Sock Summit 2011

In a word: AWESOME. Sold scads of yarn, saw old friends, made some new ones, ate great food, drank great beer, and was surrounded by color and fiber and lovely people.

A few photos of the booth I was sharing with my friend Diane of BugSnugger. I had been playing with my white balance in my photography class earlier and forgot to reset it, and there's only so much photo editing can do, unfortunately. Well, a picture mumbles a thousand words.

My side of the booth:



Diane's side:



I did a demo on how to knit with silk hankies. I'd been wondering if I could really talk for 45 minutes about it, especially once I looked at my notes that I wrote up a month ago, and discovered that I'd only jotted down four bullet points. But it went pretty well, I think--I had samples for everyone and people seemed to have fun playing with them.

There were three things I really wanted from SS, and I got them all: a Queen Bee Creations Truckette (the design is called Wisp), a Jenkins spindle (I got a Swan in a beautifully grained, walnut-brown mora wood), and a row-counting stitch marker, which I haven't found in my luggage yet. I also picked up some more Lo-Lo bars, which were first recommended to me by a 13-year-old boy at Black Sheep Gathering. If a prepubescent boy gushes about a moisturizer, you know it's got to be good.



And no trip to Portland is complete without visiting Powell's. While dyeing this summer, I've been rereading the Aubrey-Maturin series, this time as MP3s read by my audiobook boyfriend Simon Vance. So I picked up a copy of Cochrane: The Life and Exploits of a Fighting Captain, the real-life inspiration for Aubrey.

And because it just seemed so appropriate for Sock Summit weekend, I had to get a copy of Yarn. A man must locate a highly illegal and psychedelic yarn and make a coat out of it in one day. Having been surrounded by yarn junkies for four days straight at that point, there was really nothing I could do except buy it.



I took three classes at SS. The first, Photographing Your Fiber, would have been really useful about five years ago, when I was blundering my way through self-taught product photography. Still, I picked up several great tips, and the instructor, Franklin Habit, seemed to be a really interesting and pleasant person in addition to being funny (which I already suspected from his blog).

The second class was a one-hour wonder on natural dyeing with Kristine Vejar, the extremely talented dyer behind A Verb for Keeping Warm. It was a little peek into an endlessly fascinating world, but I'm a little afraid to go down that path for fear that I'll never come back out. And I have so much more appreciation for the challenges of production dyeing with natural dyestuffs.

The third class was a lecture by Judith MacKenzie on how to choose a fleece for sock yarn. It was the second time that I'd heard her speak, and she is just such an amazing source of knowledge. I admit that the content on the title topic was a little self-evident: choose a wool that will hold up to abrasion, and that has a lot of crimp. But she just knows so much, and I'm glad I had my netbook along for notetaking.

Sock Summit on the horizon

I leave for Sock Summit two weeks from today. I'm pretty sure that scientists didn't have SS in mind when they came up with the term "event horizon," but it fits. I have crossed the point of no return, and am now being sucked inexorably into the black hole of prep.

At the same time, I've been trying to not repeat the summer of 2009, where I spent every waking and half-waking moment dyeing for SS, and I felt like I missed out on a lot of the summer. My child is only getting older and at some point soon, he's going to have zero interest in spending time with old mom and dad. So when I scheduled him for camps and so forth this summer, I skipped this week and last in order to take him to daily swim lessons instead. We've hiked almost every day, seen friends, and spent lots of time reading in the sun. Dyeing at night is harder, both because of motivation and because I see the colors a lot better in natural light, but I'm glad I did it. And I don't feel guilty for also feeling glad that he's in camp for the next two weeks.

Tour de Fleece is also on, and my good intentions of spinning both on my spindle and my bicycle every day are out the window. But spindling is something that I can do at midnight, whereas cycling is somewhat less convenient at that hour, so at least I've been making a little progress on that front. I'm working with some undyed CVM and I'm feeling pretty pleased with how I'm improving, even though my joins are slubby monstrosities. It will come with time and practice, I know.

belated but heartfelt gratitude

I'd thought this would be the first SS09 post I would write, but to my chagrin it's not. I hope my friends know how much I appreciate them.

I couldn't have gotten to Sock Summit without the help of my friends, who understood how important it was to me to "go big or go home," as Tina and Stephanie described it during the SS opening reception. (Wish I'd gone, in hindsight; it sounded like a pretty amazing event.)

Many, many thanks to Treva and Anne, who offered to watch my kiddo all day on several occasions so that I could dye yarn. It made such a huge difference to have that uninterrupted time.

And much gratitude to friend Nicolette, a weaver who used to do the craft show circuit, and who fully understands the effort it takes to make a career (or even a serious side business) out of handcrafting. She reskeined countless messy hanks of yarn, and labeled yarn for hours.

