Sock Summit 2011 (SS11) - Where to start?

I've been thinking about this most of the week.
So much to say. So many pictures to go through! (I took nearly 400 pictures!  Woof! Oh - and I still need to take pictures of yarn and take-home goodies! I guess I'll be reviewing nearly 500 pictures. Hmmmm.)

And I keep thinking of things that I forgot to take pictures of - before the moment passed, before I ate it, before I gave it away...and alllllll the names and faces of the amazing folks I met that I didn't jot down or record with a photo. (Huge, smack-my-forehead SIGH).

But there is still a lot to show-n-tell about.

So...starting at the beginning of my Sock Summit 2011 trip...
Don't panic - I'm going to skip the plane stuff. It was a normal-ish trip in my limited experience and I've nothing of specific interest to record.

Oh - wait, I lied. I did have some pictures from the plane:

Mountains - greeeeen!

Startling Blue Sky & Clouds (I loved the texture and shades of white, gray, lavender...)

No - not a Sock Summit "Twilight Zone" moment about something out on the wing...

My first completed pair of baby booties.

I finished the first bootie and knit the 2nd one on the way to Portland. I wanted to knit something in honor of Rav-baby "Eloise" as suggested by the Sock Summit organizers. Since Eloise is most likely well stocked in knitted items, they suggested we knit/shop for Snowcap ("a Portland charity that provides food, clothing and advocacy to those who need it").

I'd been semi-living at work the weeks before the Sock Summit so having realized I was not going to be knitting the baby sweater I'd planned, I'd gone shopping for baby onesies and children's underwear to donate to Snowcap.
I also pulled out a languishing WIP (Work-in-progress) and plotted to finish these booties to donate in Eloise's name.

Oh - and this was too lovely not to snap a picture: Crater Lake.

Ok, off the plane and onto Portland, Oregon -
I did get to semi-meet some spiffy folks on the MAX train ride to the Convention Center. They had cards! Similar to Business Cards - more like calling cards of old. That was the new-to-me thing that many folks brought to the Summit. (Sure beats spelling K-I-N-I-A...25 times a day!)

All 3 ladies were very nice (especially about my tipping-over suitcase) and 2 gave me their cards.
Confession...the 3rd lady may have also given me a card, but I did a poor job keeping them organized and worse still, matching faces to cards. {sigh}. More-over, I didn't ask if I could feature them in the blog so here's some general references:
I believe one woman may have been the dyer of Three Fates Yarn (spiffy stuff) and another was a teacher at the Sock Summit with a familiar knitterly name! I earned a temporary nick-name of "Rav-girl"with said spiffy teacher/designer that I carried through the week with a slightly tickled grin.

That was one of the neat things about the Sock Summit - you'd meet someone and then meet them again and again throughout the event.

We travelled to the Oregon Convention Center and split up for our various hostelries.
It turned out that my assigned room at the Inn at the Convention Center was still occupied (no, it was past check-out/in time). I was temporarily shifted to a non-smoking "Handicapped" (??) room - but when I found cigarette butts decorating the mini-balcony, I asked to be moved. I ended up in a room that met the some-where-to-sleep criteria and I stayed for the duration. The stay was a bit of an adventure and I'll leave it at that. I will say that nearly everyone I met working at the hotel was very nice and I slept well.

It was Tuesday afternoon and I had plotted a trip downtown to a Yarn Shop, a Chocolate shop, Powells, and the Museum of Contemporary Craft.

As promised, I'm going to split the SS11 adventures into smaller blogs to avoid wearing out the reader - and the blogger.

Join me next blog for Weaving Art, Lost-in-Powells, Missed Yarn, and the very best Chocolate I have had in my entire life.