Ooooh I want more Bugga....

I call this project "Paprika" for obvious reasons.




No wonder this yarn was so sought after it is beautiful to knit with. I love the way it feels between my fingers. There are no knots when winding it and the yarn feels so soft to the touch the colors are wonderful, oh yes I want more Bugga.

I was lucky enough to be able to grab 4 skeins of the same color. I think I traded with Kari for the last skein. I loved this color and I had envisioned a wonderful top down garter stitch sweater and knew I needed some yardage to accomplish this. I know this is sock yarn but it seems like a shame to wear this wonderful fiber on my feet. A sweater is more like it. I found a picture somewhere and I can not remember where but here I am rushing to the Bugga booth to get one more skein of red. I laughed at myself when I saw this picture because you can just see the obsession in my body language.


The pattern I'm using is a simple top down "Gypsy knitting" with 4 anchor stitches. Inspired by Barbara Walker's book "Knitting from the Top Down" one of my favorite books in my knitting library. I was thrilled to meet Barbara and getting a chance to talk to her about knitting and chit chatting in general. She is amazing and to say the least a very interesting person.



When Barbara signed my book at the Sock Summit in Portland she told me that she only knits sweaters from the top down. It is the only logical way to knit, so you can try on your creation and see what you are doing. I so agree! When knitting a sweater in pieces one has to finish the whole project practically before you can try it on. For visual knitters this is tough maybe if you are a literal knitter and follow a pattern exactly as it is written this may not matter so much. I've always been a visual knitter and I have a tendency of using patterns as a guide as opposed to following them exactly as written. When I was knitting the socks for the Sock Museum that was the hardest part to follow the pattern exactly as it was written.

Here I am posing with Barbara Walker during the class she was teaching "mosaic knitting" as you see her beautiful sweater knitted with metallic yarn in the mosaic style and she had a purse to match. Don't tell anybody but I love metallic yarn too, it just sparkles and shines, I love things that sparkle I'm easy to please just give something that sparkles and I'm happy.


BTW I am wearing my wool socks this morning and a little wool shawl because it's cold! Note to self knit more socks the winter is coming. Yes we have a winter here in Southern California! Maybe not snow so much but it does get chilly or maybe I'm just a wuss.

The most talked about moment at the Sock Summit

Besides Barbara Walker coming out and teaching and the great line up of teachers and the amazing market place and how well it was all organized.

The most talked about moment at the Sock Summit 09 in Portland: "the woman who was impaled by her own knitting needle" and the medics had to cut the needle with huge bolt cutters and take her away on a stretcher. But they saved her knitting! She is fine and I heard that she was laughing throughout this ordeal, seeing how funny it all was. Beth, a school teacher from Virginia hope you will heal soon.






The most talked about moment at the Sock Summit 09 in Portland: "the woman who was impaled by her own knitting needle" and the medics had to cut the needle with huge bolt cutters and take her away on a stretcher. She is fine and I heard that she was laughing throughout this ordeal, seeing how funny it all was. Beth, a school teacher from Virginia hop you will heal soon.

The pictures are from cbturtlegirl76's photostream

YouTube video from the Sock Summit 2009

I found these on YouTube and thought that it showed the flavor of Sock Summit 09.

Knitters attempt to break Guinness World Record

Nancy Bush who was one of the popular teachers at the SS09 in this video demonstrates a stretchy Estonian cast on for sock knitting. I was not able to take her class but here is a bit of what she was teaching.




Another variation of the Estonian cast on by www.woolywonder.com



Why knit socks by hand, get a sock knitting machine:

Bugga, Bugga.....

What in the world is that? Bugga, I'd never heard of it before my friend Marla asked me to pick up some yarn at the Sock Summit Market Place. She asked me to please go there first because it will sell out. I was skeptical and wondered how she would know this and what the heck it was she was asking for. She wanted me to buy $100 dollars worth of yarn. I asked what color and as you will ready the story you will see what a silly question that was.

Marla did write down some colors she wanted, names like Blowfly and Oak Timberworm, Ruby Tailed Wasp. I was totally confused. But ok I am now curious what is so special and why would she say that she know that it will sell out in a minute. The name of the yarn is The Sanguine Gryphon.

Here is a pictorial of what went down. The market place was open on Thursday afternoon for 2 hours for registered students. Which was a very nice gesture we felt kind of special of having the market place all to ourselves and getting first crack at some of the special yarns like "Bugga".

I lined up early because I did not have classes that afternoon and was waiting for my roommate Joan to finish her class. I ended up at the very front of the line and the first ten women were all talking about Bugga. I was kind of wondering weather I should go there first or hit some of the other special vendors I was interested in. They all told me no just to go there first but to run. Really? Oh yes it will sell out in minutes.

We are starting to line up in front of the doors ..... and by the time I made it to the booth rushing as fast as I could this is what I found

I could barely get in there to grab let alone look for colors.



This picture is within 3 minutes, see the woman with the long hair and the arm full of yarn? This is the line to pay and there I am on the left, you can just see half of my face I have on my banana earrings and yes my arms are full of yarn. I just barely was able to get in there and so I grabbed what I could. The yarn is 70% washable wool, 20% cashmere and 10% nylon 412 yards of hand-painted sock yarn.


Within 5 minutes everything was sold out and the line to pay was very long. If you look carefully at this picture below you can see a woman reaching for the very last skein that was there.




One of the funniest sites was how some of the other merchants came running to see what was going on and as we all went running past them the look of puzzlement on their faces. Some were asking "where are you all running to we have yarn right here?" I would answer I don't know but I'm following them.

