SailingKnitter

Terry concentrating on socks

It's been a whirlwind past couple of weeks! First was the hellish trip from Guatemala to Wisconsin with numerous flight delays including an unscheduled overnight stay in Houston, an attack of the infamous norovirus, and arriving a full day later than planned in Milwaukee. Thank goodness for friends like Patty who had the pharmacy in Guatemala City deliver Pedialyte oral rehydration solution and Tylenol to the hotel and Jim and Linda who waited 8 hours for me in Milwaukee with their rental car to drive up to knitting camp. THANK YOU so very much!

Big Meeting Room Full of Knitters

Meg Swansen's Knitting Camp was wonderful as always. I attend Retreat 2.75 with about 60 other voracious (and some famous) knitters. By the first full day of camp I was back to feeling good and was ready to immerse myself in woolly goodness and converse in knit tech talk.

Very cool clogs with knitted print

We spent the day in the meeting room around our tables and listening to Meg and other campers share new ideas, techniques, books, anything related to knitting. Of course we are free to knit all the time! After dinner, we gather either back in the big room for impromptu discussions or in the "living room" seating area of the hotel to (duh) knit.

The Generosity of Knitters

The week before camp, I mentioned on our group discussion forum on Ravelry that I was looking for sock yarn leftovers or unloved balls to knit more socks for the orphanage in Kazakhstan. The response was unbelievable!! Soon after arriving my seat at the table became loaded with bags and boxes of beautiful sock yarns - not just small leftover balls, but some really nice yarn. Aren't knitters the greatest??? This will surely keep me busy for at least a year or even more.

When Jonesy heard about the donations he was a little concerned about how I would be able to carry back such a haul of yarn on my trip back to Guatemala. But never fear...I packed an extra suitcase inside of my suitcase for boat parts and yarn! Also, I had brought with me to the USA a large amount of finished socks to ship to the Motherless Child Foundation so I will have plenty of space. After all, the yarn is necessary to pack around the delicate boat parts like LED lights to provide plenty of cushioning...really...no really. And it's more friendly to the environment than bubble wrap.

So above are the pair of socks that were my travel take-along pair. I didn't get a lot of knitting done because I was so sick and spent time sleeping on the floors of both the Guatemala and Houston airport. At camp, I started a new pair with some of the donated yarns and made these monster socks. Now, I am working on two different pairs of socks with some of the self-patterning yarns from my new stash of yarn.

My good friend Sandi B. gave me some chunky weight Brown Sheep Nature Spun wool that she had won at camp so I could knit something for the orphanage. Wow - does that fat yarn work up FAST! Here's the vest I knit which is ready to be sent off with the load of socks.


Now I am in Oregon having a wonderful visit with my friend and teaching a sock knitting class. More on that later...