One By One

Stitches West Bound

Tomorrow!

Enough said.

Stitches West 2008

Better late than never...

Last weekend was fantastic! I arrived early on Friday morning, and after being dropped off by seltsame, it was off to the Market with jessimuhka and krys.

The first stop had to be Blue Moon, of course, and it was first purchase of the day!

STR in heavyweight, Mill End in lightweight and Rare Gem in lightweight

The rest of the day is a bit of a blur, but purchases were made...

   

Tess' Superwash Merino (Back to School Vest from Fitted Knits?) and Laceweight

Tess' Super Sock & Baby (I see a couple of baby sweaters in my future)

Silk lace weight from RedFish Dye Works (this booth was one of the prettiest in the entire show - a million colors all sorted via color gradient - just beautiful!)

Patterns from Knitwhits, La Lana and tank from Argosy Luxury Yarns

Saturday Krys and I had our Estonian Lace class with Nancy Bush. Being the slow knitter that I am, I did not finish the sample we were working on, but the class was really great. Very informative with tips and tricks for approaching Estonian Lace. Upon Nancy talking about her upcoming book and showing examples of shawls, she indicated that one of the patterns in her new book was identical to one of the samples she was holding up but done in a pink laceweight from the Yarn Place. Yep, I was sold, and at the break I just had to get the yarn for when her book is published in the fall:

Also during the break, I purchased a few things I held off on from Friday until I had seen the entire Market:

Brooks Farm Acero, I'm thinking for the Swallowtail Shawl

Everywhere Wrap pattern from Hemp for Knitting, with the Cashmere Canapa in Espresso for it

After class, we met up with the nut graf at the Yarn Dogs booth. There we met the owner of Curious Creek Fibers. She was telling us about her coloring technique and the new colorways she is offering. She also told us that she just released a laceweight.... and that Yarn Dogs is the only place where you could buy it, even though she is based in San Diego. She used one of the knitters enabling phrases - so of course I just had to buy a skein!

Lastly, we stopped by the Black Water Abbey booth, and I just had to get these buttons:

We learned an important lesson this year - it is much better to shop the Market on Friday than on Saturday. Saturday was a complete zoo, making it impossible to get in and out of booths, being constantly ran-over by rolling carts, and being belly-bumped (because it does stick out a bit) without apologies at every turn. On the plus side, the Hyatt must have taken some suggestions to heart, and was actually prepared for the large number of people in the hotel. In addition to their normal restaurant and bar for food service, they also opened up a ballroom that maintained a reasonably priced buffet for breakfast, lunch and dinner. A great success on their part - we hardly had to wait to eat the entire weekend.

It was a fantastically exhausting weekend. Stitches is high energy as it is, and with the pregnant belly in tow I was just completely spent. I was bummed because we missed out on a knitting get-together on Friday, as well as Saturday night knitting at Purlescence. Honestly, I was completely exhausted. I definitely plan on catching up with everyone next year - DH has already promised to take the baby for the weekend so I can have a knitterly weekend with the girls! Who's game?!

Back from Stitches West!

I flew back to San Diego late on Sunday evening after classes. As usual, the entire Stitches West experience was a ton of fun and a bit over-whelming. It took me until now to decompress and I don't even know where to begin... okay, at the beginning.

Kris and I met up at the San Jose airport after our flights landed at about noon on Friday. Since we decided to stay at the hotel where Stitches was this year, we did not get a rental car, but Seltsame was so very kind and picked us up to take us to the hotel/convention center so that we would have more yarn money!

We attempted to check into the hotel early. No such luck, so we dumped our bags with the bellman and head straight to the convention center.

First stop - why Blue Moon of course!!

Socks that Rock! From left to right - Pink Granite, Nodding Violet, Carbon Dating

I think we were one of the lucky ones in that there was still a bit of a selection left on Friday afternoon. The Pink Granite and Carbon Dating were the first ones I grabbed - the Nodding Violet was added on Saturday, but I'll get to that later.

We then stopped by the Purlescence Booth and said HI to Nathania.

Quickly we were off to the Tess Yarn's booth, and found nothing but complete yarn loveliness. Here is the haul from both Friday and Saturday:

Superwash hand-dyed wool sock yarn for $15 eachHand dyed superwash merino lace weight, 500 yards per hank at $10 each.

