It was just over a week ago that sock knitters took over Portland, Oregon for the second ever Sock Summit! I was lucky enough to have gone to the first Sock Summit, and was just as excited about being able to attend this year as well. First of all, I have to point out the obvious – knitters are pretty awesome people! No matter where I found myself or which table I sat down at, I was quickly immersed in conversation with other knitters. It sure is a wonderful feeling to have an instant point of connection to everyone around you, all connected by our simple love of all things fiber.
My week started off with Cat Bordhi’s Knitting Sleuth class, which was really fun and filled with creativity! The structure of this class made perfect sense to attract both curious knitters as well as designers. We were able to decipher and experiment with swatches, play with stitches and to see how they could be manipulated to make a new pattern or texture. It was so neat to see what other knitters came up with, sometimes the best designs came about due to happy mistake! Another fun surprise was that I got to meet Hunter Hammersen, author of the book Silk Road Socks. I had been in touch with Hunter earlier in the year when I was arranging the podcast where she chatted with Kelley, so it was a pleasure to meet her finally!
My other classes were all about heels. Specifically, heels on socks that are knit from the toe-up. I took Janel Laidman’s Heel Construction for Toe-Up Socks and Judy Becker’s class where she taught Judy’s Magic Heels. I think I can safely say that I will be able to knit toe-up sock without stubbling around on the heels with confidence now! In Janel’s class, we covered three unique heels – one of which ended being my favorite of the whole weekend. This heel is created by working a heel flap on the bottom of the foot and then working the gusset, it was so easy and clever I wondered why I hadn’t seen this before. And as for Judy’s Magic Heels, it was quite magical, smart, easy and clever! Judy covered lots of why things worked they way they did, ratios for different sizing, and of course, lots of math which I loved!
We also got a chance to meet up with Shannon Okey from Cooperative Press! She was kind enough to stop by the Knit Picks headquarters last Monday, after Sock Summit was finished. She also brought along Ariel Altaras who is an IDP design working on a sock knitting book through Cooperative Press. We had a bunch of fun goofing around in front of the cameras and shooting some interviews with both of them.
Check out my interview with Shannon to find out more about Cooperative Press!
