Sock Summit

For those of you who are new to my blog, I should explain that my passion is quilting, and my "take along hobby" is knitting. I take knitting on vacation and in the car. When I'm at home or work, I quilt whenever I can. My niece is visiting and she is a knitter. Meredith (niece), Karen (friend) and I spent a wonderful day filled with all things knitting last Saturday at the Sock Summit.

Last weekend, for 3 days, the first Sock Summit was held in Portland, OR. Knitters from all over the country were in hog heaven... or maybe "sheep" heaven. The world must be full of naked sheep, because there was a TON of wool there! The focus was socks, but there was much, much more. They had sweaters, hats, scarves, gloves and the world's largest sock (in progress). Vendors from all over the world had absolutely scrumptious yarns to drool over. The patterns were unique and creative. My head was spinning faster than the spinning wheels! The photo above was one of my favorite pieces. It was made from scraps of sock yarn. This is my new goal- to collect scraps of sock yarn to make one of these. I have 2 nieces who knit and they have both given me their sock yarn scraps to get started. It might take years- but I'll show you when I have something to show. I don't knit as much as I quilt, so it will take me a long time to collect this many scraps of sock weight yarn. Anyone out there have any sock yarn scraps that need a good home?


This just tickled me. It's a fish. It was hanging from the ceiling and I just had to share it with you.

And for those of you who have little dogs and dress them up, I just wanted to show you how people dress BIG dogs. We have a golden retriever, but he'd never sit still for this. He'd chew up the hat in 30 seconds flat.

If you want more information on the Sock Summit, they have a website. I have no idea where they are going to have the Sock Summit next year. This was the first one, and I don't know if it will stay in Portland or travel around. Selfishly, I'm hoping it stays here, but it would probably be best for the show if it traveled. I heard someone mention Toronto, but I have no idea if she knew what she was talking about. They had classes and panels of well known knitters and designers. I hope the show evolves and expands to include more classes (short ones as well as longer classes), more classes on things OTHER than socks, and more demos and displays (I didn't see much of that). They had great vendors and I loved talking to shop owners on the show floor. My experience is mostly with quilt shows. What I enjoy mostly about shows in seeing what's new and networking, although I know that the vendors need to sell product. The most successful shows are the ones that do a good job of blending both of these needs. The Sock Summit is off to a good start. I bought a lot of yarn and several patterns, and learned a lot from others who were there.

Can't wait for next year!