Love to Bridgett, who knitted my samples for me. She went above and beyond the call of duty to find patterns and knit socks that showed my yarn to its best advantage.

Thanks to my child, who loyally insisted that all my yarn was beautiful even when I thought it (and I) was a horrible failure.

I am so appreciative of my friends on the HC forums, who were cheerleaders from the beginning. And particular thanks to Denise, Diane, and Kimberly, who shared dyeing know-how and commiseration, and to Erika (on HC) and Erika (off HC) who encouraged me every step of the way.

The biggest THANK YOU goes to my husband, who whisked kiddo away for a long weekend so that I had four days of nonstop dyeing (I did about a quarter of my total skeins then), never complained about not seeing me for six nights out of seven, patiently wound yarn off cones, labeled yarn, and did far more than his fair share of housework and child rearing. No way could I have done Sock Summit without him. I've always known that marrying him was a pretty smart move, but every year I discover new reasons why it was a darned good idea.

Sock Summit highlights

I had a hard time adjusting to normal life after Sock Summit. There was a sense of unreality about the whole experience--I'd spent so many months thinking about it, working towards it, wondering how it would be, and then suddenly I was there and living it. And then it was over.

I've never been to anything like it. I think the experience was crystallized in the moment before the marketplace opened. Debbi (one of the organizers) was counting down the minutes. I think she announced there were 10 seconds before the doors opened, and all of us vendors screamed from the tension and exhilaration. This must be how Olympic athletes feel as the starting gun goes off--all that hard work and passion and striving, all leading to that single moment.

Then we heard an answering cry from the shoppers, as the doors opened and everyone surged in. It was absolutely amazing. I still get shivers up my spine, remembering it.

Thursday was perhaps the best day of the summit, just because you could feel the happiness and excitement in the air. Everyone was giddy. The joy was palpable. The closest thing that I've experienced was my wedding day, when guests started arriving. Friends from every different chapter in my life came, most from hundreds of miles away, just to celebrate with Michael and me. Sock Summit was like that, only the joy was more impersonal--which, in a way, made it more incredible. I had no connection with most of the people, yet I could feel how happy we were to see one another.

And the people that I did have a previous connection with--wow. I met people that I had known online for years, and it was like we had been friends forever. Especially Diane--I loved meeting her at last. And I really lucked out on my roommates, both of whom I liked immensely.

I originally named my Limitless colorway (one of my Dye for Glory entries) in part because I felt like my sense of possibilities had expanded enormously during prep for SS09. I left it out of my description on Ravelry because it felt sort of hokey to say, but now that I've actually been, and felt my horizons as a knitter, dyer, designer open up, I think I couldn't have picked a better name.

the not-Sock Summit post

I need to write a SS09 post, but I want to download my photos first. In the meantime, my husband asked me tonight if I wanted to go to "that fiber thing down south," meaning OFFF, which I went to last year as a spectator. I said no, because after the stress of Sock Summit prep, during which he had to do far more than his fair share of housework and childrearing, I didn't think he would want me to. He said that if the yarn was mostly dyed up, he didn't see why I wouldn't want to go.

So now I'm tempted. I could work on the saturated semi-solid colorways that I started developing in my head over the weekend, and order a couple of other fingering and lace yarns that I've had my eye on. Sport and worsted didn't sell very well at SS09, so I've got a good foundation in those. I need to figure out how much time my other fall commitments are going to take me ... but I'm very tempted. I haven't even done a full post-mortem of my inventory, so I wonder just how crazy this idea might be.

While I was making reservations for Pok Pok, I absent-mindedly gave them my home number. So they called Michael to confirm my reservation for 18. He was telling a friend of ours, who said, "Well, at least it's not a reservation for two."

Sock Summit: move-in day

Didn't leave town quite as early as I hoped, but after managing to hit rush hour in Seattle, Tacoma, and Olympia (Oly has a rush hour now? Who knew?), I pulled into PDX around 7:45. I have little wire cubes and man, they take a while to put together. Now I sort of wish I didn't have a class tomorrow morning, because the booth isn't even close to being put together, and I'm anxious. But I still have all afternoon, and Andrea and her husband will be working on it in the morning. I shouldn't fret, but I probably still will.

I can't believe I'm here! After so many months of excitement and preparation, it's finally happening. When I was hauling my stuff in, I was so distracted by all the wonderful yarn that I could barely steer my cart straight. I just wanted to shop. All this beauty, under a single roof. It's just incredible. Photos tomorrow; I was too hot and tired to take any tonight.

ending the vow of stash chastity

After eight months of noble sacrifice and self-restraint, I am ready to shop. I already have this lovely skein by Happy Hands Yarn waiting for me:



And I'll be participating in the Buffalo Gold stimulus package: bring in a skein of yarn for donating to a group of knitters in Bhutan, and get $20 off a skein of bison down. I'm so curious about what it's like - fell in love with some patterns in Luxury Yarn One-Skein Wonders that feature this yarn (though a different weight).

