Posts from the ‘video’ Category

Sock Summit INDEED.

“Just as the bird’s wing evolved to fly, the human hand evolved to manipulate. An idle hand is not a happy hand. We really need to use our hands; they’re not happy if they’re not doing something.” [Barbara G. Walker]

The quote above captures my impression of Sock Summit 2009 pretty accurately! I’m very familiar with trade shows like Stitches, NENA, TKGA, TNNA, etc. and I have been lucky enough to attend many of them in the past few years. This year marked the first Sock Summit, a sort of knitter’s retreat on steroids! It had a fantastic marketplace full of amazing artisans, an impressive array of super fun events (like breaking the Guiness World Record for most knitters knitting in one place) and a truly astounding roster of knitting luminaries.

Berroco was there displaying a range of our sock yarns: Berroco Sox, Berroco Sox Metallic, Comfort Sock and Ultra Alpaca Fine, as well as a few of our more popular sock yarn patterns (not socks, incidentally): Celestine and Celestine Crochet, Saige and Johnny Boy are some of my favorites. I was also encouraging people to enter our Sock Star competition. There are still more than 2 weeks left to whip something up, give it a go!

I’ve put together a video of some highlights here and some of my snapshots in a Flickr set–I apologize for their quality; I’m not the best photographer in the world, I’m afraid. To be honest, things happened so quickly that it was a challenge to even get the cameras out and on! I was Tweeting constantly though and you can catch up with those Tweets here.

One of the highlights of the show for me was meeting Meg Swansen (I’ll admit it–I was too nervous to say hello to Barbara Walker!). Meg is true knitting royalty and SO beautiful! She was hilarious and kind, to boot. Norah says we have the same eyes! As you can see, I could barely contain my joy at meeting such a legend:

One thing that came up during the luminary panel over and over was the value of her mother Elizabeth Zimmerman’s book the Knitter’s Almanac. When I worked on the retail side of things I would constantly tell people to skip two lattes and buy a copy of the Knitter’s Almanac instead. It is my desert island book, it contains so much more than knitting advice. It gives you a glimpse into Elizabeth’s life and her amazing curiosity, bravery and wit.

Yesterday I proposed a year-long project to Norah involving the Almanac and Ultra Alpaca. So many of the projects seem well-suited to the Ultra Alpaca family and we know that the folks at Schoolhouse Press are fans. In fact, Cully Swansen, the handsome model/son/grandson in many of the Schoolhouse Press publications, has a hat pattern in the most recent Wool Gathering that calls for Ultra Alpaca! We’re still batting around ideas, but we’ll keep you posted.

I’m still catching up on my rest but I will say that my imagination has been running on overdrive thanks to the Summit. I’m sure you’ll feel it’s effects in the months to come

Cheers,

CR