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!

Home Again, Home Again!

Ahhhh...to sleep in a warm, soft, comfy bed and have my feet up! To have the time to start my Queen of Beads!

These are finally started and I have reached the gusset!
I'm only beading the cuff...

We are back from a 3-day outdoor education that we helped chaperon. Lil' Emp's class went with the the other 3rd grade class to Point Reyes for a 3-day outdoor education. The facilities there are very nice, but let's face it-it was cabin camping!

As if I even had a desire to take a lukewarm shower in the freezing cold, I never really would have had the time to do it anyway! I was assigned to the Kitchen Crew and was kept pretty busy if not prepping, cooking or serving, then trying to be a participative parent in spending family time with Lil' Emp and SassyMan during the 'family' activities or looking after 'my girls' who were assigned to me since they were without parents. Love the girls, but waiting around for them to get ready meant I had little in between time.

I'm happy to report that I survived and am back home! I had very little knitting time at "camp", but managed to finish both hats for the teachers-one of them I had to rip back several times to get the right shaping of the top (it was too "coned" at first and after consulting with Nartian, decided it would be prudent to rip back and decrease every row vs. every-other...) WELL...I kinda had forgotten how many stitches I had and having finished a nearly-identical one for the other teacher, went into autopilot and went with the same stitch count. Bad idea, as one hat was fine decreasing every 6 stitches, while this other had needed to be decreased every 8! But I enjoyed showing one of the girls how to purl and decrease at the same time, so it was a worthwhile task.

No pics, as they are given away!

Before leaving on the trip, I stayed up late stringing my beads. I had wound the balls the night prior to discover 3 'sneaky' knots. I call them 'sneaky', as they consist of one ply, knotted, then spun with the second ply so that only one side is knotted. I cut where each knot was; hopefully the larger of the three balls of yarn will be enough for the one sock. And if I'm REALLY lucky, the second ball will also be enough for the other sock!

I've been lazy and recovering, but I will admit that Point Reyes is gorgeous...even in the Winter cold!

Clem Miller was our home for 3 days and 2 nights

And a very positive? It is now POURING down rain! We had a bit while on the trip, but luckily we missed the heavier rains.

On the first day, there was a small bit of rain; the kids had to hike down to the
Education Center since the bus was not allowed access all the way down

On Day 2, the kids hiked down to the beach, had lunch, flew kites and
made s'mores; the weather held out nicely for them that day!

And what would these pics be without knitting content?!
Handknit socks abound, as one of the dads on the trip promised
his wife (my bud, Knit One, Bling 2!) he would be wearing his handknit socks
while on the trip! So I photo-documented to keep him out of trouble!

And the same knitter had made socks for the teachers!
So of course, I had to show her that he wore his, too!

And to offer up my last knitting-related item: turns out that the women who direct the program are knitter! So they told me about a store in Petaluma that I will have to put on my list to visit!

Just think...all this--a little over an hours drive from San Francisco!A view Lil' Emp captured while on his hike

An Egret spotted on our way to set up lunch on the beach

Color Ponderance

Iwas playing a bit with my spinning the morning and realized how spinning serves a constant reminder to me that color is not finite. We think we see one color, but is it really? It can really be so many more colors that combine into one and we don't realize that there are other hues within.

Take for instance, the Pigeon Roof Studios roving I bought (in a moment of weakness) the other week:

I love this roving! I loved the flash of aqua and plum mixed with the gold, brown and dark chocolate against the natural background. But I never imagined that this...


Would end up looking like this...
The aqua/blue blended in with a very subtle showing. The plum probably wasn't heavily present in the small bit I spun, but there is little to no evidence of it ever being part of the beginning colors.


I guess this was kind of a 'blending colors' moment in my week, since I was also knitting a square to contribute for a blanket for Alison Hyde (ETA: Nartian told me about Nathania's post, I thought I'd participate in participating in contributing a block or two, Tina blogged about Alison...and after reading her blog, especially this entry, I confirmed she is exactly as wonderful as all say she is...not that I doubted...) I used the Spunky Ecclectic Route 66 together with the Miss Babs Waterfall to result in this...

Apparently, she likes blues. The Route 66, though yellowish/cream to the eye, blended quite nicely with the Waterfalls resulting in a square that reads pretty 'blue' for the most part.

And speaking of color blending and blues, I will now share with you my first Rockin' Sock Club colorway of 2009...



This is our first shipment that included a Syvia Harding beaded sock pattern, so it came with beads, too.

