J didn't handle the drive down very well, "It's a long time. Why it a long time? Why we go such a long time?" Three hours of that. Oy. Four was almost the last birthday for him.
But we made it, picked up Paige from her sister's, were dropped off at the Convention Center, and entered into yarn bliss. Oh, the color! Everywhere, things to pet and covet. The marketplace was beyond fabulous.
I hadn't managed to get into any classes - 30,000 attempts to get into 5,000 spots crashed the server the day sign-ups started, but we were happy just to wander, fondle, and see the sock museum, knit some stitches on the world's largest sock, and talk to vendors. I really want another shot at the classes someday, however. All the wonderful knitting I saw "on the hoof" really made me want to learn.
The funniest part was at the end of the day when Paige and I laid out all our new treasures and were reminded yet again that we have definite color preferences. All my yarn was pretty much the same colors (though in amazingly beautiful variations) and her skeins also had a pretty clear similarity to each other. Green-red-purple dark tones for me. Blue-green-purple for her.
My one color anomoly was a 2 1/2 pound bag of alpaca/wool fiber that started as one brain of 10 oz. Then I added a second, cause they were only $10. Then Paige pointed out that that was silly-cheap, and why not get them all? So, I did. Luckily, the woman had only four left or we would have had to leave one of Paige's kids out of the car to fit in my fiber.
My treasure - only add four more skeins from the next day.My budget melted down a bit, but every bit of it will get used! There are some fabulous woven scarfs, and lace knit wraps coming up in the future.
Paige's stash additions - also partial as she added more the next Marketplace session as well.We sat in on the Luminary Panel on Sunday - amazing group of women, including the inventor of "ssk, " Barbara Walker. Imagine originating a stitch combo used thousands and thousands of times a day by knitters everywhere. Also, Judith MacKenzie McCuin who someday I will get to take a spinning class from, and Pricilla Gibson-Robers, who wrote Kniting in the Old Way which is helping me become brave enough to knit a sweater without a pattern telling me every single stitch to increase or decrease. Full list of participants here. Then we sang happy birthday to Elizabeth Zimmerman (it would have been her 99th), her daughter Meg Swanson (someday I will have the skill to make one of her sweaters!) and headed home.
When I talked to my uncle and told him that I'd spent the weekend at a sock yarn event, he said, "Was it some kind of assigned therapy?"
No one knows if there will be another Sock Summit - if there is Paige and I will be there.
The ride back was happier for J with Paige's kids to entertain him. It was very crowded with six of us and all the stuff they'd needed for a week's vacation (and the fiber) but we made it in, all the doors shut, and we got home. J didn't fall asleep until we hit our exit, at 10:30 p.m. Just like a grown-up! he said today.
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