Waiting is hard…

It just is.
As a child I had the hardest time waiting and would fidget and cause a world of trouble, mostly for myself.
If my mother had relented and taught this little left handed girl to knit then it would have certainly solved a lot of her impatient tina-related headaches.
I am still trying to wrap my head around that and honestly I have always thought it was revenge an even exchange, but I digress.
Back to waiting and how difficult it is to wait for something that you are excited about.
The birth of a child, the end of a story, the beginning of a story, a holiday, visiting a far away friend, vacations, your turn, water to boil, a plant to grow, that first step,
yarn to come in the mail, turning a heel, a blocked shawl to dry… maybe a teacher list to be posted.
So much anticipation and excitement.
Glorious anticipation full of possibilities. I love those full of promise moments and I often relish this time even though it can be a bit hard on the patience muscle.
So what can we do here while we wait one more day for this moment?
What could we possibly do while we wait? hmmmm.. what can we do?
Holy mother of all, you know what we could do?
We could KNIT!

Well, actually, you can knit.  Steph, web chick (susie) and I are going to wrap this baby up.
( knit the list, knit the list, knit the list!!)

Stay tuned tomorrow here, there and back here at the bmfa blog.

Sock Summit Update 3.5

When we started this sock summit journey, it was my intention to write a report of where we are and what we are doing at least weekly to keep everyone in this loop. Oh well, best laid plans and all. Truthfully, I can barely breathe much less write a weekly up date. I will try to bring you up to date at least and give you a few of the more amusing and exciting moments.
First, I just want to say this out loud. This is a lot of work. A massive amount of work. I thought I had an inkling of how much this would take, not so much. It is one of those places where you cannot comprehend its magnitude until you are in the middle of it, kind of like giving birth. All your friends can tell you what it is like, and you can read about it and watch videos on it but until you are smack dab in the middle of pushing another human being out of your body, you just do not know. (How can you possibly?) It’s like that.
Somedays it feels like for every step that is taken and goal reached, three more crop up to replace them. I am not complaining. This is an incredible journey and is rewarding on many levels and all of us involved are loving it. The most commonly heard phrase here these days is “Ok, are you ready because you are so not going to believe this, really you are not.” Unfortunately I cannot let you in on all of this yet because we are still firming details and contracts...so very many contracts. Soon, though, some of this will be revealed and, honestly, you are just not going to believe it. 
This Summit is going to be all that we wanted and so very much more. Honestly, I fluctuate between feeling mind boggled, blissful excitement, and abject terror. Stephanie and I take turns with these, which works out oh, so well. I consider it a honor to carry this and the terror comes from the fear that I will somehow let everyone down. I think this is a normal healthy reaction, and I would be worried about myself if I did not have this feeling.
Building something like this is very similar to planning a knitting project or constructing a yarn or designing—all of it. You have to start with a good base and that is the bulk of what we have been doing. Creating the vessel that will hold of all of this sock knitting goodness.
Starting with the space. I chose the Oregon Convention Center for several reasons, although I have to tell you that initially the thought of renting a convention center left me weak, and not just in the knees. It is big, like really, really big.
It took me a full month to finally sign the contract. I fluctuated between being a little outraged at the looks of disbelief on their faces to my own personal lack of faith and wavering vision.
The convention center is built with sustainable products and systems. In September 2008, it was re-certified with a Silver rating in Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design in the Existing Buildings Category from then Green Building Council. It is the first convention center in the nation to achieve this. No small thing. The Silver rating required proven sustainability in areas of operation, maintenance, and capital improvements. 
Portland is a very “Green” city and not just in that whole lots of rain falling from the sky and growing things aspect, but also in the sustainable let us take care as we walk through our lives here aspect.
The convention center is certainly part of this. What impressed me the most when I was given the grand tour was how deeply these people care and are committed. These are people I want to work with and aside from that whole “ Really, are you sure you need this much space for a sock knitting conference?” they are great people to work with.  (I am actually starting to enjoy the expressions on the non-knitter face when I try to explain this.) The space is beautiful and central with a MAX station right outside. As you would expect with a center that caters to large conferences, it is also surrounded with hotels and restaurants within walking distance. If you have not already done so, please check them out here:
Oregon Convention Center
http://www.oregoncc.org
And...one of my personal favorites is that in the check-in area above where the entrance to the marketplace is going to be, hangs from the ceiling a dragon boat. I kid you not. A big beautiful dragon boat. When I was there last week looking at the marketplace space and how we are going to set it up, I kept asking Matt how he felt if we fill it with balls of yarn, and he just smiled and shook his head. I do believe he thought I was joking.
So my sock knitting friends this is where we will be hanging for four glorious days of sock knitting bliss.
Oh...except for the night we are in the Sunken Ballroom of the Portland Art Museum for the Sock Hop. I am so tickled by this prospect that I giggle like a kid every time I think of it.
We were chatting about the Sock Hop and the Museum at knit night and how there are statues all around the foyer of the ballroom. Glorious exquisite sculptures and we get to dance and mingle with them. The conversation about dancing with statues progressed in a way that felt a bit like we were short rowing (the knitted bus was mentioned) to how cool it would be if us Portland knitters knit for the statues around Portland as an artistic expression and statement. We could knit them socks.
I am sure the elk could use a horn sock or two. (Also, this could be what happens when you have knit night in a pub.) I think this would be a great way to let all of our fellow PDXers know what we are up to Sock Summit wise, and it fits our colorful artistic community here.
So what are we doing now? This week the first week in February we are firming the teacher contracts, all the sponsorship relationships and by Friday, we will be able to send all the registrations forms for the vendors out.
We will post a teacher list on the Sock Summit website February 18th 20th, so be sure to look for that.
Both Stephanie and I will be able to share more of the crazy fun once that list is up so stay tune. Really, your not going to believe it.
I want to thank everyone that has sent emails or responded here to volunteer to help. Your offers are kind and appreciated. We will be getting in touch as the Summit progresses and grows.
If you have any questions or feel you have not heard from us and are worried, please contact me at

