Pictures and words and stuff

So I've been home from Sock Summit 2011 for almost 2 weeks, and I've been trying to distill the whole experience into a coherent post or two.

Not happening!

Instead, here are some of the more representative pics I took. You'll have to use your imagination to fill it all in. I promise you, it was even geekier than it looks, and at least twice as awesome as you could possibly imagine. 

I can hardly wait till 2013!

The Party's Over

On a north-bound train, about 3 hours out of Portland...with far too much stuff to manage gracefully getting to the train station. I was actually quite restrained with the yarn purchases (though not necessarily with other "infrastructure" - needles, project bags, etc!) However, the big box of Voodoo Doughnuts may have been overkill - rather a bitch to juggle with all my luggage! Glad to be going home; I'm tired, and ready for my own bed. It's been a crazy few days! I can't wait to see the pics - I still haven't figured out the photo software on my netbook, so looking at the pics will have to wait till tomorrow at home.

It was odd - somehow this Sock Summit was less "Exciting" - it didn't have all the shiny newness of the last (first!) Gathering of the Tribe two years ago. Yet, somehow it was also more satisfying - I had a better idea of how to pace myself, and took a lot of time to just hang, visit with people, and explore Portland a little more. And I had a chance to connect with folks who I'd met last time around, some of whom have become good friends in the meantime. Of course, there were also ample opportunities to meet new people, and to put real faces and voices to internet names. And because I was a little more oriented this time around, I got a lot more out of the classes I took and the brains I got to pick!

I had a funny moment in the taxi after the Sock Hop on Saturday. The driver was making small talk, as they do, and he asked if I was in town for a conference. "Yep. It's a sock knitting convention."

His head actually tilted sideways. "What?"

"A sock knitting conference."

Head tilted the other way. "What?!"

"It's called Sock Summit. It's the second one that's been held here."

"So you....get together and knit socks? Do you talk about knitting socks?"

"Yep! There are a few thousand people here, from all over the world."

"Do you...like...take classes and stuff?"

"Oh, yeah! I've had some great classes!" So I told him about the photography class and the ergonomics class, and the Sock Hop, and getting together with friends from the opposite side of the continent, and the trip down on the train, and how much I enjoy Portland....And by the time we got to the hotel, he was sold on the idea. "That's pretty neat!" he said, more than once.

As I was getting out of the taxi, I couldn't resist adding, in my chipper-est voice: "And on Sunday, there will be sheep!"

Poor guy did an epic headtilt. I hope he didn't injure himself! And I sure hope he saw the full-page spread in today's Oregonian.

Saturday Sundries

No classes until this evening, so I've had a few hours to do some Portland exploring. Wandered the Saturday Market for an hour or so with a couple of the roomies, finished off with a lovely fresh-squeezed limeade, and then a Vietnamese iced coffee. We all scattered on our separate ways, and I trekked up to Powells books. I was shockingly restrained, and thus Mr.Q will not find himself fielding an angry call from our landlord about an NSF rent cheque.

Yet.

After the bookstore, I sat under an awning and savoured a fabulous Italian custard gelato, while listening to a 14-year-old violinist busking across the street. A perfect summer afternoon!

Off to the Convention Center shortly, for a secret...then a lecture, then a birthday celebration for GlennaC at a restaurant blessedly close to our hotel. (I have a feeling we won't be taking transit back! And I'm pretty sure i won't regret (much) the lack of a knitting light.)

(Or will I?)

Operation Awesome Sox

So I have some fun pics to share...but I'm using my wee netbook, and I haven't tried to upload photos from my camera to it before, and I don't understand the program it uses, so the pics are HUGE. So. Y'all may have to wait till I get home, where I know how to resize them! (I'm sure it's quite simple, but frankly, I don't have time for technical futzery just now! There are classes to take, and knitters to knit with, and Portland to hang out!) There were even vendors who accepted Canadian Tire money!

Day 1 was, unsurprisingly, awesome! I took a class on "Photographing Your Fiber" from Franklin Habit (who was wearing a utili-kilt. He was even cooler in person than I had expected!). There was a mother ship full of knitters, disguised as a convention center - and more of us than the IT conference around the corner, which kind of freaked them out. There was tasty food (a waffle "taco" folded around sausage patties with maple cream...OMFG!), great company, friends discovering the magic of Sock Summit for the first time, and reunions with veteran pals. There was Hipster-spotting Bingo (yarnpiggy won!) and freaking out the poor guy in the hotel elevator, when 4 of us wandered up to another knitter's room...in our PJs and slippers, with bottles of beer and boxes of crackers. Poor guy.

Right! Off to breakfast, then coffee, then a class on ergonomics for knitters, then...the world!

Because really, I am 12

Sign on the train, which amused me far more than it should have.

Apparently, sleep deprivation & yarn fumes bring out my inner twelve-year-old boy!

I'm on a train

Commence the live blogging! I have had very little sleep, only one cup of coffee, a banana inhaled at the entrance to customs (can't bring fruit across the border!), and rather a little confusion trying to figure out TECHNOLOGY at the butt-crack of dawn.

Release the hounds!

Our car is already half-full of knitters. I think the customs agents were a little shell-shocked. I just hope we don't get kicked off the train!

Going a-viking

Normally, on a Sunday morning, Mr.Q will take the grocery bags (or the wheeled cart, depending on the week's list) up to the neighbourhood, to do the grocery shopping. It's a task he took on some time ago, and one I was more than happy to surrender! He likes the solitary walk, and we both like me not having to deal with crowded shops. So, it's a win-win! Sometimes, he'll come home with a bit of a surprise - a case lot of mushroom soup, or an experimental brand of peanut butter, because they were on sale. (I was a bit shocked the day he came home with 3 big bottles of dish detergent; but delighted last week when I thought we'd run out, but lo! there was another bottle under the sink!)

On the occasional weekend, though, I'll join him, as I did today. I was on the hunt for some last-minute necessaries for Sock Summit (three more sleeps!) and didn't really think Mr.Q needed to be the one looking for neon nail polish or blue eyeshadow. So, off we went, and had a lovely walk in the sun. We got up to the neighbourhood, and after accomplishing a few of our joint errands, we separated for a bit: me, into the dollar store, looking for a cosmetics bag to hold my knitting needles; him, to the butcher shop for some lunch meat.

When we met up on the sidewalk after about 15 minutes, he had quite the swagger on him, and he was positively smirking. Of course, I had to ask.

Apparently the woman at the butcher shop did a double take when he walked in. "I know you from somewhere," she insisted. Not a gig (the obvious scenario)...."I know! I've seen you on Ravelry!"

"But I'm not a knitter!" 

"No, really, I've seen pictures of you on Ravelry, modelling hats and sweaters and stuff!"

"Oh! That would be my wife's knitting!" He was quite proud, both because he was recognized, and that it was because of my yarny habits.

How randomly awesome is that?!  The Viking is famous! (Or, well, infamous...but we were both pretty tickled by the whole thing!)