Sock Summit 2009
Taking Sock Knitting Almost Too Far!
August 6-9, 2009
Oregon Convention Center
Portland, Oregon
Set a World Record
The Sock Summit (because we’re all about making it big) is making an attempt to break the Guinness World Record for The Most Number of People Knitting Simultaneously. The attempt will be made Friday, the 7th of August at 12:15, in the Oregon Ballroom of the Convention Center.
As the capacity of the ballroom is limited to 1600 knitters, we will be giving tickets away on Friday morning between 7:00 and 9:00 (or until they are gone, we’ll stay later if we need to) in the registration area of the conference center. You do not need to be registered for the Summit to take part, but nobody without a ticket will be able to take part. The tickets are free, first-come, first-served, and ONE EACH. We ask that you only take a ticket if you can show up, since we don’t want any empty seats. We will begin admitting people at 11:30am. (If you are taking a morning class that day, there will be time for you to move from your classroom to the ballroom as long as you put a little hustle in it.)
The Guinness World Record people have advised us that the attempt must be made by knitters knitting for 15 minutes, using traditional needleswhich they define as two needles. This means that every person participating must be using two needles, and NOT CIRCULARS.
We think this is going to be about 16 sorts of fun, and hope you will join us.
Questions? We’ve got answers.
When you say two needles, do you really mean two needles? Couldn’t I use four dpns and knit on my sock, because really, I’m only using two at a time?
Nope. Two is two. You and I know that you’re technically only using two at a time, but because the other needles have jobs and are present in the project, that’s four. Four is not two. (We know this, because we checked with the Guinness people.)
I know! I’ll knit a heel flap. Two needles!
See above. Even though you’re only using two, there are still four in the project, and the Guinness people will see four, so to them, that’s not two.
When you say “NOT CIRCULARS” do you really mean not circulars?
We know where you’re going with this. One circular is really two needles joined by a cable. Therefore, two needles… right? Nope. The join makes it one needle. When we say “not circulars” we really mean it, though we really hope that circular loving knitters don’t take it personally. We love circulars too.
The Guinness rules are necessarily tight to ensure fairness and uniformity worldwide… to make sure that every attempt is even and the same. We need to submit pictures and film of the attempt, and there can be nothing they see that break those rules, or we could do all of it for nothing. 15 minutes with your less than favourite needles to set a world record is fair… right?
