Thursday
Aug132009
Home from Sock Summit!
Thursday, August 13, 2009 at 2:39PM
Well, Sock Summit is over. Nina and I drove back from Portland on Monday, and I still feel like I'm recovering. Tired as I still am, I think I'm also suffering from a bit of Sock Summit withdrawal. For 4 days, I was a part of this huge, amazing THING, where thousands of knitters gathered in one place for a single purpose: to knit. We knit socks, we talked about knitting socks, we fondled sock yarn, we broke a world record, we bonded over the funny looks we got when we told people we were going to Portland to talk about knitting socks.
It was amazing. AMAZING, I tell you. As a woman from a small town in the midwest who doesn't have a lot of knitting friends said to me, "I feel like I'm with my people."
It was seriously the most exhausting, fun experience ever. Even when I thought I was going to fall down, I was so tired, I was still having a blast. Since neither Nina nor Marilee are as much of a knitter as me, and neither has knit socks, I'm not sure if they'd agree, but they were such troopers. I couldn't have done it without them!.
I didn't take as many pictures as I thought hoped I would, but I got a few! Nina got some great shots of our Voodoo Doughnuts, so I'll post those when she's done processing them (someday...).
Mare couldn't make the road trip with us -- she flew up on Wednesday night-- (which, though we missed her terribly, was kind of a blessing because it meant that the Pile fit in the car. It otherwise would not have), but Nina and I drove out of Santa Clara at 7:30 am last Wednesday. I-5 is the most boring road ever, so no pictures really. Though I did get a good shot of Gorilla Monster* and my sock-in-progress.
When we got near Mount Shasta, the air was all weird and hazy and smoky because of a forest fire someplace, and Shasta looked like it was floating in the air. You could barely see it, off in the distance.
We set up the booth on Thursday morning. Jocelyn, who I know from Nine Rubies in San Mateo, and her awesome daughter Amanda helped us, and boy did we need them! My mom built these really nice wooden displays, but they were a little too lightweight to carry all the weight of over 100 skeins of yarn each, so Jocelyn had the brilliant idea of weighing them down with rice or beans. So after a quick trip to Safeway for Nina and Marilee (while I struggled to move tables and boxes and set up lamps), we were in business!
I love how the booth turned out -- it was exactly I pictured it in my head! It was a tiny booth -- 5x10 -- so I wanted it to be as spacious and welcoming and open as possible.
I think we got it right! We had nice, incandescent lamps to combat the horrible green flourscence of the convention center, and dishes of candy for people to keep their shopping strength up. I had a cushy wool rug down on the concrete to help sooth the tired tootsies. Oh, and YARN. Lots of yarn, and lots of fiber.
It was a great show-- I sold bunches of yarn, but better than that, I met so many really sweet, wonderful, friendly knitters! I loved talking to everyone who came through the booth. I made a few contacts with shops, both online and local, which I really hope will turn into some wider exposure for my yarns (I'll keep you posted! Fingers crossed!).
I sold quite a bit, but I also came home with A LOT of yarn. I'm going to do shop updates over the next few days. Lots of colorways of Lollipop BFL Sock, Meringue Merino Sock and Marzipan. I also have several new colors of Souffle Lace that will go up as well. Keep your eyes peeled! I'll post here to let you know when the updates happen.
I really want to thank everyone for their well wishes and kind words both leading up to and following Sock Summit. It meant so much to me to receive comments and emails and messages on Ravelry. I so, so, SO appreciate all of your support -- Knitters are the BEST! Thank you!!!
*A few years ago, Nina and I took a road trip up to Ashland, OR. I got her this creepy-weird gorilla monster postcard as a present (because she's the monkeygirl) and we took him on our road trip with us. He was in almost ALL of our pictures. It seemed only fitting, since we were roadtripping up to Oregon again, that Gorilla Monster come with us again too!
It was amazing. AMAZING, I tell you. As a woman from a small town in the midwest who doesn't have a lot of knitting friends said to me, "I feel like I'm with my people."
