Sock Summit: Day Three and Four

It’s all such a blur, which makes me think that I should’ve followed my own suggestion of “update the blog no matter how tired you are because you won’t remember/be as excited about what you did/saw/experienced the next day.”

Saturday consisted of a little down time actually. I sat in bed for the morning finishing up the blog post from Day 2 while Monica left at the usual crack-ass-of-dawn for her 9am class.

I got to the convention center early with time to knit on the giant sock for a little bit, ate from the taco bar, and meet Rebecca and Monica before my afternoon class. At 1:30pm I left the girls to head to my “Beginning Spindle Spinning Basics” taught by Denny McMillan and Abby Franquemont. Both of who, by the way, are hilarious in their own ways and INCREDIBLY brilliant and skilled in what they do.

Abby, teacher extraordinare!

Denny practicing her spinning

Abby was, by far, one of the most knowledgeable person in her field that I’ve heard the whole week. She began spinning at 5-years-old when her parents moved to Peru for work. She gave such great examples, made us try stuff without saying why, then when we all started trying the spinning stuff, she explained what it meant and why we were doing it. VERY VERY intensive, and hard!!! But, like she said, we wouldn’t have agriculture without yarn (couldn’t put together a thatched roof near water), wouldn’t have animal husbandry (no way to tie the sheep to the tree) and couldn’t explore new lands (no thread to weave into sales for the Nina, Pinta or Santa Maria!) Brilliantly said. We as a global population would not have progressed to where we are today, if it weren’t for spun yarn. Yes.

I’ll have to post some pictures of my “beginners yarn” later because the photo I took was of the crazy carpet and NOT my yarn.

After the class Monica and I met up again, under the “Dragon Ship,” a landmark we often used, just outside the market place.
We walked around the marketplace again, as if we hadn’t seen every booth in the place twice or three times already, and still managed to walk out with new things. I purchased a “Know your cuts of Lamb” shirt, which had dashed lines show the different cuts of meat, but instead said things like: Sweater, Socks, Mittens, Scarf, Hat... it was pretty awesome.

Back to our room we scanned the news stations for any mention of Sock Summit while we knit on our Coriolis socks waiting for 7pm to arrive. Monica had plans to meet up with the Rubberneckers at a Tapas restaurants called Lolos, then head to the Ravelry Party, however, I had plans to meet up with my friend Jade from Fairbanks.

We at AMAZING Lebanese food, then hit an Irish pub for live music and YES, a bagpipe band. I don’t know about you, but I LOVE LOVE LOVE bagpipes!

It was truly and international evening!

I said my goodbyes till the next time she visits home, and got home around 11pm. I thought it might be a good idea to start packing since Monica wasn’t back yet and I could spread my crap all over the place, but I promptly fell asleep all over said crap 3.4 minutes later. I did manage to call Bill and tell him how much I missed him and the puppies before I faded into la la land....
(Monica woke me up when she got home and I did manage to pack everything before I went to bed)

Sunday morning Monica and I dragged, and I do mean DRAGGED our sorry butts out of bed. It was a LONG night and had been an even longer weekend. We both had 9am classes, so our plan was to check out, throw all of our stuff in the trunk of the rental, print out our boarding passes, grab our morning ritual of sweet ice tea & a vanilla latte, and head to the market place with enough time to scarf down (pun intended) our Starbucks breakfast before class.

My “Sidekicks: knitting from east to west” was canceled due to the teacher having to leave for an emergency, but I pretty much had my choice of which ever spot was open from the other 1000000 classes offered that morning. I chose “Knitting Happily Ever After: Ergonomics for Knitters” taught by Carlson Demers.

What an amazingly USEFUL and knowledgeable class!

The thing that I took out of his class the most, was how to work exercises and stretches right INTO our knitting so we don’t have to stop ever 5 seconds to prevent long term injuries. Remind me to show you, “Broadway wave... Broadway wave... JAZZ HANDS!” , “the butt thing,” and how sitting on a rolled up sweatshirt can cure all back problems from sitting! Great class, I’m glad I got into it. The coolest part of the class, was that he ENCOURAGED us to knit through the entire thing so he could point out what people were doing good, bad, and could improve upon. I got a LOT of knitting done.

After the last class of the summit, Monica and I met Nerissa, a good friend of mine from Middle and High school (under the dragon boat). Nerissa was wandering the marketplace when she texted me to say that she had won a $40 gift certificate to Briar Rose Yarn after being in there for 5 minutes! She was a lucky gal.

We ate at a Pizza place called “Mississippi Pizza” very near Nerissa’s house, caught up on old times, which I am sure kept Monica is full suspense and excitement the entire time. At 2pm I thought it might be a good idea to get a head start on driving back to Seattle even though our flight didn’t leave till 8:55pm. GOOD THING WE DID! One hour and 26 minutes was wasted sitting in 20mph traffic. For no good reason. We did take advantage of the situation by knitting and idleing at the same time. Although we didn’t get any pictures to prove it, I promise, the faces of the passers by were priceless. Hey, at least I wasn’t on my cell phone!

Getting to the airport with time to spare, we dropped off the rental, checked our bags (ALL under 50 pounds), got some Burgerking, pottied and sat at the gate knitting waiting for our seats to be called. Monica and I sat on either side of the isle across from each other. We were famous among the flight attendants because they were keeping track of our “sock knitting race” the entire flight. I think I won... but Monica might contest the results. I say she has the advantage because I have hobbit feet.

Clean-shaven Bill, Wrangler and Lucy were at the airport waiting for our arrival. We brought Monica home to her 3 kids, and headed to our home with fresh sheets and a vacuumed house. How could a girl be any more happy! (I love Bill.)

It’s hard to describe what we experienced these past couple of days, but I will tell you it was nothing short of amazing. The buzz was already surrounding next year and the plans for a Sock Summit 2010, but in my eyes, I can’t even think that far ahead without fully taking in everything from this trip. It was something that can never EVER be duplicated. The power and energy from the first ever Sock Summit is something that, I promise you, will be talked about for YEARS to come. Hats off to Tina, Stephanie & All of the ST-2 gals.

You girls rock my socks!

Monica! We know you REALLY mean agree (1)...