This is where things get a little fuzzy on Friday. I think it went something like this...

1. Lunch

2. Getting our Victorian Lace Today books signed by the author Jane Sowerby... and somehow some Claudia's Handpainted Sock yarn ended up in my stash:

Color #014, Just Plum

3. A Webs stop that consisted of purchasing quite a bit of yarn. It's so hard to pass up their discount and no shipping charge!

Twelve hanks of Berroco Bonsai for the Bonsai Tunic from the most recent IK, Color #4149RYC Cashsoft and Baby Cashsoft DK: Eight balls of Mist #505 on the left (I'm thinking another Fiery Bolero but for me) and Twelve balls of Borage #806 on the right (project TBD).

4. A swing by Brooks Farms yarns:

Three hanks of Four-Play in blues and purples for the short-sleeved version of Stitch Diva's Sahara.

5. And a purchase at Yarn Barn:

Interweave Knits Spring 2003 issue. I have been eyeing knitzalot's start on Remembering Honey and I think I really need to knit one too.

6. Admiring the shawl samples from Victorian Lace Today on display at the Knitting Universe booth. Oh, what beautiful-ness... I could really knit each and every one of them!

After the Market closed, and we checked into our room, we met up the A Little Loopy gals and knitzalot for dinner at the hotel restaurant. It took awhile to get a table (the hotel was really under-staffed for the event going on next door at the convention center).... but the food, wine and company were quite wonderful.

After dinner, we were both exhausted. Kris more so than I with the time change from the east coast. I worked on a swatch using the newly acquired Bonsai yarn for the IK Tunic and was asleep by 10:30PM.

Saturday was an early rise-and-shine with the start of Kris' all day class (lucky girl getting to meet Nancy Bush!). I hung out in the room for a bit, finished the tunic swatch from the night before, and got ready to head down to the Market for the 10AM opening.

Kris text-messaged me at 9AM. The funny thing about this text was that I had asked Kris the night before if she wanted me to swing by Blue Moon in the morning to see if they had held back on displaying all their stock as there were two colors she wanted that they did not have on Friday afternoon. After the spending spree with both did, she quickly told me no-thank-you. The 9AM message - the two colors she wanted... she changed her mind :)

But I can completely respect that, so Blue Moon was my first stop when the Market opened. I headed straight there, and since they were in the back of the hall I only had to maneuver around two other ladies. They had one of the two colors Kris wanted (the Nodding Violet), and they only had two hanks of that color left. I liked it so much as well, I ended up with one too!

I bummed around the Market for awhile, picked up a couple patterns here and there, and did some catching up on the booths we missed the day before. Stitch Diva had a free demonstration on Hairpin Lace techniques, so I attended that. I then met Kris for lunch, met up with a couple of the A Little Loopy gals and knitzalot where Kris and I were informed that we completely missed the booth that had Cookie's patterns. We definitely had to head there, where, in addition to a couple patterns, I picked up:

Louet Gems in Eggplant Jaggerspun Superfine Merino, #3034 Elderberry, 630 yards

I also did some buying on Kris' behalf as she had to bolt back to her class.

Left to my own devices, I systematically walked the rest of the Market, taking note of two booths I most definitely had to take Kris to after her class was over. I went back up to the hotel room for a couple of hours, cast-on for the Bonsai Tunic and put my feet up.

After Kris called to say she was done, I took her to:

1. The Windy Vally Muskox booth where they had many many luxury fibers... that were completely out of my price range at that point. The good news was that patterns were free when yarn was purchased for it. So I did find that I had to have:

Three balls of 100% Merino in Color #7010 for the Suri Caplet.

2. A booth that had unique shawl and scarf pins:

I just love these - they can also be used as hair clips!

We did a bit more perusing before the Market closed. We headed to the Stitch Diva booth, and after an impromptu lesson on hairpin lace for Kris we both purchased the looms. I also picked up some 30 gauge wire for knit / crochet / hairpin lace jewelry making:

Our very last stop for the day was at Webs so that we could scope out the yarn choices for the Lotus Smock Cami. Kris made a purchase - I held off because I just might have enough ArtFiber's Golden Chai leftover that would be perfect.

