Where have I been for so long?

There’s no one simple answer, but suffice to say, preparing to teach at Sock Summit has been getting the attention of my fiber focus for the past many months. You heard about that, eh?

If you follow me on twitter I’m sure you’ve seen little tidbits about it over the past week or so…

It’s now over and I’m home. In lieu of attempting to capture the wonder and merriment of it all, I leave you with a video of the World Record attempt for the largest group of knitters knitting simultaneously. It’s nice to see a few fellas were caught on film, too!

(I think we got it!)

Golly goodness me! I’m out of practice on this thing. I just lost a pretty darn good post because I couldn’t save the draft in this iPhone app. Apparently, my real life is keeping me away from posting here as often as I’d like to. Between work, design fun and general living, it’s been très busy chez hizKNITS.

I don’t even know where I left off. There were a few mini half-posts about the fun had in Austin at SxSWi and at BMFA’s Sock Camp with mom. Much more was had than written, but that will remain the fodder of conversation, not blog.

Here in the present, I took the red-eye from SFO to O’Hare, landing at 4:48 am and have over four hours to kill at the airport. There’s plenty of knitting I could be doing (class samples, afghan square, notes for Sock Summit classes) but I’m in a sleep-deprived daze, checking Twitter and trying to type this after enjoying a surprisingly non-offensive breakfast at Chili’s. (I recommend the breakfast tacos – vegetarian and not greasy.)

I’m on my way to the second Men’s Spring Knitting Retreat just north of Albany, NY. I don’t know how Joe and Tex could improve on last year’s magic, but I’m sure they will. We’re the only group at Easton Mountain this time, there are more guys, it’s one day longer, group field trips and a slumber party. I gotta make this one count since I can’t make the west coast MFKR over Labor Day weekend in WA.

This time last year, I had no idea how great the weekend would be. I also didn’t expect to gain a new best friend / evil twin in Sean (sorry no link, but he’s in the sidebar and you can google Sean’s Soapbox). As a result of MSKR I, it’s been a year of new friends, much laughter, a trip to baby-got-Rhinebeck, a visit from the Great White North, MFKR and countless inspirations.

Although I’m not taking off for two weeks in Berlin after the retreat, I’m still looking forward to the afterglow and the memories of every stripe yet to be made. Like Sock Camp, this one weekend could carry me for an entire year. I don’t spend hardly enough time socializing in the online knitting world so I love getting it done in person.

BTW – I’m going to be in Madison, WI June 1-3 for work if any midwesterners are reading. Recomendations are encouraged!

Arrived here in Port Ludlow, WA, a few hours outside of Seattle. Long day of getting up too early and now heading to bed too late.

Great people, both new and returning campers. Much gratitude to Tina, the Sockateers and teachers for creating this annual madcap event. Yarn was bought. More news to come.

Sleep and the wilted foam pad that’s masquerading as “a futon” are calling my name.

I’ve made it to Austin and the madness that is SxSWi. I arrived after 5pm yesterday, so no panels, just registration and checking into the hotel, the stately, rumored haunted, oil baron establishment named the Driskill.

I didn’t run into anyone, so I headed down South Congress for a bowl of queso and dinner. Sadly, Magnolia Café isn’t the finest cuisine, but the chips and melted cheese certainly made up for it!

I didn’t feel up to braving any lines to get into sponsored parties and stand around by myself, so I opted for a suburban night-at-the-mall with geeks at The Watchmen (where I sat around by myself). It’s a very long, very dark, very hyperreal (including cgi full-frontal smurfy muscleman nudity), wonderful movie with some killer action and fights. Never having read the graphic novel, I don’t have an opinion as to whether it’s a good adaptation or not. That said, I thoroughly enjoyed all two hours and 47 minutes if it and want to check out the original.

Today was chock-full of panels, seeing old friends, meeting new ones and getting my mind stimulated on topics of team dynamics, iPhone gaming and productive creativity. A hefty Mongolian bbq lunch hanging with knitters and putting faces to Twitter profiles was the highlight.

As always, going full-tilt all day certainly takes it out of me. I should have napped before dinner or gone for a run or taken a bath instead of fiddling with the hotel wireless and doing work.

For dinner, I’m sitting at the bar of a new wine place (Mulberry) with raw salmon drizzled with hot oil and fried capers and a side of sautéed spinach. At first, I felt out of place in this Sex in the City re-enactment of chatty girlfriends, but the food transcended this yuppie faux industrial + Danish modern wine box.

In 45 minutes, the #sxswhomo crowd is going to guerilla gay nerd take over a local gay bar, Oil Can Harry’s for the Austinites. Should be fun, but I really need to rest and want to try to squeeze in a run first thing in the AM.

Tomorrow night is the web awards and my work has a site up for an honor in the Activism category. The agency that built it is here so I’ll be there ready to cheer. Cross your fingers for us!

I’ll be headed back to the Lone Star State for SxSW Interactive 3/13-17. It’s my third time to Austin and fast become something that I look forward to each year.

There are so many reasons to love it: great town, great food (mas queso), great knitters (like the aptly named Julia Yarnmaven), great yarn stores, and great geek-dom for all things online.

Guess what? This year, I’m presenting at the conference, well, it’s not so much presenting as facilitating a discussion. They call it a Core Conversation.

My topic: Commu(k)nity: Lessons for Marketers from Online Crafting. It’s something I’m intimately entwined with, as I spend more hours a-marketing than I do a-knitting.