I ended up with a lot of yarn but my friend Marla will be happy and I'm sure some of my Knitting buddies from the stitch and bitch groups I belong to will buy the left overs I have. The color I fell in love with is "Hogwood Bonking Beetle". A deep rich red, I am planning to make a Christmas Sweater out of the four skeins I got.

I'm exhausted from my vacation

Heads up: if you are not a knitter this post may have some "off the wall" remarks and knitting craziness.

The Sock Summit in Portland, Oregon was amazing! It was well organized, there were lots of wonderful people there, mostly women but a few brave men were there knitting too. We had tons of activities to choose from and the market place made my head spin. Yes pun intended.

On Friday lots of us gathered to break the Guinness World Record for the most people to knit at once in one place. The old record was 256 set last June in Australia. Pity their record did not last long. There were 1800 registrants for the Sock Summit and the official count for us was 936.

We had to knit on straight needles, no circulars or double points! Yes they checked your knitting at the door as they collected your registration tickets. There were official judges and it was all filmed and published in the local newspaper and shown on the local news channels.

Yes even Barbara Walker took part in the mass knitting even, and Lucy Neatby sitting close by. Below is a close up of Barbara Walkers mature hands knitting. Around here she was our Rock Star.


Cat Bordhi and Clara Parks gigling as they knit, because Cat hates straight needles she only knits on circular needles.
Amy Singer and Judy Becker, the same Judy who invented Judy's magic cast on made famous by Cat Bordhi and is now well known for her clever way of casting on if you are knitting socks toe up.


Judging from all the smiling faces, fun was had by all.

Meeting a legend

Meeting Barbara Walker has been the highlight of coming to Sock Summit. The class was great she is teaching "mosaic knitting". She was also selling some of her hand knit socks!

Yes I'm actually wearing a pair of socks hand knit by the Julia Childs of Knitters: Barbara Walker.
























Ps. She is staying at the same hotel and she is right across the hall from our room. She is a knitting rock star at this event!

Post From My iPhone

Easy Breezy

One of the advantages of custom designing my own clothes is that I can make exactly what I want. The colors I want and the way I want it to fit. I would have to hunt for hours to be able to find anything even close to what I wanted to buy at any stores.

I've had this sleeveless blouse for a long time and it's one of my favorites for summer wear. This year I decided to make a new halter top to go with the blue. The yarn is a rayon/cotton boucle and is light and very comfortable and cool wear. I will be packing this "ensamble" to the Sock Summit in a couple of weeks. I think the weather will be warm.

Stitch n Pitch at the Dodger Stadium

Fun was had by all!
The Dodgers lost..... Boo.... Hoo...

















-- Post From My iPhone

I got my new glasses!

For some this may not be a big deal but for me it's Huge! It's like getting a new hair do. Sort of like jewelry except it's right there the first thing you see on my face. I think most of us ladies like to buy certain items. For me it's glasses, shoes and handbags, if you have great glasses, good shoes and a nice handbag it does not matter what you have on in between. Accessories rule.

I got three pairs this Markus-t for everyday regular "wear most of the time" light as a feather pair. Made in Germany even the case that I got is so very cool.Then I got a pair of sunglasses with the transitional lenses that get dark in the sun and light indoors. Koali by Morel made in France.


Last but not least these fun glasses made in China very cheap but fun, there is my friend Ellen trying them on, she loves glasses as much as I do.


And oh yes the lenses are the right prescription and I can see!

Lucy goes shopping

Lucy loves to sit in my knitting bag and go shopping at the pet store. Her favorite is pigs ears.

Razzle Dazzle, cough, cough, knit.....

Wait, I need my knitting bag....

Once in a while the flu strikes! Yikes did it strike! This was very strange it seemed that I was just fine till early afternoon and by dinner time I thought I was going to die. I could hardly talk or breathe, everything hurt with a high fever! The night was horrible and when my husband called the doctors office in the morning and described how I was they wanted to send an ambulance.

I did not want an ambulance but was willing to be driven to the emergency room only after I grabbed my knitting bag. I may not be able to talk or breathe but I'm not going to the hospital without my knitting bag. What if they keep me and I don't have my knitting?

I have socks to knit for the Sock Summit Museum and a deadline!

Thank goodness I was only in the hospital for about 6 hours, hooked up with stuff my hands not free to knit and having procedures done so I did not get to knit nor did I feel like it truth be told. But in case I did I had my sock yarn that my dear friend Leslie rushed down to me and my size 2 needles to cast on the 117 stitches that this pattern calls for. The procedures "Doogie Howser" performed worked, honestly the doc looked like he was 16. When I asked him how old he was he smiled and said that people always ask him his age because he looked so young. He was 32 and a very good doctor. I felt a lot better when I left the hospital.

Now the recovery at home, the days just seem to fly by but I did get to knit, there was not much else I could do. Thank goodness for the Razzle Dazzle socks.


Pattern: NonaKnits Sidewinders

On an impulse when I read the Yarn Harlot's post about volunteers needed for the Sock Museum for the Sock Summit and here are the choices of patterns to choose from. For some reason I clicked ok on the sideways socks. I've been obsessing on knitting socks sideways and why not another pattern to try out. There was a list of about 30 different patterns so I picked this one. They did not have a problem in getting volunteers in about a half hour I had second thoughts but when I got back there almost all the choices were gone. They are due by July 25, 2009, I was nervus at first it's a lot of knitting but this flu came in just at the right time.

The knitting took my mind off my misery and felt like I was accomplishing something other than watching Michael Jackson news. Watching tv and knitting was about all I could do. I'm still a bit under the flu bug but a lot better, I'm up and out of bed.