President's Day Weekend Sale!

Starting Friday, February 17 through Monday, February 20 the following patterns in my Ravelry shop are 20% off:  Newland, Dervish, Adrienne, Kristine, Slipstream, Ella's Tea Socks, Caitlin's Lace Anklet, and Oliver.

Enjoy!

1300.3 miles later

Sock Summit. What can I say. I had a fabulous time.

Last Monday, my dining room table was covered in sock patterns and knitted samples. Not just any patterns or samples; my designs with my new logo on the patterns. When I was finished putting all of the patterns in their sleeves, I had an almost filled bankers box. I also had my fingers crossed that the patterns would be well received.

On Tuesday Wonder Mike, Kathleen, and I met Kristine and Adrienne at the Verb studio to help pack up the van with the entire Verb store. We were on the road by 10:00 a.m . Kristine and Adrienne in the van. Michael, Kathleen and me in my diesel Jetta. We stopped in Ashland for a few hours to take a break. Of course, we went to Websters. I bought more sock needles as if I was going some place where such a thing wouldn't exist. We walked along the creek while drinking iced Stumptown coffee. Then we got back on the road to our destination--Eugene.

The next morning Kathleen drove Kristine and me to Portland. We arrived with time to spare before we had to unpack the van and set up the booth. We checked into our hotel and then met the call for coffee. Near the Oregon Convention Center Starbucks has a monopoly. So we had Starbucks.

Within about 6 hours, we unpacked the van and set up Verb Portland. The booth was right inside the front doors of the marketplace, which was awesome. Kristine and Adrienne did a bang up job of planning the set up--we had maps and everything! Once we were done with the set up, we draped the booth and left it looking like this.















Thursday I took a full day class with Cookie A. on sock design. It was really interesting to hear Cookie talk about her design process. The class was a perfect compliment to her book. After a few false starts, I left with a new design that I'm really loving.

Immediately after class, I went to work in the booth. Where I met a lot of people and talked about my patterns. The highlight of the evening for me was meeting Amy Singer of Knitty. Amy encouraged me to submit a pattern to Knitty. It was so awesome that I wanted to cry!

Friday morning I took a class with Star Athena. Star's class was also on sock design. It verged perfectly into what I learned in Cookie's class. Star and Cookie have very different approaches to design. My approach is somewhere in between the two. Later that day I got a chance to chat with Star and discovered we went to the same university. Ten years apart, but still. Star is a fine artist. Her hand drawn charts are works of art. Mine are an absolute mess by comparison.

Friday, Saturday and Sunday's marketplace a more than a bit of a blur. I worked the booth and talked to a lot of wonderful people about Verb's yarn and fiber. I answered quite a few questions about my sock designs.

I released three new patterns at SS09. Kristine, which uses a new base of 70% superwash merino and 30% silk called Metamorphosis. Kristine is a combination of cables and eyelets and has a regular shaped foot. Caitlin's Lace Anklet, which is a simple lace anklet and perfect for commuter knitting. Oliver, which was originally designed for the Men's Knitting Retreat Spring 2009. The guys attending the Fall retreat will also receive a copy of this pattern.

I didn't buy much at SS09. Two sets of Signature Needle Arts 6-inch double pointed needles in sizes I use most often, a bag from Queen Bee Creations, clogs, a lotion bar from Ildanach Limited, and a wee bit of fiber from Knitifacts.

Monday Kathleen, Michael and I drove back to the bay area. It is good to be home and sleeping in my own bed. That said, I wouldn't trade this experience for anything. Thank you Harlot, Tina and the ST-1 and ST-2 teams!

Socks and more socks

I've no excuses for not posting since May. The beginning of summer has flown by because I've been occupied with a few things: new sock designs, sock knitting, working my regular job, working at A Verb For Keeping Warm, getting to know Kristine's friend, Babu better, seeking test and sample knitters, and having a pattern tech edited.

Oh yeah, and getting ready for that little thing known as Sock Summit '09. I will be attending two classes, both on sock design. I will be working the Verb booth as well. Right now, I am working with Adrienne on putting a professional polish on my patterns and getting them printed for SS09. I'm really nervous and excited at the same time.

I will giving away copies of the Basic Shaped Arch Sock pattern to the first 50 people who buy a skein of AVFKW sock yarn.

The Men's Knitting Retreat 2009 sock pattern will also be available for purchase as a show special. It will then disappear for a short while and become available for purchase (through Ravelry as a download or in hard copy from AVFKW) September 1, which coincides with the Men's Fall Knitting Retreat.

Here is preview of patterns in the works:

This is called Caitlin's Lace Anklet. I knit this up using some sock yarn I dyed last year after taking a dyeing workshop with Scout.

Meet Kristine; knit out of a wonderful 70% merino 30% silk blend in a color called Patina. This is one of newest AVFKW yarns and it is yummy.

A great day

On Saturday, Kristine, Adrienne, Sara and Kathleen got together at my place for a "fiber prep" day. I had my combs set up, flicker and hand cards out. Kristine and Kathleen both brought drum carders. But before any fiber prep took place, we hopped into the car and drove over to San Francisco for the grand opening of Urban Fauna.

We arrived at Urban Fauna a few minutes before 10:00 a.m. The shop hadn't opened yet. There was a small line forming. Sara and Kathleen decided to stand in line. Kristine, Adrienne and I went to get coffee. We returned about 20 minutes later. The line to get in had transformed into the line to pay and it was long. Kristine and I squeezed our way into the shop for a look around. There is an impressive amount of stuff in that tiny space; and at the rate things were being snapped up, I wouldn't be surprised if they sold out of most things. In the meanwhile, Adrienne, Kathleen and Sara went to a Russian deli to pick up a few things for lunch.

This is part of the set up we returned to. Those are Wensleydale locks waiting to be hand combed. The fiber in the back of the drum carders is cormo I've been hand combing.

Kristine, Kathleen, Sara and I set to work. Kristine hand combing, Sara spinning and Kathleen and I knitting. Adrienne prepared lunch.

Kristine working the hand combs.

Kathleen knitting.

Adrienne working her magic with a knife.

The remains of a very yummy lunch.

A few hours later we sat down to a Spanish influenced meal of shrimp and mushroom tapas, chicken and artichoke paella, sangria and this wonderful natilla made from goat's milk from Bodega Goat Cheese that Adrienne had picked the day before at the Slow Food Nation event in San Francisco's Civic Center. The natilla has a flavor similar to caramel so we ate it with apple slices. We had ice cream as a second dessert. By the time we called it a day, it was 11:00 p.m. I can't wait to do it again!

Black Sheep Gathering 2008

What can I say except that I had a blast!