The Worst Description of Sock Summit Ever

While there might be some knit-bloggers out there STILL blogging about Sock Summit, I'm quite sure that I'm the last knitter to START blogging about it. I happened to move to Portland just in time to be here for Sock Summit however I know nothing about driving in Portland so, with the promise of another crazy hat, my brother (who lives in Portland) agreed to accompany me. His one condition was that I not run around with my camera out taking pictures of yarn like a crazy yarn-obcessed person (which I am.) So I agreed to no camera at the event. We just walked through the market place as I'm way to broke to do any of the activities. It was wonderful but quite overwhelming at the same time. There were so many booths full of beautiful yarn and soft things to squish that after about the first half of the booths I was sort of immune to the rest of the booths and I probably skipped over some really beautiful things because my brain was already full of other beautiful things. I did buy two skeins of yarn both of them Socks that Rock from Blue Moon Fiber Artists. Here's the heavyweight:



It's a mill end so it was $10 cheaper than the normal heavyweight. Ever since a friend from my Lawrence knitting group knit a beautiful pair of socks with the heavyweight I've been dying to try it. The tag doesn't give a dye lot or a color name for the skein but it's a lilac and a greenish-gold. I really hope it spirals a not pools. Here's a picture of the other skein:



This is the lightweight version and the color is perfectly named "farmhouse." These colors are so rich and remind me of a beautiful fall scene.

The rest of my purchases were not yarn, but hopefully it will help me to create some.



I got a drop spindle and 3.8 oz of wool. The drop spindle is made of maple and cherry and the wool is combed top from Targhee sheep raised in Montana. I'm learning to spin from internet resources mostly and help from people on ravelry. I'm not very good and as of right now I can only spin pretty thickly. Once it's plied (I'm only making it two ply) it will probably be worsted-bulky. I hope that one day I can spin smaller because I'd love to spin for my own lace shawl.
Here's what I've got so far, it's about a fifth of the wool.



So that's my pretty lame and extra late description of my Sock Summit experience and the SWAG I walked away with. Soon I'll tell you about some actual knitting, I promise.