Sock Camp Part II... and more!

The third day of sock camp, I had a class in with Stephanie Pearl-McPhee (that would be the Yarn Harlot) on lever knitting. It is much more charming when said with a Canadian accent. ;) I was very excited to learn this because, as a more-or-less "continental" knitter, purling is a pain. I am actually quite happy with my speed when knitting stockinette in the round, or even garter stitch, though I rarely knit flat. But ribbing is practically the bane of my existence.

Well here is my very first lever knitting swatch, I started out with garter stitch and moved to a 3x3 rib.



We were told that we were basically going back to our knitting infancy, and would probably (temporarily) have the same problems as we did when we were new knitters. Though I picked up the technique pretty quickly, I was indeed a very very tight knitter all over again. But I picked up a set of long straights to practice with.

That afternoon we had a group scavenger hunt which proved to be a lot of fun and a lot of work! Here are a few of the photos we needed to obtain...

Our group, doing a yoga pose:



A glass with the bottom covered in rainwater (we brought our actual rainwater) and a photo of a team member collecting it:



A very brave team member mouth-siphoned it out of a puddle with a straw. And look at her gorgeous sweater! Of course, later on it started pouring.

And our entire team in a (my!) bathtub:



This is what sock camp is like. We are all nuts. It's great fun, but you have to be prepared.

Friday morning we had our last class, with Cat Bordhi. She taught us a new and top secret sock architecture which I can't share, but here's a picture of my skeined up dyed yarn from the first day. I used it to start the sock in her class.



Friday we had our last dinner and shared our homework. The assignment was to knit a crab or other sea creature, and I knit a nudibranch. Oh, and apparently a lot of them (including the ones pictured at the link) are toxic. I'm not sure if that's true of the ones native to Puget Sound, but since some have bright orange ruffles it probably is. Here's my little guy:



My goal this year was not to get attached to my homework, since in past years we've given them away, but this year we got to keep our own. Although mine was small and didn't take too long to knit, it turned out really cute but it was a pain to make the ruffle! I was going to write up the pattern, but I don't know if anyone else would really want to go through the hassle.

This morning we had breakfast and then headed home. I was sad to leave, but I really needed a nap! Sock camp is so amazing and educational, but also exhausting. This is most of the knitting I got done there:



I started the heel flap on my Snarfy-twin socks on the ferry home. And when I got home I found Wendy's new sock book, Socks from the Toe Up, which I won in her blog contest. I looked through it and it's awesome! Plus, it came signed.



I'll definitely be sockin' on.

Listening to: Muzzle ~ Smashing Pumpkins, End of the Beginning ~ 30 Seconds To Mars