Sock Summit Update 3 ( where we are now)

We are buried in mounds of virtual paper. Lots and lots of amazing and intriguing class proposals from quite an impressive group of teachers.  Thank you so much for getting these back to us within the deadline. It does help in keeping things moving along and on schedule.
This brings us to the next step, going through all of this knit brilliance, organizing and framing it all into a cohesive and thorough representation of all that is sock knitting from cuff to toe, yarn to needles.
We will be contacting teachers within the next few weeks to go over the details, ask and answer questions, sign contracts, basically setting this part of the stage.
I think this is one of the fun parts like putting together a really big knit puzzle. This class piece goes here and look it fits so nicely with this one and then creates this space… (yeah, call the geek squad).
There are also a fair amount of vendor information sheets that have come in. Debbi is going through these. If you have not sent yours in yet, please do so as soon as possible.
Vendors can expect to hear from us towards the end of December with more information.
Our wonder-web people at Hops Studio are working on the next phase of the website. Cat, Claire, Gail and e few others are pulling together a really exciting KAL that will start very soon and go through the beginning of July.
We are checking the sign up info weekly. Vendor and sponsor info is sent out then, once a week. We are not ready to send out attendee info and probably won’t until after the beginning of the year. for updates please check here. This is the easiest place so far for us to do this. The moderators on the Ravelry group will do their best to answer questions and or bring them to our attention. You can also comment here or email a question to the appropriate addy from the sock summit update 1 post here.
We do have hotel room blocks in the area with Sock Summit discount rates. We will put these up with the next website upgrade. This is why all of the hotels seem full we have them, so don’t panic.
Well, I think that about covers it for now. Off to wade through all of this glorious sock knitting brilliance and talent. There is a lot. There are not enough words to tell you just how privileged I feel to be part of this knit tradition. ok…