy color. I'll probably cast on for those once I get my current pair of simple socks off of the needles.

Speaking of which, here they are:
I cast on for these at Sock Summit, so that I'd have something mindless to knit in the evening and on the flight home. I'm using my new Signature needles (I got the size ones, which are 2.25 mm needles), and I'm loving them. I'm also loving the fabric that the smaller needles are making with this yarn, which is Handmaiden Casbah; I think that the colorway is wildflower. The socks are plain top-down socks, with 1x1 corrugated rib at the top and on the heel flap, and I'm just putting little wildflower knots (from one of the BW stitch dictionaries) in whenever the mood strikes me. I'm most of the way down the foot on this first one.

While I was at Sock Summit, I also finished this, which I started while at the institute.
It's a Forest Canopy shawl (my Rav project), which I knitted using Sundara fingering silky merino in the Across the Water colorway. I think I used size eight needles for this one. I started it at the institute with the goal of taking it with me to the Hooked on Beads class I took with Sivia Harding so I could put beads on the edging.
So I knitted madly to get through the body, and finished just in time to take it to class. I beaded the edging along both the decrease lines, and on the twisted knit stitch between yarn overs. I don't know how well you can see it there, but I'm very happy with the way it turned out, and I like the weight on the edges like that.
I love the size of this one; it's not really a shawl, more a neckerchief, which is a very nice thing to have. I have enough yarn left that I may try to improvise some matching mitts for myself. I'm also thinking that I have at least one family member who may need one of these for Christmas; I'll have to see if I can find just the right yarn...

There are a few more things on the needles right now, but I'll just mention one more, because I'm dithering over it. I fell in love with a version of Elektra that I saw someone wearing at the institue. She let me try it on, and I decided that I absolutely had to have one for my very own self. I think it's going to be one of those sweaters that I can wear everywhere, plain and fancy, work and weekends, and I decided to invest in the yarn to make it exactly what I wanted. My lovely local yarn store, Yarning For You, ordered the kit in Petite Voodoo for me from Twisted Sisters, and I cast on last Friday. The problem is, I'm just not sure about that light blue. I like it fine on its own, but somehow, with the other colors (which I adore), I keep sort of stubbing my eyes on it.
(Imagine those colors about eighty times richer, and with that lovely sheen that silk gives to yarn. Mmmm....) I keep thinking that maybe something in a deep purple would be better.
That's not quite right, but they have a lovely color, Iris, that might do the trick. Opinions? I am planning to take it in to the store tomorrow for a confab with Debra, who is so helpful and willing to let me dither. I really want this to be something that I love unconditionally, so I want to get the colors just right.

OK, off to catch up on email (sigh) and some blog posts, and then I think I deserve a bit of time at my spinning wheel outside on my back patio. Next time, Sea Pearl (double mmm), and an absolutely gorgeous treat that Sallee delivered to me at the summit.

Where was I?

That's how I feel right now. Where was I? If today is Wednesday, it must be home. Right?

It's been a crazy couple of weeks. Mostly very very good, don't get me wrong (with, of course, some true lows stuck in there for flavor), but still crazy busy. I've been meaning to post these last couple of days, but I came home Monday to hundreds of emails in my inbox, having to do with fuloughs and the latest insanity that our administration is attempting to heap upon our heads, like salt to our wounds, insanity which makes furloughs look tame. I'll write about that when I'm ready to haul out the soapbox, but not this minute. Rick has been working 16-hour days since I got home, and Older Daughter started school today. It's been crazy.

But Sock Summit! Sock Summit was amazing in its size and scope, but really, in the end, what was truly wonderful to me was the people. I think you all know that I was working at the Briar Rose booth whenever I wasn't in classes or lectures. What you may not know is that I'd never met Chris (the fabulous dyer who is behind all of the beauty over there at Briar Rose), or her daughter-in-law Christy before. Note, by the way, the total leap of faith that Chris was taking in allowing me to work in her booth. That's a huge trust, when you're talking about someone's business that they've built lovingly, that's based on hard work and incredible talent and skill. But they both welcomed me in, and let me join them the whole time. They're wonderful. Truly some of the best people I know. I just spent the better part of five days cheek-by-jowl with them (I'm the only one with jowls, I should hastily add), so I should know. There are few people in the world who can work from 8-6 and still be good company over beer afterwards, but those two women are among them. Guys, why do you live 2,000 miles away? It's just wrong.

Here's the part where I admit that I took absolutely no pictures the whole time I was there. (Oddly, I particularly regretted it when everyone else started taking pictures of the poor woman who impaled herself in the calf with her knitting needle in one of my classes -- Anna Zilboorg's, to be precise -- but in the end, you probably don't want to see that.) That means that I didn't get pictures of my happy meeting with Sallee, with whom I didn't get to spend nearly enough time. How is it that we talk more by email from thousands of miles away than we got to talk when we were in the same convention center? Life is weird.

