Newsletter: Feature

Show Me Your Socks….Illinois

was held in Monticello Illinois the weekend before thanksgiving, 2022. And let me just tell you, it was a smashing success, even if I was one of the hostesses! I am pretty sure no one had more fun than me! In fact, I had so much fun, I forgot to take pictures…so I know our illustrious editor will swipe some off of Facebook and add them to this article. There was only one official class. Jan, a friend of Dorinda and Sharon, is a wire worker who came along with her friends to the crank-in. She taught us how to make the prettiest ornament by bending wire. That was fun, even if my ornament turned out a little wonky. I will use some of the skills she taught in my other dabbling of the jewelry projects. Cross-crafting is always good, right?? 

 In spite of the no class format, let me just tell you, there was a lot of learning going on. I couldn’t ‘t get through the room without someone asking me to help them. I am pretty sure all who attended learned something. We had a cup cozy challenge…just a fun little mixer project to get everyone working on something. We voted on the winner and the Christmas Chicken won. Personally, I voted for the thong. We ate like queens. Menisha, the hotel owner, fed us a fabulous lunch every day. And yes, we went to eat TACOS twice at the Mexican joint down the road. Sue did an impromptu ribbing lesson, always fun when you’re not the one she’s giving the lesson to….I say this because she’s known to give her students pop quizzes after the class is over to see if you can troubleshoot what she did to mess your ribber up in your absence. Always fun because A.) you know it’s going to happen at home and B.) if you can’t get it back to ribbing 100% she’s not going to run off and say “too bad”. She’ll always help you get it back to working order! 

Door prizes were so much fun and I am pretty sure everyone won something. There were homemade woven goodies to bars of soap to antique coffee makers and of course yarn in the pile. The swag bags for those attending were full of goodies… I heard someone saying “it’s like Christmas” when they were going through their bag! I know you curious people want to know what was in them. and you should know that we Missouri (and Illinios) girls contributed to the bags to make them even more fun… Cause there just ain’t no party like a Show Me Your Socks Missouri party even if it’s in Illinois!!! 

This is Danita, she has a Dean and Bean’s Sock Machine. She bought Jenny’s books and brought them with her to talk to Jenny about how to read the patterns. Having attended most or all of Jenny’s Famous Sock Schools, I felt qualified to interpret. I gave her about 1 minute of tutorial. Next thing I know she’s showing me this sock. Um, yes, I think she’s got it. She makes that Dean and Bean’s Sock Machine sing!

Rich and Mike will need to be separated at any upcoming events. It has been decided that when sitting next to each other there’s too much testosterone in the air and the brain power is so strong, there’s a fog. Especially when claiming they had one dropped stitch when in fact, they failed to insert a ribber needle in the first place. Funny how that works.

Jeff, my husband, attended his first multi-day crank in (he brought his mom!). The good news is that he will be allowed to return and no lasting damage was inflicted, nor do I think we traumatized him too much. He was often found contributing to the testosterone think tank during the weekend. I could hear him talking pretty big about sock making and doling out advice to those who asked. He must have gotten to feeling bad about all the advice because he sat down and made a pair of socks. Said pair was his second pair of socks ever. However, the man has spent many many many hours listening to me on the phone (on nights and weekends when I wasn’t at my former day job) and holding the camera while I filmed something to help someone and all of his advice given was fairly accurate. But I still bet I wasn’t supposed to tell you the part about the second pair of socks. BTW, his mom (one of my two fabulous mothers-in-law) had a good time too!

It was fun to see the Thursday CSKMS Zoom girls getting together in person. They had so much fun and so much to talk about. And they still want you to know that if you are always welcome to join them on Thursdays at 3! What started as a stupid covid lock down social has turned into lasting friendships of people all over the country!

Arija and Lois drove from UPSTATE NEW YORK to Illinois to attend. AND, there were some first timers as well. We did our best to make sure they felt welcome and had a good time. 

By the time everyone packed and we (and by we, I mean Rich) vacuumed the room, there were only 2 left. One stayed up so late the night before that she slept through breakfast and the other was hard at it trying to organize her “stuff” before packing (I know we can all relate to that). We gave them the over achievers award and said goodbye until next year!

Submitted by Jamie Mayfield

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