Sock Summit Day One

Yep.  I’m still a weaver.  But a weaver who wants to know how to knit truly fine socks.

Today I took a class from the ever-inventive Cat Bordhi about her new sock architectures.  You know, the ones that can put the arch increases pretty much anywhere on the foot.  I’d bought her book, NEW PATHWAYS IN SOCKS, when it first came out, marveled at the beautiful designs, and then hit a wall when it came to knit from the instructions.  Some things you just have to see how the hand moves and be there to ask the questions.  I did that today and knit two of the new architectures: Upstream and Coriolis.  Fun stuff.

Like many good teachers, Cat throws out additional asides as she goes.  Teaching you how to knit a better Continental purl stitch, a smoother SSK, and one super-secret technique that she swore us all to secrecy about.

After the class, the marketplace opened up.  Wowsa.  It’s huge.  Bigger than Convergence was in Tampa.  And there are no looms filling up space.  Let’s just say there is a lot of yarn here in Portland.  I saw some familiar faces: Webs, Bluster Bay Woodworks, Jenkins Woodworking, and a whole host of others.  Frankly, after filling up my brain this morning and afternoon with new sock possibilities, I was too tired to shop, and so headed off to my hotel room to edit this week’s article.

Pictures tomorrow.  My camera is packed away and my roommate’s asleep and I don’t want to wake her.

Please share your thoughts: I enjoy your comments and feedback!