Monday, April 16, 2007

Let's start at the beginning....

Well - it was a great vacation! I can't just post about Sock Camp, since Aaron did come along for the ride....



We arrived on the West coast on Sunday, and spent Monday trolling around Portland. Um. Powell's rocks. Although I know everyone already knew that. Anyway - we are walking along, looking for a place to have lunch, and we see this yarn store! Yippee! Since I knew I was going to be breaking my Bustalong vow anyway - I took a little trip inside. This is me with the owner (and the yarn that insisted it come home with me):


The store was Knit Knot and I was a very good girl, and only bought what I would classify as 'tourist yarn' - a skein of superwash merino from Tanglewood Fiber Creations. The roving was hand-painted and then hand spun! I think this is my first skein of hand spun yarn. It has been mentioning to me that it would like to be a pair of mittens.

I must mention that if you are even in the Pearl District of Portland - make it a point to eat at Andina. FABULOUS food.

OK. But THEN - Laurie picked me up, and we arrived on Tuesday night at Camp. The first day began with a bit more sock yarn purchasing:


Um. I lost a little bit of control. And that isn't ALL of it, I just got tired of unpacking. But can I tell you the beauty of this - most of it is MILL ENDS!!! Same yarn, maybe a few knots.... or dying that wasn't up to Tina's specs - but beautiful to me!!

Our first class was 'Stitch and Gossip', where we made some squares, and then, Cookie and Nathania showed us how 4 people could knit on the same blanket at once (kind of like a quilting bee):

It was pretty funny - and the blankets are going to charity. We didn't get all that far along with ours - but it was fun to learn something new!

My afternoon class was with Cat Bordhi - damn that woman is smart! I don't even have any pictures, as I was listening to her tell us all her wonderful knitting ideas. I learned a fun new way to make toe up socks. But more on that later....

Because now I need to show off my chicken!


I was SO proud of this chicken BEFORE I got to camp. Then I arrived and saw all of the other insanely complicated chickens that people had made.... and it became apparent that mine was more like a puffer fish and less like a chicken. The Harlot even named mine the "Chicken of the Sea". Go here to see a bunch of chicken close ups.

Ok - more info tomorrow - I need to unpack still!

8 comments:

said...

I loved your chicken! It was one of my favorites.

said...

I, too, loved the puffer chicken. She was lovely and so very different. It was fabulous meeting you and the other campers. You made campfire time more fun than I can say.

said...

Okay, I think your chicken is fabulous! :)

Now send me your snail mail addy, you won a knitting for Dulaan prize! Whoot whoot. Oh, and I'm totally jealous of your STR yarn. It is beyond lovely. And...duh...I'm so distracted lately...what did you knit your Klaralund out of? It's lovely!

said...

Okay, now my yarn looks dull next to yours! :-(

said...

The yarn looks marvelous and it's amazing four of you could knit at once on such a small project. You have to teach me the toe up sock method you learned.

said...

I liked your chicken too, especially the 'feathers' around its neck. Very clever! Glad you made it home safely.

said...

I love my puffer chicken! I had so much fun meeting you in person and spending time with you. I love how the little socks turned out for your niece!

said...

Thanks for pinning the blog! and for being a supporter of the arts! Isn't Elizabeth the greatest! I'm looking forward to seeing what you make with the yarn! I know it was Elizabeth's private stash! I'll be speaking at the TKG in August, see you then? Trish