Saturday night we met up with CJ, Seltsame and Christina for dinner at Pasta Pomodoro. We then headed to Purlescence for some visiting and some knitting, before turning in for the night at almost midnight.

Can you believe the length of this post?!? Thank you to all of you who have stuck with it thus far. I have yet to say anything about the two classes I took on Sunday. Let's keep it simple and just say:

The first class was a wonderful class on short-row techniques from Fiona Ellis (the author of Inspired Cable Knits). She brought a few of the sweater samples from the book and they were all just lovely.

The second class was on converting flat patterns to circular ones taught by Gwen Bortner. This class was super informative and definitely gave me the skills (and guts) to give it a try sometime.

The only thing I would consider changing for next year (of course I'm going next year!) is to maybe get to Stitches on Thursday instead of Friday and head home earlier. I was literally exhausted by Sunday afternoon and getting up for work on Monday was extremely difficult.

Now to get cracking on that newly acquired yarn stash so I can justify a trip the Rhinebeck this year!

Stitches West Knit-Blogger Dinner

Just passing the word around!

There is going to be a knit-blogger dinner on Saturday evening at Pasta Pomodoro. We've had so much fun the last two years, I'm so excited that we are doing it again this year! Either head over to CJ's blog, or leave me a comment here with your email address, and the evite will be sent your way so reservations are made for the right number of people.

Twenty-four hours and counting until I board that plane!!

All Signed Up!

Stitches West 2007 here we come!

Classes - Check - Short Rows for Shaping & Beyond and Flat to Circular & Back Again (both on Sunday).

Hotel - Check - Staying where the event is taking place, the Hyatt.

Flight - Still need to book - Waiting to see what Kris' flight times are so we can arrive at about the same time.

Rental Car - Nope - We decided to skip it since we are staying at the Hyatt. Hopefully we will be able to take the same taxi/shuttle or something when we arrive.

I'm trying to convince someone that she needs to come even if it is just for the day on Saturday... I think I need to twist her arm harder. I know she will just love the Market, I just know it!

So - who else is going??

Stitches Quickie...

All I've got to say at this point is:

The stash gained after shopping at the market on Saturday only (you'll have to look here to see the stash gained on Friday, not by your's truly). Don't worry, this is not all mine... it's an all-inclusive shot that includes the purchases of Kris and Miyon as well. BUT, do keep in mind that what I did purchase is not all for me (ummhumm... Erika...) AND I did make another trip to the market this morning while the other two "partners in crime" were in a class. YET, what I did purchase today was not all for me (ummhumm... Erika... again...). You'll just have to wait in suspense as I am entirely exhausted, and still fighting this sick.

I also owe a Knitting Olympic's update - to be saved for another day...

Stitches West 2006!

It's this coming weekend!

CJ and Sheetal are organizing a dinner after the Market on Saturday. Please RSVP if you can make it :)

A Weekend of Organization and Homework

...but first it was a little fun at Knitting in La Jolla on Saturday morning:

I picked up some Rowan Cashsoft Aran in Oatmeal for Stitches Homework and some learning in the continental style, and the most recent issue of Family Circle Easy Knitting. I know, I know, 'Family Circle Easy Knitting'? Not my typical magazine purchase, but I just feel in love with:

 

Way cute - Couldn't pass it up!

Then it was onto organization - of my craft / sewing / computer room. I guess I shouldn't complain about having to make it a workable area.... it's where I get to store yarn, patterns, books, fabric and everything else sewing...

Before:

After:

Much better! I still have a mini-tower of boxes to go through, but they contain items that belong elsewhere in the house. Our bedroom will be next - but that requires the purchase of a wardrobe unit :)

Then it was onto the swatches needed for the finishing class I'm signed up for during Stitches West... here they are, blocking away:

I need to pick up some true stitch holders, my waste yarn just isn't going to do :) They look a bit on the pink side in the picture, but they are a more wintery white. I. Love. This. Yarn. It is so soft and luxurious. I used this same yarn, in it's DK weight, in knitting Cassie's bolero, and it was a joy to work with. I look forward to teaching myself (and practicing) the continental style of knitting. I think a scarf is in order!