Stitches West

Ok, I know I'm like WOW late with my Stitches West wrap-up post, but here goes anyway.

I got the goods.


Clicky for details.

This was my first Stitches. I took my mom and we had a fabulous time. But I have no pictures. Not camnesia per se, but memory card-nesia. Had the camera, just couldn't take pictures. Great job. I also forgot my knitting on Thursday. Dork. Here's proof we were really there.

We signed up for a class, so got to go to the market preview on Thursday. The market was definitely overwhelming. So much yarn! So shiny!

I had a plan of attack all lined up, my map with little stars and notes and highlighted names and a pocket full of cash with YARN written all over it. I made a total fool of myself and got Cookie A's autograph. I became an instant enabler and my mom went from "not going to buy anything" to spending almost as much money as I did.

I got plenty of what I had wanted (see above). But, not all. You'd think with a warehouse full of yarn, I could get anything my little heart desired. First off, I missed out on Norah Gaughan Vol. 2 and Malabrigo worsted in Azul Profundo, but most disappointing was the yarn for Venezia (ravelink). I wanted to knit it in two colors (like this one), but other than Black Water Abbey's fingering yarn (that only comes in natural sheep colors), I didn't see any appropriate fingering sweatery yarn. It was either superwash or too heavy or too light... Poo.

So, what's a girl to do with $100 left at the end of a yarny weekend? Order from KnitPicks of course. Palette saved the day, and now my Venezia is only costing $20. Nice.

The class I took was Design your Dream Sweater with Leslye Solomon on Sunday morning. I have thought about trying my hand at designing, but was always too freaked out by the math and the thought of making it fit together right. Like the armscye? First of all, what the heck is an armscye, and secondly how do I make it the right size? Eek. But Leslye had some really good tips and now I'm not so afraid. Now if people would just stop publishing patterns I like maybe I could convince myself to design my own. My mom took a class on log-cabin knitting, and has decided that she hates garter stitch.

Stitches was completely amazing. We had a lovely time!

Let the yarn diet commence!