Off to Camp

I'm back from the Sock Summit and recovered (almost). It was a fabulous time and I didn't even mind the nearly 23 hrs to get home (honestly!). Or the broken tooth while I was there (seriously!). I overheard someone say it was the "Woodstock" of the knitting world. I could believe it. It was terrific to see all these very famous knitters walking around. The number of socks in progress was awesome and the sheer energy bubbling around the place was something to behold.

Plus I have never seen so many skeins of sock yarn in my whole life and cannot imagine having to choose!! How could you decide which ones to buy? There were a very large number of "indy" dyers with a stunning range of colours and just different approaches to producing the product. I wanted to buy them all. Happily I was in my booth behaving myself (mostly). I did buy a cool book for Deb but she's not gotten it yet so I can't tell you ... pssst, but it's by Barbara Walker. And here she is!

She's a teeny, tiny, slip of a lady and Julia, my roomie, had a class with her and said her intellect was awesome. I didn't realise that she actually invented the SSK! Wow. History in the making. How cool is that? (I borrowed this photograph from Stephanie's blog as I was so busy watching Barbara I didn't take a picture.)

I had dinner on Saturday night with Buffy & Don of Shelridge Farm, the Prime Minister of Patternfish (Julia) and Lucy Neatby amongst others. Lucy was in fine fettle and her hair was screaming as usual and we'll be working on another book together sometime in the next year, if she ever is home long enough to staple her to the computer to work on it. Here's Lucy in her neon pink and blue glory.

Buffy was kind enough on Sunday to introduce me to Cookie A (below). She has an amazing hand for socks and I recommend her book "Sock Innovation". She's a lovely woman and is coming to Orillia in the fall for a retreat just north of here.

Was that enough name dropping? I did also see Meg Swanson but there was such a crowd around her it was only a glimpse. Nancy Bush was her usual gracious self and I saw Stephanie Pearl-McPhee working like a Trojan all through the show. They deserve a big hand as it was a very, very well run show. Overall I think that this really was one of the major knitting events of the decade and rumour has it that there will be more. I've even heard, possibly, maybe ... there might be a Sock Summit 2011 in Toronto. Now that would be cool!

Now, Al and I are sneaking off work early (leaving poor Sophy to hold the fort) to join Deb & Paul up at the cottage. Yea!

-Lynda