No, as Tina points out in her Dyer's Notes, this is NOT a semi-solid, nor is it a 'watercolor' colorway. It is MULTICOLORED. Some members in the past had incorrectly referred to past shipments as "semi-solids" and whined at how tired they were of getting all semi-solids from BMFA as club yarn.

Well, I guess I'm just one of her "rabbid fans" because I loved all of them! I didn't see the first four shipments as 'semi-soid' at all; Nartian, being the more cranial of us two (I'm the 'feely', she's the 'thinky' ;) ), was able to break it all down and make the observation and correctly classify them into Watercolors, Multi and Semi-solid on Ravelry, but some people just don't get it...But I think Tina tried her best to explain this particular colorway in this shipment's Dyer's Notes and pointed out there are FIVE different colors in this skein.

And it is so...


...I counted!

I'm a big-A-- Dork!

Nartian and I were discussing the new yarn colorway from BMFA Rockin' Sock Club: "Muddy Autumn Rainbow", and how much we LOVE it! We also were discussing the various comments we'd read about the new colorway and references to it looking just like our last colorway.

Well...she and I were going to take pics of our skeins together, only I forgot mine and she and I will be missing each other at work. She'll soon be casting-on, so a side-by-side won't be happening afterall...

But look what I found-and forgot I even placed in Flickr!...

It's my side-by-side pic of Muddy Autumn Rainbow AND Tidepooling! Sorry, Folks...I really cannot see how my newest addtion is the same as Tidepooling. Yes, both contain lovely Fall-ish colors that are much to my color tastes, but no, I do not see them to be the same! I only see two lovely skeins and were I to be faced with both at a BMFA sale, I would not have the ability to pass either up!

But here is my other lack of comprehension on the argument that our new colorway is very close to Tidepooling...Tina wrote in her Dyer's Notes that "no two will be the same" and that these are somewhat "Rare Gems" since her 'swooshing' of the red into the skein cannot be done the same on each skein. So...if no two skeins of this one colorway cannot be the same, how can this colorway even be the same as Tidepooling? And where is the red in Tidepooling? Tell me: who's on drugs?

Got me some lace!

Well, not exactly lace, but lace weight yarn! And at NO COST. In fact, I got back $1.78 in change! I made it over to Article Pract and found that they do, indeed, carry Cashwool. And I was able to find a beautiful cranberry red color. In addition, I was able to snag 2 cones of Habu in a gorgeous sage green color!

I loved the color of the Habu, but it is REALLY thin. I mean REALLY. THIN...Nartian suggested I swap out the BMFA Laci for the Habu; use the Habu for the SSiii since DK is using a fairly thin yarn for hers. I agree with that, so long as the Habu swatches up ok. It may drive me nuts to knit with in which case I can always carry it along with some other Habu for a lacey scarf or something if it doesn't work out. But I will swatch and see...

But for now, the results of the ssiii swatching:

Size 2 needles with Colonial Grey-lined crystal beads (I stupidly didn't realize I was supposed to add the beads as I went, so only ended up beading 2 of the 3 beaded rows...):
Then I realized I needed to go up a few sizes on the needles. I went up to a size 5 and tried out the Orchid-Lined crystal 6/0 beads:
I haven't completed this swatch, since I am now starting to swatch the green Habu so I can decide whether I need to switch this yarn out to use on the MS4. If not, I can use the Cashwool for the MS4 or (if I can find my other gift certificate for Article Pract) purchase this other lace yarn I found today--a gorgeous heathered greenish-teal color. It's on hold as I write! Keep your fingers crossed that I find that gift certificate!

Beads! Beads! More Beads! Cake!

I can't believe I FINALLY got the whole 1750 yards of Laci wound into a cake! And without the help of the Jumbo winder, since I had returned it and hadn't gotten around to borrowing it again! Nartian was right-go S L O W... And here it is!


I think alot of the driving force in finally getting this wound is that my beads arrived!

Above, Laci is shown with the three bead choices (left to right): Colonial Gray-lined Crystal, Orchid-lined Crystal, Gilt-lined Peach. Off the bat, I think a NO on the peach. The Silver-lined Rosaline is in the background and I think would be a lovely choice, except they didn't offer it in the 6/0 size. The ones in the background are supposed to be for the MS4 KAL and are size 8/0.

So now I REALLY have to swatch!

