Thursday, August 06, 2009

SS09 Day 1

At last the day has arrived and Steph and Tina's grand production began in earnest at the Portland Convention Center. Registration opened Wednesday evening. Behind the scenes, vendors were busy setting up their booths and volunteers and staff were running about getting everything ready. If there was any fear of not being ready, it wasn't reflected in the atmosphere. All seemed calm and organized.

This morning opened calm, cool, and quiet except for the thuds of the gas men working on installing lines in a nearby house. The weather had turned cool with the promise of a truly pleasant weekend for the convention goers. When I arrived at the center, I found the halls filled with knitters relaxing and chatting with each other. I met up with some of my friends and settled down until it was time for my class. Hijinks abounded and the time spent people-watching and chatting was loads of fun.

My class for the afternoon was with Priscilla Gibson-Roberts, best known for her books Ethnic Socks and Stockings and Simple Socks Plain and Fancy. Health issues had kept her from making appearances at conferences so her presence there was quite a feat in itself. She gave a presentation of the socks she had gathered and seen over the years from various sources. She peppered the presentation with stories and was very approachable. During the break, we got the opportunity to view and examine some of the socks. Even though her presentation took longer than the class time, it was worth staying for the end.

1 comment:

Vtknitboy said...

that looks like my friend Nigel in the pic!