Can it really have been a month ago?

Hard to believe that it has only been a month since Sock Summit! The past 4 weeks has felt like 4 months!

We returned from our family vacation the end of July with SassyMan not feeling well. A week later, he still didn't feel well and I worried: a) that he had a flu and I might catch it before SS09 or b) it was worst than a flu in which case that would not be good, either!

I loaded myself up with Emergen-C and Airborne and the following week headed on up to Sock Summit anyway, convinced he would be better when I returned.

Unfortunately, I learned he in fact hadn't been getting better-this after learning it would be an additional day before I could fly home due to a mishap with my flight reservations!

At any rate, here we are, weeks later-SassyMan having just gotten out of a nice 2 1/2 week hospital stay! All is better and here I am, ready to contine the SS09 reporting! But first, speaking of SassyMan and the hospital visit, here is the up side of hospital 'watch' (whereby you are not the hospitalized, but keep vigil by said 'hospitalized' side and thus are well enough and have the time to...KNIT!) The completed ULMUS that I, at one time, questioned whether I would ever finish one!

Ta-dah! A completed (albeit not blocked)
ULMUS! I used lightweight STR in Footsey Foo and Jabberwocky!

The rest of the hospital knitting was mostly the Cat Bordhi sock bookmarks, perfect little gifts for the docs and nurses!

So on to the Market and goodies!

Of course, there was YARN and LOTS of it...especially of the sock variety.
But there were also lots of fun sock-related, non-yarn items! I'm sad I missed the Dansko shoes, but here are some cute DPN protectors and stitch markers...


Jenkins Spindles...so many beautiful woods! And see the silk hankie they wrapped mine in?
Project bags, fibers, rubber stamps, shawl pins, darning eggs...
And the Travelocity Gnomes? Almost! Actually, these are Snicklefritz's traveling Gnomes adorning her booth!
Lantern Moon was well represented. Look how adorable the Lantern Moon Gals are with their Lantern Moon tatoos and raw silk (wait-maybe it was organza!) pants...

And some goodies for the hands! Lo-Lo Bars by BarMaids!
And look how cute "Painty" (Laura from The Unique Sheep) looked in her stockings knit from her "Gradience" dyed yarns! I got a chance to snatch up a Hobbiton sock kit and several mini-skeins of various sock yarns. I must say that the "Sushi Sock" feels wonderfully soft and smooshy, has beautiful sheen and was so nice to work with! I knit a mini-sweater out of it while in the ER...

I did have to snag up a bit of Curious Creek fiber from Carolina Homespun, too! I broke tradition and didn't buy a spindle from Carolina Homespun this time around, though I did get a couple of rubberstamps from them on top of this bit of fiber!


And as if the Jenkins Turkish spindle weren't enough, I fell in love with this one at Sanguine Gryphon's booth, some home it came wth me! The wood is beautiful, the spiral and lines are so elegant. It spins nicely, but in truth, the longer shaft means I have to wind on more frequently and end up bumping it on the ground often!
I have to say that the market was absolutely amazing! So many vendors, so many creative, wonderful indie dyers, so many clever notions and goodies to be had! I barely was able to get through the complete market, was absolutely overwhelmed and never really got to go back to many of the earlier booths I had skimmed in the beginning. I really am not good at markets because I am so detail oriented that I tend to get sucked into everything and anything!

It seemed like a lot of the vendors were really into the spirit of making it a fun, exciting event! Sanguine Gryphon's booth was gorgeous! Very Renaissance Fair-costumes, face painting and all! I'm sad I missed the Handknit Heros booth; I'd been interested in seeing their comic books and I understand they had Super Hero photos they were taking! I may have to knit a mask for Halloween so I can feel like a KnitHero anyway! There were so very many lovely yarns and items! Jennie the Potter had the ceramic mugs and jewelry. Speaking of jewelry, there were also recycled kniting needle jewelry and a vintage knitting supplies booth (hence, my darning egg purchases!)...And, of course, my most-revered Blue Moon Fiber Arts had a wonderful representation and I had the opportunity to snag up a skein of ST-1 and some mill ends for Nartian!

And then, of course, it was fun to see all the knit friends, too! Purls Beyond Price (Nathania) was there, since her store, Purlescence had a booth and was launching their new "Purl up and Dye" line of hand-dyed yarns. Her hubby and baby girl Ellie arrived for the weekend, too!
I think I will have to cover the Ravelry party in another post. Sadly, I have nothing to report about the Sock Hop, since I didn't attend. I heard there were hoola-hoops, poodle skirts and Pink Ladies. As for me, I spent the time with a good friend eating out in Portland and scouting out VooDoo Donuts! Made some new friends, too! What more could I want for that evening? It was perfect for me!

I even found the perfect donut to bring back to Lil' Emp who had asked if I thought they would have a "*really* chocolatey one"? I forget the name of this one, but it is a chocolate cake donut with chocolate icing and cocoa puffs on top!