Sock Summit - Just About Recovered

(Photo courtesy of Glenna C.)

That's me, chatting with Jess of Ravelry. Sitting beside me - a little obscured - is the lovely Cathryn Bothe of Signature Needle Arts. I was their demo bunny at the show. The Signature team - Cathryn, Laura and Danielle - were a joy to work with, and they made me feel so very welcome. I was honoured to be helping them out.

I spent the weekend doing three things - talking to knitters in the Signature booth, drinking coffee, and buying goodies. I hardly got any actual knitting done (Cathryn was entirely correct on this score), but I had a marvelous time anyway.

The people I met. Ann Budd. Cat Bordhi. Jess of Ravelry. Jeni C of the cast off (you'll know more about this soon). Judy of Judy's magic cast on. Judy Sumner. Amy Dentjen. Lucy Neatby. All lovely lovely people.

For those of you who weren't there: It was awful. Really. Had a dreadful time. Nothing good to buy. The pizza in the convention centre was oddly floppy.

Actually, that's really the only bad thing I can say about the entire weekend. Floppy pizza.

As to what I bought... I think I was pretty restrained.

On the yarn front:

All sock yarn, naturally.

The aforementioned Cake or Death.

A skein of Blue-Face Leicester from British Yarns. In a colourway called United.

A skein of Yak from Bijou Basin.

And a Zauberball. This is an odd duck - another single with nylon, like the Noro. Unsure how it will wear, but I love the long lengths of colour.

For tools, I bought this lovely antique darning egg. As much as a showpiece as anything - I just like the idea that there is a tool specifically to help you darn socks. And beside it, the Wanda (scroll down on the page). Very clever. A combo crochet hook cable needle thingy. I've been told these are genius for picking up garter stitch. I think it's an elegant solution for when I don't want to carry my big toolkit.

And the best $5 of the show - a Stitch Saver from 5elementknitr. A little (both in length and diameter) crochet hook on a keyring that attaches neatly to your project bag. I used it within an hour of buying it to pick up a dropped stitch. It hasn't left my side since.