Something Old....

Now that I'm all mittened out, Ive discovered that I am apparently in a "finishing" mood - I've found myself picking up old projects, knitting away...of course, it helps that there isn't a mitten amongst the projects :) While some of the projects might take a while to finish (never ending miter squares and delicate lace stole), these, at least, seemed to fly right off the needles.



More photos here.

Turning Right Round...

Look! Knitting Content! I turned the heel on these wonderful socks, designed by Blogless Erika. I love the way the little scales are incorporated right into the gusset. Unfortunately, it looks like I might need to rip back to the heel turn and work out some pattern modifications for myself - I appear to always have this issue (baggy ankle syndrome) with socks with lovely non-ribbed patterning around the ankle. Apparently it has something to do with the shapeliness of my leg - or that's what I'm sticking to ;) I have flat, somewhat wide feet, quite large calves (as was evidenced in with my Kilt Hose) and dainty ankles :P I had hoped that the scale pattern would help draw the sock in more, but it didn't do it enough, and as soon as I got into the lace pattern, I realized that pattern modifications were going to be required.

Ah well. I guess these are in a temporary time out while I try to figure out a solution. Anyone have any suggestions?

Trippy.

Well, I'm back from TNNA, and what an experience it was - 2.5 days of networking and yarn - my brain was about ready to explode on Sunday when I left, and the market still had another full day to go!

First, lets have a look at the traveling sock, shall we? I opted to cast on for Pure Cricosaura, a lovely pattern by my blogless friend Erika (originally designed for a Yarntini Sock Club).

Here you can catch the detailed shot of the stitches - it's working up very nicely. Of course, it's one of my own yarns (Sidhe, limited edition colorway, if you are wondering) on US1s. At this point, I have this much sock done, and I'm about ready to head into the gussets :) Not bad for a few days of knitting.

Anyhow, back to the trip report, right? Things started out fairly normally on Friday, which was pretty much a networking and planning day - I met Kris and Jessica and several other retailers at the retailers luncheon where we got to listen to a wonderful talk by Stephanie. During my "down" time, I also had a chance to eyeball new yarns and other new products that were planned to debut at the show. After wandering around a bit, and meeting up with my roomie for the weekend, Anne, things quickly spiraled into a surreal experience.


While awaiting the evening's festivities, it seems I manged to stumble into the knitterati, and they appeared to tolerate me as a token Plebian in their midst ;). There was the Ravelry 3: Jess, Casey, and Mary-Heather, the Knitty 2: Amy and Jillian, Annie Modesitt, the already mentioned Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, Amanda from Lorna's Laces, Franklin, Janel Laidman (she has a new sock book out!), Abby Franquemont (spinner extraordinaire), and I even met Norah Gaughan! As the evening progressed more and more knitters took over the lounge space of the Hyatt - I had a chance to talk knitting late into the night with knitting folks from all over the country. It's a wonder my brain didn't explode just with all that stimulation!

Saturday was the first day of the Market, and I am pleased to say I managed to walk the entire floor, and still have enough brain power to properly socialize throughout the day and well into the night - of course, I didn't have a camera, but there were a lot of photos being taken - If you happen to spot any that have a woman in a Spritely Goods shirt on in them, that would be me. Honestly, between the yarn and the "famous" knitters all around, my brain was having a hard time processing by the next day! Luckily, all I had to do was place an order or two, while saving the rest for figuring out once I'm home.

While I can certainly say there is some nice yarn due to come in, I'm still making decisions on yet more yarn and the possibility of bringing in some needles and/or other accessories. I even picked up some needles so I could do some proper evaluation before ordering for the shop - see?

Having been to various tradeshows before, I had a feeling I'd be a bit overwhelmed with product - but its fair to say I completely underestimated the people and networking aspect of this particular tradeshow. Maybe I was just lucky, but everyone was very welcoming and friendly. It was great to put faces to names/blogs/ravatars/companies. It was fantastic to be able to talk knitting and yarn and not have people looking at the group funnily (well, there were a few, but they were in the minority, since the knitters had taken over the place for the weekend!) It was exciting. It was amazing. It was tremendously energizing. I relished every moment and hope to do it again next year...Now then, if I could just do something about this day job ;)