That has been quite the question out in the blogosphere and on Ravelry over the past week.  Even Stephanie agonized over her choice.

The reality for me is there won’t be much time for anything once things get rolling.  Set-up starts in just a few short hours and I have a feeling the only yarn and needles I’ll be touching are the ones folks are purchasing!

Fortunately for me, there is the long flight to and from Portland.  Airplane time has always been a preferred knitting time for me – even better than the car.  Like everyone else, I thought about what to bring.  I felt compelled to bring a sock project, but I didn’t have one going and my sock knitting skills are such that I need to pay attention to what I’m doing.  Socks are not somthing I can pick up and put down on a whim.  I thought about some of the existing UFO’s I have but nothing really spoke to me.

Then, this arrived:

 

I had been hoping the advance shipment from Italy would arrive before I left, but I wasn’t holding out hope.  Then, on Monday afternoon literally an hour before I left the office to go home and pack, it came.  I grabbed one ball of every color and brought it home with me to decide on colors.  Here’s what I took:

I’ve had a design swirling in my head for awhile now and I new this yarn would be perfect.  I packed the above three colors (I actually took four, but only needed three) and this:

Yup – I’m at Sock Summit 2009 and I’m (a) not knitting a sock and (b) not knitting at all!  Yay for crochet!  I actually brought several hooks for swatching purposes.  Good thing I did, I ended up happy with an E hook and I went into things firmly believing G was going to work.  Swatch, Swatch, Swatch folks!

I can’t reveal the project in full, but these little beauties are part of it:

Don’t go shaking your head at my little grannies.  I heard those collective yawns.  You have no idea what these are going to be when all is said and done.  I hope in the end my idea works.  I think it will.

Oh – you’re wondering about the yarn?  This very special shipment from Italy?  Folks – it’s really awesome – super soft, it’s been great to work with.  Each ball has 137 yards and it will knit at 5.5 stitches per inch on a #6.  We won’t have it available for another few weeks, but we are super excited to introduce:

Our gorgeous 100% Extrafine Merino Superwash will soon be available in DK weight!  We’re starting out with 20 great colors but I know there will be more to come.  Valley Superwash DK will be only $4.99/ball.  So are you excited about Valley Superwash DK?

We still have one more surprise coming for fall.  I cannot even give a hint at this point, but it’s BIG!

Kathy

Tags: crochet, Sock Summit