I don't want to post about the other ones that I desperately want, because I haven't pre-ordered them (I should PM the vendor and see if just maybe I could get some set aside). Selfish and underhanded of me, I know.

On the non-yarn front, I also pre-ordered a copy of Chrissy Gardiner's book on toe-up sock design.

why my spin dryer is bad for me

I leave for PDX in a little over 24 hours, and yet I'm still dyeing yarn. Why? Because I know it will be dry before I leave. Modern technology only encourages that "just one more bite" mentality.

I'm not ready to go, yet I feel strangely that things are all under control. Mostly I'm excited to get there and see how my yarn does. I ought to be waking up from screaming nightmares where my shelves are fully stocked while all the vendors around me have nothing left ... but I don't. Glad to know that my subconscious isn't worrying.

six days left

Six days left till I leave for Portland, and I still have so much to do. For a while I was thinking that I didn't have enough yarn left to dye, but now I have too much. My official last dyeing day was yesterday, but I'm going to have to figure out a way to squeeze in some more skeins. Whimper.

pre-orders for Winesap now available

I decided to do some limited pre-orders for my Winesap colorway for pickup at the Sock Summit (I'm in booth #324), plus pre-orders for September delivery. Info is posted in my store:

http://huckleberryknits.com

when 2 a.m. starts feeling like an early bedtime

... you know you have a problem. I can turn off the dyepot in 10 minutes and go to bed, and it's going to feel pretty darn good. I still have to go to work tomorrow. Ugh.

I'm in the homestretch now--the last week of dyeing before Sock Summit. July 30 will be my last dyeing day, and then it's on to labeling and other prep. For my day job, I have a Rubbermaid tote that I call my event box, with all the possible supplies that I might need for a public meeting. I wanted to start putting together my event box for Sock Summit starting in April, and I did pull together a list, but I don't have the actual box yet. All the boxes I was planning to use are full of yarn.

The Dye for Glory contest has started on Ravelry. I have two entries. Of course, I got a bunch of ideas for colorways the day that entries closed ... oh well. I'll jot them down and pursue them after Sock Summit.

My entry in the handpainted category, Winesap (another of my apple-themed colorways). Lots of different shades of green, with burgundy and rose, anchored by warm brown:



And this is my shaded solid entry, Limitless, based on my favorite shade of blue--the color of the evening sky just after the sun drops below the horizon, when the blue seems like it goes on forever:

a forced break

I've had these itchy patches on two of my fingers for several days. I chalked it up to oddly located mosquito bites, since I've been bitten a lot lately.

This morning I woke up with blisters on the patches. Dr. Google says that it's likely irritant contact dermatitis. I threw out my dyeing gloves, will pick up some disposable latex-free ones just in case I'm developing a latex allergy, and I'm planning to take a couple of days off from handpainting.

This is just rotten timing in a lot of ways, of course. Sock Summit is three weeks away, and just last night I developed two colorways that I really like and I'd sure like to dye more of. I have non-handpainting stuff I can do, like revising my logo, getting collateral printed up, skeining yarn off cones, reskeining ... but jeez. I have Wed and Thu lined up for all-day dyeing, so I really need to be fully operational by then.

I'm also panicking a little bit that I don't have enough yarn to dye. It feels hard to believe, given all the boxes strewn about the house, but unless I'm totally forgetting about something, I am getting down to the bottom of my stash. Three base yarns that I was expecting to use are either out of stock or still in development, so that's part of the problem. Oh well, I can only do what I can do at this point. It's still going to be fun and a great experience. Right?

Sock Summit, what else?

I have been living and breathing Sock Summit for the last few weeks. I didn't think I'd be able to take any three-hour classes since I'd have to mind my store. So I wasn't really paying much attention to that, until I had a Revelation of the Blindingly Obvious the day before registration opened, and realized that I wasn't going to be chained to my booth until late Thursday afternoon, so I *could* take at least one class. Then I got excited, joined the F5 feeding frenzy, and got into a sock design class for the morning, plus a 1-hour ergonomics class, which my poor neck and shoulder are ever so grateful for.

There's the dyeing, too, of course. I've gotten into my groove and am busily dyeing away. I'm at the beginning of a four-day dyeing marathon--more about that in a future post.

