Ah, Paris. It’s been a wonderful week so far. This is the view from our apartment.

We are here until le 21 août. More soon.

(photo by Star Athena)

On Sunday afternoon, about an hour before everything closed, I was able sneak away from the Sock Summit Registration desk and grab a not-so delicious Convention Center lunch.

Star (yes, that Star!) was kind enough to sit with me, then walk around the Marketplace. She caught me savoring the memories of french fries past before we sauntered.

Star is a person to whom I wished I lived closer. Ever since we met at the first Sock Summit, I wanted to be her friend. Heck, even before that, simply seeing her designs made me want to know her. I’m glad we had almost an hour together.

Our conversation has stuck with me. Our time together further underlined the topic we discussed. I’d love to sit and knit with her and not be in an artificial situation like teaching across the hall from her, or seeing her at Twisted when I’m in Portland, or randomly catching her in a veggie burger line. In my fantasy world, we’d cook together and talk about our projects and brush each other’s hair. (Not so much on that last one.)

I still haven’t pulled together my thoughts for a big, big recap, so I hope you don’t mind these random thoughts. Until then, my congested head and ravaged throat will offer you these limited typings. (Scotch is helping.)

Of all of the hard work that led up to Sock Summit, I am most proud of the flash mob. Tina, Steph and Debbi love flash mobs, and they trusted me to come up with the moves to show we have the time of our life with yarn.

I had always said that if we had 20 knitters who learned the dance and showed up, I’d be happy. Actually, I told Steph I’d buy her a beer. As you can see, I owe her many, many beers, as we had over 600 people show up and participate.

Here’s Clara’s video (the best quality IMHO… another has almost 10,000 views!):

And if you’re really interested in learning it yourself and putting on your own knitting flash mob, here you go. Just remember to drop me a line and take pictures!

Thank you, everyone, whether you danced, cheered or just watched it online. In the spirit of the Summit, it was truly taking sock knitting almost too far.

Sock Summit 2011 is over. Much to recap at a later time. I welcome the after-glow and afterlife. Until then…