She, however, brought her camera to one of the greatest events I attended: Barbara Walker's talk. And she kindly let me share her photographic spotlight, and then forwarded the picture to me.
Note the closed eyes. Do you think it was something we said?

I also got to meet up with Ellen, which was equally fabulous (in fact, she and Sallee and I sat together for BW's talk, and all got equally teary-eyed at the end; it was nice not to have to explain to them why I was crying because I knew they were crying for the same reasons). We ended up sharing a lovely time in line together, waiting to get our Barbara Walker books signed (do we note a theme here?), and Ellen was, again, wise enough to bring her camera. She's posted the picture, so check it out. (They both also have done much better jobs of talking about the summit itself than I am going to, so head on over to their blogs and read all about it.)

There was more, much more. I so appreciate those of you who came and found me at the booth and stopped to say hi and introduce yourselves. You know who you are, and how much I enjoyed getting to meet you. Thank you. I loved my classes (Anna Zilboorg and Tina Newton on color, and Sivia Harding on beads -- I even beaded the edge of a scarf that I will post pictures of another time). I loved the lectures I attended (Barbara Walker's -- and man, is that lady bold -- and the luminary panel -- lots of data for the ethnography there, I tell you). I loved meeting interesting people like Meg Swansen. I loved my brief chats with Anne, who was run off her feet teaching (they had those teachers on a tight schedule!). I loved those beers at night with Chris and Christy and our many talks.

One thing that both Sock Summit and the retreat really made me think about a lot was a single word and its many meanings. That word is "craft". I think that for many people, that word carries connotations associated with summer camp crafts. With the easy making of little useless things for the amusement of children. When used in that sense and applied to the beautiful work of hands that I saw at both of these events, it's an insult, and one that many people rightly refuse to have applied to their art.

When I first heard people stating their strong preference that people not refer to their work as "craft", I was surprised, though, because my own associations are so entirely different. To me, craft is what is required to move a vision of beauty to a state of reality. It requires skill, and wisdom. Craftiness, thus, is not only the knowlege and vision needed to bring art into being, but the ability to craft the time and space in our busy lives to do so. Craft to me is the craft not in the phrase arts and crafts, but in Arts and Crafts; the acknowledgement that those things which are useful need not be utilitarian. That there is something vital and joyous and whole in creating things of beauty which are to be used. To me, the fiber arts are prime examples of such craft, color and life and sensuality and texture and beauty and function all in one object, one expression of the maker's art.

The Oxford English Dictionary defines the noun "craft" as (slightly edited for brevity): 1. Strength, power, might, art; 2. Intellectual power; skill; art; 3. Skill, skillfulness, art; ability in planning or performing, ingenuity in constructing, dexterity; 4. Human skill, art as opposed to nature. And it defines the verb "craft" as: 1. To make or construct skillfully; 2. To use crafty devices; 3. To exercise one's craft.

I certainly see within our community the exercise of strength, power, might, and art. The results of manipulating fiber strike me as definitional of art as opposed to nature. And if a spindle isn't a crafty device, heck, I don't know what is.

I understand and support the reasons why it is important to insist that the public acknowledge the art in the work of our hands. I admit, though, that the part of me that loves the underdog, that is a sucker for lost causes, wants to reclaim the word "craft" in all of its deep acknowledgement of the humanness of its exercise. I want them both back, and I want them with capitals and fireworks.

Look at what you're making right now and see in it both the art and the craft, and be proud.

Wouldja look at that?

It's Friday. How did that happen? I swear it was Monday last time I looked. And don't you think if it were Friday I'd have gotten more done by now?

In knitting news, guess what else you can knit with Briar Rose Grandma's Blessing?
Socks!

Honestly, what can't you knit with this yarn? And it is so soft, my hands are thanking me. It's a very nice break from the linen yarn I'm using for that shell I'm working away at (right now, it's my don't-have-to-look-at-it knitting, which means that I only pull it out at certain times, so it's moving slowly).
These are Anne's David socks for the booth at Sock Summit. I just started and I'm already halfway through the heel flap on the first one. They're a fast knit. And, as an example of the vagaries of photography in my world, here's the same sock in a picture taken not 12 inches away from the pictures above.
Weird, huh? The colors in the first pictures are much closer to reality.

I'm also making progress on the Fraggle socks from the Rockin' Sock Club. I have a theory that this might be a new base yarn (anyone know for sure?), since it feels even softer than usual. On the other hand, maybe it's just that linen contrast again...
The heel's turned on the first one and I'm working my way down the foot. I'm still truly, madly, deeply in love with this colorway, even though it doesn't show up in these pictures at all (the one in an earlier post is closer); they were taken in the exact same spot as the better photos above. Welcome to my house, the Bermuda Triangle of good photography. Where pictures go to overexpose.
This pattern is fun, but I think I agree with the folks on Ravelry who are saying that the colorway/pattern match isn't the absolutely best. I very tempted to just knit the socks with 2x2 ribbing alternating between regular knit ribs and the "bubble" ribs in the pattern (you can see a line of them there on the right side above), but I decided to give the whole pattern a shot. I'm not regretting it, in spite of my reservations. I also made these a bit longer than usual since I'm having so much fun with them and I've been wanting a slightly longer pair of socks. I'm sure I'll have enough yarn since I always have leftovers.

