Sock Summit: Saturday wows

Saturday at Sock Summit. I knew this would be a long day for me. Six hours of Dancing with Socks with Cat Bordhi, plus the Ravelry party tonight.

Cat Bordhi’s class was a huge winner. She’s a great teacher. She walked us through her short row heel turn method, Judy’s Magic Cast On, a Bosnian garter stitch toe, a formula for a perfect fitting sock from the toe up, and how to turn all of that upside down for a cuff down sock. Along the way, she also taught us a cure for the wobbly SSK line of decreases, and a better way to finish off the yarn tail at the end of a project.

Here are the sample socks I worked on during class. The one on the right is a Coriolis. It was easier than I expected it to be! Note the garter stitch toe. The sock on the left is following her Upstream architecture.

Isn’t this yarn cool? It’s Bullfrogs and Butterflies from Lorna’s Laces, and the colorway is called Cat Bordhi Ah-ha. The short color runs make it easy to see what’s going on with the stitches from row to row. I didn’t have this yarn, but before class Elizabeth announced that she had bought some, had it wound into two balls, and someone was welcome to try the second ball. I did, and I loved it. Thank you, Elizabeth!

Oh, we also learned a stretchy new bind-off. It’s called Jenny’s Surprisingly Stretchy Bind-off (JSSBO) by Jennifer Staimann, and it’s great. I can’t tell you more, because we’re sworn to secrecy. It will be in the next issue of Knitty. Keep your eyes peeled for this winner!

I sat next to Melinda (gldelx on Ravelry) during class. I didn’t realize it was gldelx until we swapped some stitch markers, and she gave me a card with her Ravelry name on it. She’s local here, too.

During lunch I met Kathy Elkins (on the left) from Webs. It was nice to meet her in person; we follow each other on Twitter.

The Ravelry party this evening was great. We all got swag bags with cool stuff in them. I’ll post an inventory and picture after I get a daylight shot. I hung out with old and new friends, including Sam and Kathy (I thought I had a picture with Kathy, but it’s not in the camera).

And GlennaC and Chrissy Gardiner (of the wonderful Toe-Up sock book).

Check out Glenna’s cool knee socks.

Deb interviewed Jess for the At the Kitchen Table podcast.

And I met Jess (frecklegirl on Ravelry); and got to pose with her and the Bob finger puppet! Note our Ishbels.

Bobbie, Leila, and Tami are trying to get me to spin. I’ve been successfully resistant. Then Leila pulled out the Turkish spindle, and showed me how it makes a center pull ball of yarn when you’re done. Uh-oh…

And I love this Dianna shawl that Kristin was wearing.

Lantern Moon was one of the cashmere sponsors. Thanks for a great party! Here’s Sharon, Joel, Sally, Sarah, and Jess.

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