And last but not least, there's my inner shopper, who has been faithful to a vow of stash chastity for six months now but is showing signs of cracking. The vendor booth numbers got released today, and my inner shopper seized control, printed out the marketplace map, and is matching up must-see vendors with their booths, happily highlighting away.

getting organized

Sock Summit is exactly two months away, and I'm still dyeing in a rather desultory fashion. My goal for the last three weeks had been to dye 60 skeins a week and, um, I have 57. Total. From three weeks of dyeing. Eeep.

To get myself focused, tonight I've been filling in my inventory spreadsheet with the number of skeins I want to dye per colorway, per base yarn. I already feel more motivated. It's funny how either I need total freedom to dye whatever I feel like, or a very specific game plan. I can't do the in-between, which was to make a list of colorways that I wanted to bring.

My family is going away for a four-day weekend without me, and I'm taking a week off from my day job next month, so I'm expecting/hoping to get caught up then.

Oh, and did I mention how excited I am just to be at Sock Summit? I got into two classes, I'm setting up a group trip to Pok Pok (which I'm looking forward to as much as the classes), and I am going to get to meet a bunch of people that I only have met online, so far. No matter how the booth does, I am going to have so much fun!

dyepot--you're in timeout!

First batch of colorways went well today, second batch did not. Argh. As my stressbuster, I'm going to sit outside and try out my new Hiya Hiya circulars on Delphine, before I have to scurry into work. Am using my sport weight organic merino dyed in Huckleberry, which is so nice to knit. Smooth and silky. That should put me in a better mood.

Preparing for Sock Summit is a marathon, but as Thursday is my main dyeing day, it always feels like a frantic sprint. I probably need to pace myself better during the week so that I'm not so stressed out on Thursday.

Sock Summit vendor list is up!

And I'm on it! There are quite a few vendors whose work I'd love to see, having admired their yarns from afar. This is going to be so much fun!

http://www.socksummit.com/vendors

I'm in the homestretch of my current wholesale order (which I am dropping off on Tuesday) and as soon as I'm finished, it's on to Sock Summit dyeing. I had been thinking anyway that I was going to bring non-sock yarns, and after having seen future shoppers comment that they were saving up their annual yarn budgets to blow at the Summit on all types of yarn, I definitely think this is the way to go.

store news

I have dyed a lot of yarn (for me) in the last two weeks. 60 skeins, I think? The biggest single batch was the most recent Apple Yarns order, part 1. This is McIntosh, an exclusive colorway for them:



A closeup:



Also, some yarns that are going live tomorrow, including these:





And a lot more that are for my current group order. Yet, surprisingly, I am not completely exhausted and/or insane. Maybe putting together 600-1000 skeins for Sock Summit won't be as impossible as I thought?

Except maybe for the cash flow thing. I realized today that I am going to have to front a lot of money for the inventory. I know this is totally obvious, but I had been so focused on the cost of the booth, lodging, display materials, etc. and the time it was going to take to dye everything that it didn't even occur to me how much the base yarn was going to cost. Um, duh. Most of my capital is tied up in worsted, aran, and bulky undyed yarns. So I will need to do a huge flurry of non-sock dyeing after the LYS Tour madness has subsided, in order to raise funds to buy sock weight base yarns. My timeframe for dyeing has just gotten even shorter. Eeeek.

jumping in with both feet

Okay. I think I'm going to do a booth at Sock Summit, after all. I'm 90% sure at this point. I started jotting down a to-do and supplies/equipment list. I think the main things are:

1. Handling in-person transactions. My main concern is setting up credit card processing. I'm looking at three options, Costco's program with Elavon, ProPay, and PayPal's virtual terminal. Leaning towards Elavon, as they appear to have the lowest per-transaction fees, but I need to talk to a live person about some of the details. My credit union also offers card processing services, and they always have the best rates on everything; I should check with them, too.

2. Choosing base yarns and colorways to bring. I want to bring two new bases online, a superwash sport and a wool/nylon fingering. I've identified the superwash sport but am still considering the new fingering. Of course, I've got all these other undyed yarns sitting here, hogging up all the extra space in my house, which I will not be able to dye anytime soon. (This should be my final cure for the impulse buying of random base yarns.) I need to get my supply lines better organized. I feel like Napoleon's quartermaster, trying to figure out these logistics.

3. Getting a banner, tweaking my labels, and ordering collateral like business cards and notepads. These all involve deciding if I want to alter my logo at all. I'm somewhat dissatisfied with the font but need to look at fonts.com and my font books to see if I can find anything else that I like better.

4. Getting samples. A lovely friend has agreed to knit samples for me, but I need to finalize colorways and base yarns so that I can get her everything in time. See #2 above.

The list goes on and on. But now it's time for #5: Get enough sleep so that I'm not a crazed short-tempered grouch in the morning.