Goodies, Goodies!! Or, Gifties & What I Bought At Sock Summit

I'll mention that if this sort of thing bores you? There's a new foodie post up on Nana Sadie's Place..but I kinda think most of you want to see these! heheh

Sock Summit was an event beyond my wildest expectations. The classes, the people, the Marketplace. Wow.

And then there were a few surprises:

This one I think was the best (and I'm not downplaying the others, but this one came from left field and was completely delightful, especially because it raised my spirits on a day I was feeling pretty low). On Saturday, I was overwhelmed and worn out, and went back to the room to rest a bit rather than do more sightseeing as planned. About 3, I felt better, and wandered back to the Marketplace to see who and what might be up. Jocelyn was there and told me I needed to get to the information center as they'd been paging me all afternoon! I couldn't imagine why. When I got there, I was told that someone had something for me, a surprise, and they paged the person. We all waited, excitedly, to see what was up (the gals at the information desk were as interested and expectant as I). Two young women appeared, one with package and a card, sent by someone who'd not been able to get to SS09 but wanted to surprise me:
Denise had made me an extra special luggage tag (it reads "Not without my Knitting" and sports two large knitted daisies with button centers, in case that photo isn't the best) and included the nicest note. It was another of those special moments that brought tears to my eyes. I sent her a hug via her friends, but I just had to share this with all of YOU, too! Stop by and say hi to Denise, okay? She's got an extra special occasion coming up in her life which made the trip to Portland impossible for her. But what a sweetie she is - and THANK YOU, Denise, I will treasure this gift - not to mention, never worry about losing sight of my luggage again! :)

Now I'll share the stash enhancement:
Jocelyn had blogged about this colorway of the Blue Moon Rockin' Sock Club a couple of months ago, saying it reminded her of me. Well, see what she brought me? It's Pepe Le Plume (and I surely hope this is going to make it into Tina's colors next year, because it's just yummy and everyone should have some!). Thank you, Jocelyn!!!

My partner in this trip, Dianne bestowed a scrumptious skein of Smooshy upon me. She had no idea that I have never knit any of it. I've heard so much wondrous stuff about this yarn! It's got very subtle purples in there with the navy so, tho' I'm bad at photos, I can assure you, it's one of the richest colorways I've seen...yummy! And thank you again, Dianne!

I think I might have mentioned last night, that Jocelyn is an excellent enabler? She was working with Chris from Briar Rose and enabled me right into this (yes, you'll want to make the photo bigger, I promise):
I have no idea what I'll make but there's 800 yards there of that merino tencel blend called SeaPearl. It's not up on her site yet, but will be soon (eta: It's UP!)...The button is perfect with the colors, and I loved the little spirals in it. Now. A shawl of course, (it's laceweight, yes) will be perfect - the button can become a shawl pin or even just somehow button the shawl? We'll see....

One of my very favorite yarn companies is Cherry Tree Hill, so I made it a priority to visit their booth. I was making my normal "My family is from Vermont, so it always feels like home when I visit your site," explanation, and I drifted towards the pattern wall...on that side of the booth was this:
A new potluck colorway, Aubergine. I swooned. I picked one up, and started to the cash register. I turned back, and picked up a second skein. I bought a CTH pattern for half-fingered mitts. I should have also bought their hat pattern I liked, but I felt gluttonous. As I began the checkout process, Cheryl told me, "That's a brand new colorway that goes with the e-book on our website. You're the first person to buy it, please post it on Ravelry?"

Oh my. Yes, I will. I promise. And here, too!

Something I'd promised myself I'd find, was a coordinating yarn for one of the Art Walk colorways I'd gotten. I was thinking of Ulmus since Birdsong, Margene, and Barbara had made such pretty ones. I loved the burgundy/greens in Roxy's yarn from 2008, so I snipped a bit of the greens and took it with me to try to match:
At Fiber Optics (in The Fold's booth) I think I found the perfect yarn. No colorway to tell you, this is one of a kind yarn...Don't you think the two are great together?

I wored my Beached Shawl That Jazz on day one, and decided that, with the chilly temperatures in Portland, I really needed to think about socks to match. So of course, at Blue Moon's booth, I snagged some STR:

Later, I snagged a Split Yarn pouch:
I'd thought to pick up one of her Box Bags, too, but she didn't have more of this fabric - we'll see the new items she'll be restocking with soon... (yes, we sewists buy each other's stuff, of course we do!)
Above too, are two shawl pins, a pretty smaller stick from Knitting Notions in bloodwood and a walnut spiral from Chappy's.
I went back later for the pin, but my first time at Chappy's I picked up the sitting cat sock blockers I've wanted forever. I've got another set unofficially ordered, I sent a photo of what I want, and as soon as my funds are replenished from this trip? I'm getting those, too!

On Sunday, I trundled back thru the Marketplace again, and realized I'd completely missed Sassafras Creations:
I've got my eye on a bracelet, too...in the future. I just LOVE the pink aluminum earrings, though, and have worn them two days this week already!

I picked up a couple of books while there:

And then? Well, I'd planned on three major purchases, scrimped and saved with something in the luxury line in mind. Only two happened:
Yes. Signature Needles. I bought a set of 5, 1.5 mm dpns.

They knit like a dream...and didn't quite cost the earth (just almost!)
and I'm on the mailing list for the circulars they're fine-tuning. You can bet I'll have a set for socks.

Buffalo Gold had a "bailout" special...if you reserved in advance and brought yarn to donate to an excellent cause (the Butanese Refugees knitters group, which my friend Myrna Stahman is affliated with), you got a $20 reduction in the price of Buffalo Gold. I reserved. I cleared out my stash of not one, but several skeins for this worthy cause, and traded them in. It's amazing.
It's so soft. 3 patterns came with the bailout program, and I've yet to decide which I'll knit with this, but, I might have trouble getting it finished:
You see, I have competition for this skein...

The Meezer loves Buffalo. Who'd have thought?

(I am now officially on a yarn diet till NoSoKnit, the end of September.)