And I've been spinning a little. I started that roving I posted about a little bit ago, and have spun a tiny bit. It's gorgeous to spin, although I'm not sure I'm going to be able to put enough spin into the singles to ply tightly enough for the sock yarn I was envisioning -- when I try, it gets less fun to spin, and I'm not in the mood to fight it.
When spun like that, it's a joy to work with, so I'm going to take that as a sign.

I've also been slowly plugging away on my Golding at the roving I bought at Twist! Over a thick rug, this time.
Spinning on my spindles is nice in the evening in the main room when the girls are doing homework, or Rick's getting dinner ready or doing the dishes. It feels more social, and our stools are there, so I can spin a full arm's length before winding on. I just need to stay in the habit of doing that regularly.

And, last but not least, my prize came in the mail! This is the Fiona tote that I won in Hip Mountain Mama's blog contest. I absolutely love the green leaves in this fabric.
And talk about capacious! I could fit a small child in there, I think, not to mention a goodly load of knitting projects and accessories.
(Keys included for size reference.) I may even take this as my carry-on to Scotland this summer, since it's a great size for something like that. Thank you, Hip Mountain Mama!

Scrum

That's pretty much what yesterday morning ended up looking like, and I say that impying absolutely no criticism of Stephanie or Tina, who worked their tails off to avoid just that; the scrum happened in their despite.

The timeline looked something like this:
9:59 am: I closed down every single internet window on my computer but one, just to be sure that any slow-downs that might occur (note the hopeful little interjection of the "might" there) could in no way be blamed on overloaded connections on my end. I also glared at Rick until he agreed to cease and desist with all downloading for the duration. He insisted on continuing to breathe and receive phone calls, but I think that he nevertheless can't be blamed for what happened next.

10:00 am: Every single knitter in the entire world hit "refresh" on their computers at the same time and initiated Total System Failure.

Oops.

I spent the next twenty-five minutes alternately hyperventilating at the thought of getting not a single class during all of Sock Summit because Every Other Knitter in the World was getting onto the system before me, and giggling with near hysteria because, dudes. That was a whole lotta knitters logging on at once. And I know for a fact that it wasn't even all of us.

There are a lot more of us out there than the rest of the world thinks.

I find that pretty inspiring. Even if our major accomplishment yesterday was to crash a computer system and leave some poor ITS guy a gibbering wreck.

On the positive side, I did finally get on to the server (after marvelling at a world that allowed us potential registrants, via blogs and twitter and ravelry, to track exactly what was happening and why)(in fact, many comments were made about the Cassandra-like foretelling that had been offered to the aforementioned ITS folks about the mighty power that is the world-wide knitting community when they have their collective finger on the "refresh" button, and the willful dismissal of said warnings until the proverbial Too Late arrived right on schedule). Not only did I get on the server, but I got into the two classes and two lectures that I wanted. That seemed like an unselfish amount to desire, and I promptly hied myself from the system, and headed off to meet my swimming buddy, only a half an hour later than I'd expected (she's not a knitter, but she's a solid sort, and she forgave me).

So, how about it? Who's going? Who got the classes they wanted? How are we going to find each other among All the Other Knitters in the World?

I do have knitting news. I am this far from a finished object (and I'll bet money that it's not what you think it is), and I'm going to wait to post about it until it's done, which will probably be tomorrow. I was going to offer you pictures of the absolutely amazing hummingbird nest in our wisteria instead, but the camera/computer connection created its little black hole again, and all of my pictures disappeared off my camera and into the Bermuda Triangle. Alas.

Anticipation

Is killing me. (Maybe it should be "Anticipation killed the cat?")

This morning, at 10 am my time, registration opens for the classes at Sock Summit. If I am feeling this level of anticipation (and a little bit of anxiety: will I get any of the classes I want? will I even be able to get into the sock hop, or will I be the only dork sitting in the lobby?)(yes, I was a geek in high school, why do you ask?), I can only imagine how Stephanie and Tina are feeling as they watch the clock count down and wonder whether their server will survive the initial onslaught. All I can say is, they've clearly done everything humanly possible to get ready for that first ten minutes; my hat goes off to them.

The registration instruction page says to have your first, second, and third choices of classes ready, as well as your cup of coffee, since you get fifteen minutes from first initiating your session to losing the classes in your cart. I think I'm ready.
List? Check. Back-up list? Check. Cup of coffee? Check. Book by Hortense Powdermaker (honestly, I couldn't make this stuff up) to read in the meantime? Check.

Anyone else out there registering this morning?