Man Camp
One week from today, I’ll be somewhere north of Albany, NY at the Men’s Spring Knitting Retreat. Thanks Joe and Ted for thinking this up and organizing everything!
And, heck, thanks for letting me lead a workshop (which I prefer to call a conversation) on men’s sock design. In the spirit of an informal gathering, I make no promises that anyone will walk away from the two hours with a brand spanking new sock design, but I expect we’ll have a good time talking about ways to approach a more manly sock. Sort of a hot man-on-man-on sock discussion, if you will. Let’s be honest, I can’t teach anyone to be creative… that’s already inside each of us. For anyone who can’t make it, feel free to contact me via email or in the comments to share your thoughts on the state of male sock design.
For those of you missing a Y chromosome, I will be bringing the YKNIT microphone to try to capture some of goings-on. I trust that since it’s men, it will be very structured, restrained fun, lacking creativity and focused on the serious, serious business of knitting. </sarcasm> I’m looking forward to meeting many of the guys I read (and listen to) face-to-face. (Yes, there will be pictures. No, not in bathtubs.)
From there, it’s off to meet Mr. Man in Berlin. That Berlin. He’s been itching to get back for the past five years. His years stationed in Germany during the 80’s have damaged him, compelling him to return to Deutschland often. He’ll be running around photo’ing and I’ll be happy not to be at the office. Anyone know of any knitting there? Let your Berliner (or jelly doughnut) friends know I’m available for Kaffee und Stricken. Or Bier(e).
I should head off to the day job… how many more days until camp?
May 9th, 2008 at 8:45 am
Seven. Not that I’m counting. 🙂
May 9th, 2008 at 9:03 am
hey, let me know when you’ll be there, maybe i can come up for a day or two. otherwise, the lovely fbz (http://fabienne.us) will know about all things berlin!
May 9th, 2008 at 9:15 am
I’m not so far from Albany. I’m brewing a Yentil like plan.
May 9th, 2008 at 9:29 am
Mel beat me to the count…LOL. And yes, I’m sure the group will be very restrained. I’m only guessing based on the conversations already going on in the Ravelry forums.
Can’t wait! I need a few days off!
May 9th, 2008 at 10:41 am
I am looking forward to hearing your Man Camp stories. How relaxing it will be to be surrounded by the Y instead of all those double X types. And Germany is Knitting Central. I don’t know in particular about Berlin, but every German town I’ve been to has at least one shop, and some have many. Lots of cool sock yarn for low prices (although with the dollar so down, maybe not so low any more) .
May 9th, 2008 at 5:29 pm
I won’t be in your workshop, but here’s my 2 suggestions for improving socks for men.
1) Put the heel gusset decreases at the bottom of the flap, rather than at the top. Allows more flexibility in the fabric spanning the instep.
2) Work small gussets on the sides of the instep to give more fabric where the circumference of the sock needs to be greatest.
I think I wrote about both of these on my blog somewhere, but anyway, here you are.
May 10th, 2008 at 12:55 am
Urgh…sorry, I’m sooooo not en par with schedules at the moment. You’re going to be in Berlin already and I totally forgot about organising for myself to try get up there…which seems impossible now. :-/ We’ll see, perhaps you’ll get to pop down to Munich for a day or two.
I’ll probably email you my cellphone number, just in case.
May 13th, 2008 at 7:05 am
Down to three days! Looking forward to meeting you and everyone else at “Man Camp”!
May 14th, 2008 at 1:04 pm
Hey! I’d be interested in knowing more about better sock design for men so I can knit the DH some manly man socks!
Oh hey, while you’re in Germany, can you find me some fab Wollmeise sock yarn? It continues to be bought out before I can get some at The Loopy Ewe!
I look forward to hearing about your Man Camp and Germany exploits.