It was seriously the most exhausting, fun experience ever. Even when I thought I was going to fall down, I was so tired, I was still having a blast. Since neither Nina nor Marilee are as much of a knitter as me, and neither has knit socks, I'm not sure if they'd agree, but they were such troopers. I couldn't have done it without them!.
I didn't take as many pictures as I thought hoped I would, but I got a few! Nina got some great shots of our Voodoo Doughnuts, so I'll post those when she's done processing them (someday...).
Mare couldn't make the road trip with us -- she flew up on Wednesday night-- (which, though we missed her terribly, was kind of a blessing because it meant that the Pile fit in the car. It otherwise would not have), but Nina and I drove out of Santa Clara at 7:30 am last Wednesday. I-5 is the most boring road ever, so no pictures really. Though I did get a good shot of Gorilla Monster* and my sock-in-progress.
When we got near Mount Shasta, the air was all weird and hazy and smoky because of a forest fire someplace, and Shasta looked like it was floating in the air. You could barely see it, off in the distance.
We set up the booth on Thursday morning. Jocelyn, who I know from Nine Rubies in San Mateo, and her awesome daughter Amanda helped us, and boy did we need them! My mom built these really nice wooden displays, but they were a little too lightweight to carry all the weight of over 100 skeins of yarn each, so Jocelyn had the brilliant idea of weighing them down with rice or beans. So after a quick trip to Safeway for Nina and Marilee (while I struggled to move tables and boxes and set up lamps), we were in business!
I love how the booth turned out -- it was exactly I pictured it in my head! It was a tiny booth -- 5x10 -- so I wanted it to be as spacious and welcoming and open as possible.
I think we got it right! We had nice, incandescent lamps to combat the horrible green flourscence of the convention center, and dishes of candy for people to keep their shopping strength up. I had a cushy wool rug down on the concrete to help sooth the tired tootsies. Oh, and YARN. Lots of yarn, and lots of fiber.
It was a great show-- I sold bunches of yarn, but better than that, I met so many really sweet, wonderful, friendly knitters! I loved talking to everyone who came through the booth. I made a few contacts with shops, both online and local, which I really hope will turn into some wider exposure for my yarns (I'll keep you posted! Fingers crossed!).
I sold quite a bit, but I also came home with A LOT of yarn. I'm going to do shop updates over the next few days. Lots of colorways of Lollipop BFL Sock, Meringue Merino Sock and Marzipan. I also have several new colors of Souffle Lace that will go up as well. Keep your eyes peeled! I'll post here to let you know when the updates happen.
I really want to thank everyone for their well wishes and kind words both leading up to and following Sock Summit. It meant so much to me to receive comments and emails and messages on Ravelry. I so, so, SO appreciate all of your support -- Knitters are the BEST! Thank you!!!
*A few years ago, Nina and I took a road trip up to Ashland, OR. I got her this creepy-weird gorilla monster postcard as a present (because she's the monkeygirl) and we took him on our road trip with us. He was in almost ALL of our pictures. It seemed only fitting, since we were roadtripping up to Oregon again, that Gorilla Monster come with us again too!
tagged Sock Summit, yarn in Uncategorized, knitting, shop Updates
Sock Summit, yarn in Uncategorized, knitting, shop Updates
Reader Comments (5)
I'm still "shopping" after Sock Summit. The marketplace was overwhelming, but your booth was really amazing and I've got your on-line information for when I go back to work (School employee) Cheers!
Your yarn was one of the highlights of my Sock Summit experience! It was lovely to meet you!
Hey there Neighbor!
Funny how it took a trip to Oregon to meet you - and you're just s few blocks away! Congrats on a successful SS09! I hope it's a springboard to really great things!
Congratulations! You made it onto Knitter's Review!!! Yippee!!!!!!!!!!!!!
http://www.knittersreview.com/article_event.asp?article=/review/profile/090820_a.asp
My friend Booa bought me yarn at the Sock Summit because I couldn't go and she bought me two skeins of your yarn: microbrew and downtown dusk. I am so thrilled and excited; I make small moans of joy and do a little jig of excitement everytime I walk past them on the table. Thank you SOO much for these lovely colors/skeins. I am just so excited to start working with them.