I think I need to show you some proof of knitting before I go on...I'm about to finish my Camp Crow's Feet segment and didn't want this to get lost in the camp pics! So I am now on one of the two sleeves for the baby sweater! I spent a good deal of today working on the RibbyPulli Scoop, only it was slow-going and I still have around 2" more to go on the body length...I have some guilt about not spending time picking up around the house, but Sassy Man was at work and Lil Emp with his grandparents-I was home alone and took advantage of the uninterrupted time! I still have guilt, but I'll get over it!

So by now, Camp Crow's Feet has been well-reported on in BlogLand. Stephen of HizKnits has a podcast up over at YKnit which I finally got around to listening to today (as I knit on the Ribby Pulli, of course!)

I had the most fun listening to Stephen's (hizKNITS) podcast (YKnit) on Camp Crows Feet! Entertaining but maybe more so for me, cuz I was there!

So the Last day of Camp...
Was one huge Stitch and Bitch, combined with Charity Knitting! We got to sit and visit with friends and knit away! Good thing, because we had so many projects we had started in our classes and so many things we wanted to be knitting and people (like Lisa) just kept on going with their monkeys! We were supposed to finish our sock puppets and monkeys for this evening's activities and well...do knitters ever run out of yarn or projects?

The Charity Knitting was the same type blankets we had started last year-oh!-which reminds me that I promised to email the start of it to a fellow camper/tribe member! Anyways, it was the blanket where four of us worked on it at a time, knitting on a square and growing it bigger and bigger. Two opposing ends would knit the mitered corners while the other two knit straight.


So it was all about knitting, visiting, chatting, playing, shopping, hanging monkeys from ears...

Edward (?) (WHOOPS! It's Ian! Duh, it's only got a name tag!) themonkey (who's dead inside) hangs from HotFlash's ear...

making anatomically correct monkeys...

Lisa's "Brokeback Monkey"-trust me, he really is anatomically correct...

putting final touches on our monkeys...

and did I say knitting?


and playing?...


So I finally look up after all our Charity Knitting and Stitching and Bitching and realize that...it was SNOWING! Realize, I am from San Francisco; we can access the snow, but we have to drive *to* it, and you don't necessarily hit the snow when it is actually snowing! YOWZA-it was awesome! Amazing! Enchanting! And such a weird thing to me to be at Camp Crow's Feet, on Orcas Island, in the Spring, while it was snowing! Besides, I think you all realize I kinda get easily amused...


And back up at my room...

...it continued to snow...!

The evening was our farewell banquet followed by: Cathy-Cate knitting while ballet dancing, Celia's yodel-singing, our sing-a-long to Stephen's adaption to 'Addicted to Love' (his version: Addicted to YARN, of course!),
and our puppet show follies! We had a big showing of monkeys, then pig-piled them up on Cockeyed.

It was a fablulous, rowdy event.You do all realize that Cat and Steph have quite a relationship...

And some photos from earlier...

I think it took IrishGirlie two days to realize that, yes, she really was at sock camp! All she could to was clap in glee that yes, she was at sock camp!
Me and the most-talented Lara-she's the one who made the beaded needle case! I got to meet her in person--I heart Lara! Lara...the one with the evil puppy... who made the monkey who's 'dead inside'...and who gifted me this awesome lace yarn in Motley Hue!

Stariel was in my tribe this year! (yeah, the pepperoni-knitting Stariel...)

The bartenders 2 who survived Camp Crow's Feet Campers!

My Monkey, Louis (Lou-ee), wearing his scarf tied in the 'oh-so-French' way...(Hey, I didn't know we'd have so much time to work on them, so I kept mine simple!)We all enjoyed a yummy buffet banquet-shrimp, crab, oysters, desserts--and each others' company...

Camp wouldn't be camp without the Sockateers: Etta Mae, Hotflash, Cockeyed and Tammy...

and reconnecting with old camp buddies from last year...

and making new friends at camp...

Cupcake Fairy and Elizabeth

And most fun of all was having my local knittng buds to share the experience with first-hand!Nartian, me and IrishGirlie

I must say that nothing is more heart-breaking than to get up reeeaaaally early to catch the first ferry...in the snow...
only to arrive as the ferry is departing! We had a good 3 hour wait for the next ferry!

The happy thing about this is that I got to say goodbye to some of my fellow Second Year campers!

KT, Lisa, Marti, and Sheila (she's the one who did the sound effects each year: crowing and monkey cries...)



And this, posted for Knitgolfer Marcy...(yours is the second from the left)

Knitters without Borders, Scaponia, mill end, Rare Gems-and no, this isn't all I got!And it didn't take long before Little Emperor had stripped Louis of his button hat and scarf! He was entertained for quite some time on the long car ride!