Anna Zilboorg touched my little sock!

Dear Shayne,

Wow. Sock Summit was absolutely amazing. Seriously. One of the best parts about it was seeing various knitting stars walking around and even (and this is silly to say, but it was cool) using the same public restrooms that we did! (Seriously, you'd come out of a stall and think, "Wow... is that... [fill in famous knitter here]?!" And it was!)

I saw Stephanie Pearl-McPhee (I actually had a class with her -- more on that later), Amy Singer (editor of Knitty), Barbara Walker (author, feminist, and knitter extraordinaire), Lucy Neatby, Cookie A, Cat Bordhi (all amazing designers and fantastic knitting gurus), plus many more.

But one of the highlights of the weekend was when Anna Zilboorg sat down at the same table with me and my friends. You might right now be asking "Who is Anna Zilboorg?" and I'll tell you, Shayne: Among other things, she is the author of one of the best knitting books I have ever read: Knitting for Anarchists.

If you are a knitter and you have ever wondered what, exactly, is going on with your stitches as you create them, you should read this book. It's an eye-opener.

Besides being an illuminating author, Anna Zilboorg also turned out to be a lovely, gracious, smart, and funny woman. Exactly what you hope your idols will turn out to be. It was fantastic.

As she chatted with us, I explained that I had never actually knit a sock before. But then I realized, oh, wait -- I just finished one!


Anna picked up this sock to look at it and asked me some questions about what I like to knit, and then she put it down and we talked about her book (I admit it: I gushed a bit) and then she gracefully parted company from us.

After she left, I turned to my friends, we all babbled some about how amazing it was to talk to her, and then I blurted out: "Anna Zilboorg touched my little sock!"

Because, Shayne, it truly is a little sock:

(Yup. That's a US quarter for scale.)

I'm still working on the ones I showed you last week, but it was easier to finish this one, so I did.

Meanwhile, I have about a million other things to show you and tell you about from my awesome weekend at Sock Summit. I'll do my best to get them posted as soon as I can, but I must admit that I am still recovering from the buzz. Wheee!

love,
kelly