"I've got a Golden Ticket..."

I worked rather late Tuesday night and half-heartedly checked my e-mail after 9PM.
There was an e-mail from the Sock Summit folks...hmmmm....
"Why?" I thought.

Tuesday afternoon, the last day of the Sock Summit Lottery, sometime before 1 PM, it appears my Sock Summit Lottery number was picked.

I was a bit stunned. I played a couple of games of Freecell, working on breathing...
I went back to my e-mail to look again.
"I've got a Golden Ticket" from the original "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory" started humming through my brain.
{Sing it, Grandpa Joe!!!!}

The e-mail was still there - and it offered me one of the 1-hour classes I most wanted "Hooked on Beads" with Sivia Harding. AND - a ticket to the Opening Ceremonies.
OMG!?!? A real, serious excuse to spend a whole buncha money to fly to Oregon and...fulfill a dream.

I'm going to the first ever, inaugural Sock Summit, 2009.
(And I'm rather freaked out, but also astoundingly pleased.)

So I started seriously reading the Sock Summit discussion group postings. There was a young lady there who was looking for folks to adopt her Sock Summit classes because she couldn't attend.
So now I have two classes at the Sock Summit! I'm also taking "Judy's Magic Cast-on" from the lady herself, Judy Becker - the 2nd 1-hour class I wanted most!

I have TWO classes at the Sock Summit!
(Freaking out a little more...)

I got some knitting/planning to do!!!!

Still feeling under-qualified to attend, I pondered the progress of my 3rd-ever pair of socks that I started Sunday:






I LOVE how this yarn is striping up.
Amazing Colors!












Colinette, Jitterbug, colorway "Sahara"
These are the socks for my friend, Joyce.

Notice please, the handsome Silver-gray cat-model who couldn't resist the circular cables...

Confession...the other day when I was lamenting my lack of Sock Summit participation and I went shopping for the "Sockgate" sock yarn...I bought some other yarn.

Yarn and a pattern - the "Seamingly Simple Vest" pattern and 2 skeins of the Amazing {seriously - decadently dark!!} Raven Clan Haida Twisted yarn with which to make the Seamingly Simple Vest. {contented sigh}
Oh - I had another helper for this "photo shoot":



(He's getting big - I need to catch up on the Kitten postings!)








See - decadent, soulful, soft, yummy- ness!







More "helping" from the getting-very-tall littlest one.








And it wound up into gigantic hug-able cakes!







I'm swatching! I'm thinking I might be able to wear it to the Sock Summit (doubtful) OR I might be able to knit on it as I wander about OR if I get to participate in our attempt to break the Guinness World Book of Records for “The Most Number of People Knitting Simultaneously”. (Note the Guinness-required standard, straight needles.)

Parting glimpse of the Handsome CooPurr (after I took that sock-yarny thing away from him):