Let’s celebrate what we do online and encourage companies to support authentic, passionate groups of people who come together, not just make money off them or following the latest new media buzzword. If you’re around, come by and share your $0.02 on how Ravelry, Knitty, Etsy and Craftster are models for how people want to interact with one another. It’s Monday, 3/16, 5:00pm, so y’all come, y’hear?

For all the knitters who will be attending, Julia has created a knittingSxSWI wiki so we can plan our purls. It makes me smile to see knitters represented among the coders, designers and bloggers, so brandish your needles! In the past, I met one of my favorite podcasters, Jenny (and Harold) of Stash and Burn, mingled with Canadian-turned-Bostonian-formerly-Austinite Caro Split Yarn and had cocktails with TV hostess with the most-est and author and columnist Vickie Howell.

What will 2009 bring? I get to hang with a new friend, James. I’m always happy to spend time with Julia and visit The Knitting Nest. Cat from Let’s Knit 2gether video podcast will be there. And who knows who else!

So, if you see a guy in his mid-30s working on a sock or weaving in the ends of a glove or a cowl, good chance it’s me! Say hello and let’s get a beer or a coffee or a taco or piece of ground to sit and talk.

What’s up, France? Don’t you know the difference between crochet and knitting? There’s a new custom handmade business that’s similar to the Swiss NetGranny’s socks on-demand and the Danish Mormor.nu (Grandma.Now) baby clothes and accessories.

Golden Hook is a site that allows you to create a customized crocheted hat by a French grandmother. In both the English and French copy they use the word “knit” or “tricotter” despite the hats in all the photos are clearly crocheted! Heck, even the business name has the word “hook” in it!

Knit and crochet aren’t the same. Sure both use yarn, but just as German Deutsch and Austrian Deutsch are theoretically the same language, the results are very different!

Kyle, who I met at the Men’s Fall Knitting Retreat last year, is heading up a project that’s looking at men who knit in America. It’s called Knitting: Men in America. Pretty catchy name, eh?

He’s looking for knitters to help out by taking a short survey.

Both MEN & WOMEN can participate in this general survey regarding knitters as individuals, their stash of materials and general info about who they are (education, income levels, marital status, etc).

It’s an ambitious project, and I’m looking forward to see it take shape. Kyle says, “The more information we have the better of our knitting society and the way male knitters are viewed.”

I’m all for that! Read more at knittingmeninamerica.com.

Phew! I can finally say this now: I’ll be teaching at Sock Summit in Portland, OR, August 6-9, 2009. I kept quiet ever since I got the call from Stephanie. You’d think a harlot would do anything you say, but in this knitting world, you do whatever The Yarn Harlot says.

“You’re teaching, and keep your trap shut about it!” (I paraphrase.)
“Yes, Ma’am!” (My exact words to whatever she tells me to do. But, I did tell my mom. Don’t tell Stephanie!)

They’ve just posted a list of the teachers, and I can barely believe that I’m mentioned in such experienced and innovative company! I’m happy just to read some of these people’s books! I wonder if we’ll all hang out together…

I’m imagining a large door, that’s always locked and closed with a Teacher’s Lounge sign. Just like the one in my elementary school. Inside, there’s a haze of cigarette smoke hanging in the air, the scent of stale coffee and a faint hint of hair spray and make-up. (My elementary days were in the late 70s/early 80s.) What mysteries lurk inside the knitting teacher’s lounge?

Perhaps, not so much with the smoke and the over-the-top cosmetics. Probably a better vibe in the room, as mutual respect combines with the energy from the throngs of sock knitters all assembled in one place. I was too young to notice any covert drinking at Floyd Elementary in Derry, NH, but with this crowd, you never know, covert or overt! Over the din of needles clicking, a soft murmur of conversation flows.

“Cat, are you knitting the instep, turning a heel and binding off the cuff at the same time in a Mobius addi-Turbo tangle?”
“Why, no, Judy. That’s your magical cast-on done upside-down on its head to the tune of a hummingbird’s song!”
“How many asymmetrical twisting cables over lace are in there, Cookie?”
“People, please keep that wool away from Amy!”
“Meg, both you and your mother are two of my biggest inspirations!”
“Look, Anna’s yarn matches Lucy’s hair!”
“Marjan, have you been to the US before?”
“Is that vintage you’re wearing, Nancy?”
“Tina, I love what you’ve done with the Convention Center.”
“There she goes. JC is always casting-on, again and again.”
“Did you drop your beads, Sivia?”
“Well, I think that’s sensational, Charlene!”
“STEPHEN! Get that needle out of your nose!”

Alas, I have a little more than five months to get my act together and make myself presentable to both teachers and students. Some, I’ll be too shy to smile and say hello to. Other, I may want to tongue kiss, but I’d settle for a hug. For everyone who’s teaching or attending, and mostly to Stephanie and Tina it will be an honor and a blessing to be there with you.

Thanks, Tina and Stephanie, for making knitting heaven on Earth.

The next episode of Y KNIT is up. This one is all about one of my favorite local fiberistas, Kristine Vejar, the woman behind A Verb for Keeping Warm fiber/yarn/natural dying/spinning, weaving, knitting, crocheting extravaganza!

photo by WonderMike.

Better than peanut butter and good for what ails you. Thanks, Kris!