Dyeing For Glory

Like it was yesterday…

I remember the first time I put dye on yarn.  Well actually, the very first time it was roving not yarn.  Initially I thought the best fun was mixing the dyes together in a cup to recreate the colors that were swimming around my brain. It is what I thought… until I poured it onto the roving. (It makes me a little weepy thinking about this obviously it has been awhile.)
Anyway I poured the dye on and watched as the wool happily absorb it. I watched the color slowly spread and the farther it went from where I poured it the lighter it was.

I found this beyond exciting and could barely keep myself contained. So I mixed up more dye again and put the next color on.( And you know what? It did it again) I decided at the very last second not to put it right next to the first color but a bit away and watched as it did it’s sexy absorption dance just as the first color did, with it’s own special hue, of course.
This was crazy cool and as lovely the first one and I was happily watching, zoning a bit on it and completely unprepared for how my entire world was about to change. The defining moment that pushed me head first into coloring fibers was when those two colors met and mingled and gave birth to not one more color but several. Color magic right at my fingertips. I was over the moon with joy.

I was not completely new to color as an artistic medium of expression. I painted a bit and did this or that but nothing like the display on that strip of roving. There is just something so very different for me when you paint color on fiber. It’s the texture and the chemical make up and how they all work together. How they feel in your hands and finally what happens when you knit with them.
With wool as my canvas and dye my paints I jumped head first into the dye pots and have not looked back since.

I dye when I am inspired, I dye when I am stuck or thinking or need to work through something. I dye when I am happy,and when I am sad, really no emotion is safe from the dye.  I dream of color and see colorways everywhere.
I love dyeing. I love dyeing fibers. I am honored to be a part of a growing community of such creative and gifted artists that share this hued passion (obsession) of mine.

One of the greatest joys in the past few months is the building of the Sock Summit Marketplace with my friend Debbi Stone aka Cockeyed.  We have met (virtually so far) so many talented fellow color obsessed souls.  We are going to have some serious fun in August. Look out Portland because not only are you going to be inundated with sock knitters you are also going to bathed in color by some of the most creative dyers gracing the planet.

Keeping with this color, fiber and community theme we are taking this celebration of color world wide to include and share a bit with those knitters that cannot make it to Portland in August.  We have teamed with Ravelry to bring you Sock Summit 2009 Dyeing for Glory Contest. We are launching this today and you can read about it here and on Steph’s blog and of course on RAV.
The rules and regs and details of how this is all going to work are all spelled out quite nicely for you and are posted on Ravelry.
There is also a thread started in the Sock Summit group so you can keep updated there.
Thank you Casey, Jess and Mary Heather for helping us make this color dream a reality.

Ready, Set, DYE. ( ok Dye then set)

Registration Update

We sent an email out yesterday that had the letter below in it to everyone on our mailing list and to all who we have listed as registered.  You see thanks to the Great Sock Summit Server Crash of 2009 we all are having several recurring nightmares with revolving themes all involving large numbers of confused and unhappy knitters.

We are doing our dead level best to make sure we have reached out to everyone who might have a registration issue.
I know we said it in the letter below but I am going to emphasize it (probably over so) again.
Please check make absolute sure that you in fact did receive a confirmation email with confirmation numbers on it for everything you registered for.
If you have that information you are golden no need to contact us. Don’t get me wrong we love to hear from you but the inbox is a wee bit of a scary place these days. So many sock knitters so little time.

Steph and I are working on getting the shopping cart up and the Sock Museum KAL so look for those really soon.
Also, the market place is coming together so beautifully and honestly, exceeding even my wildest dreams which is no small feat.
Ok… off to help pack for Black Sheep and to the bank to get the cash for the cash box which yours truly spaced out yesterday. (I have SS09 brain, blue moon is being very patient with me.)

Dear Everyone,
As some of you may know from experience, the sheer numbers of avid sock knitters who attempted to sign up for the Summit sort of… well.  Fried our server.  Things got up and running again very quickly, but for about a half hour there, things were nothing short of dodgy.

We can’t apologize enough for this, and we’re sorry not just for all of you, but for our staff and friends who have helped us manually process all of the errors and corrections over the last few weeks. We totally owe them socks (and probably hard liquor, but we’re not giving them that until after the Summit.)

We believe at this time that we’ve handled everything in our inbox. If you haven’t heard from us, then please write again to .  (There were a few people we couldn’t reach due to incorrect emails or phone numbers, so please, please write again before thinking we’re not happy to help.)

In addition, we want to stress that you need confirmation numbers to check into the Sock Summit.  If you experienced a problem at registration and didn’t get those confirmation numbers, you need to write to us, so that we can confirm you’re registered, and send you the numbers.  If you did not see confirmation numbers, you may not be registered.  We’ve been doing our level best to see everyone through this happy, and we’ll do our best to help you too.

In addition, because we’ve been using the few returns and cancellations we received to help solve problems, there are very few classes to put up for grabs.  As we can see no reasonable way for thousands of knitters to compete for a few spots, and we are helpless in the face of the unbelievable mass of all of you, we’re not going to re-open registration. If any spots remain open at the time of the Summit, knitters will be able to sign up for them at the registration desk.

Looking forward to hearing from you,

ST-1, ST2
and the dedicated (but tired) team that backs them up.