So for my first ever blog post here, I thought I’d share some of my experiences at Sock Summit! I hope you are not all bored by all the Sock Summit posts yet – it was such a once in a lifetime experience and it happened in our own back yard!
I got to meet and take a class from Charlene Schurch! A little back story: When I decided to start knitting socks a little over 4 years ago, I just couldn’t wrap my head around how to it. (you should see my first attempts. Scary stuff.) I was so frustrated I threw the poor misshapen sock across the room and ignored it for months at a time.
But I really love wearing funky socks & was determine to learn how to make my own. I researched a few books and finally picked up Sensational Knitted Socks. Working on the Class Sock, …

It’s been a busy few weeks for me, let me tell you, and I’m not even talking about the Sock Summit craziness. The September catalog is still in the printing & mailing process, while at the same time we’re shooting the photos for the October catalog and planning projects for the Winter catalog. Whew! I wanted to take some brief time to show you a glimpse of one of our October photoshoots, and to introduce you to your new KP catalog manager/designer, Christina.

I got this candid photo of Christina during our location shoot at Hopworks Urban Brewery in SE Portland. Hopworks is Portland’s first Eco-Brewpub, offering organic beer in an awesome sustainable building that is a darn cool setting for photos. (Not only that, but they have amazing homemade rootbeer, which I sampled with lunch after the shoot.)

The …

For some reason, I’m rebelling against my summer knitting.

Last weekend, I didn’t want to work on my socks, or my lace, or my cotton tshirt projects. They all require concentration that I didn’t have, and trying to work on them just felt tedious and frustrating. So I cast on for a Daybreak shawl, with one of our rejected Stroll samples and a color-changing sock yarn I went out and bought instead of going to the Sock Summit (I know, bad designer!) I love the graphic elements of this pattern, and with the simple stripes and slipped stitches on a background of plain stockinette, it is turning out to be the perfect antidote to the knitterly temper tantrum I was having!
So I brought my progress into work today, and learned that Kate is not only knitting the same pattern (in ultra-gorgeous sock yarn that she …

You may have noticed that Mr. Foster finally met that special someone…

Carmen Banana!
He was just gushing about her when he came back from his last trip. He was just minding his own business, taking some time off, when she strolled around the corner and into his life. He wouldn’t tell me if it was her classy dress or his lack of eyelids, but he couldn’t take his eyes off of her!

Now that he’s back in the office, he just won’t stop talking about her. Carmen this! Carmen that! He’s so excited that she’s finally off of her whirlwind tour (she’s a jazz singer, didn’t you know?) and ready to come home to him. So, won’t you do him a favor? Bring Carmen home! He really really really wants to go dancing with her again. Really. Woooooon’t stop talking.
And to …

I thought it was wise to start my Learn To Knit A Scarf & Hat project a little early, so I’d have a head start as a very, very green knitter. Its been a bumpy head start. Kate made me start over (frog?) my hat after my first few rows, then I failed to reverse stockinette my CC color (I knit 8 rows instead of reverse stockinetting 6). After that mistake, Angela convinced me to hide it from Kate and keep going. She’s good at PR, so she told me to sell it as “artistic license”. Yeah…. I meant to do that.
I think I’m starting to get the hang of this though. The more rows I do, the less I have to think about what I’m doing and the less I panic and run to Kate’s desk with knitting emergencies. (Apparently, I am a knitting hypochondriac, because most of my …