Stitches West

The Stitches West conference was nearby in Santa Clara this weekend, and three of us made it to the market for purchasing our favorite item - yarn. It was yarnatopia, yarnville, yarn, yarn, yarn everywhere in addition to other knitting and crochet related items!! I wanted to take a million pictures, but unfortunately they didn't allow photography - bummer. I was at the convention center when the doors opened at 10. I had my ticket and cash in hand. I took a specific amount of cash to spend and then that was it...no more was to be spent. Huguette and Liz were making their way south but would not arrive for another hour and 20 minutes. They called me to tell me to go ahead without them. Don't they know me well enough by now? Me, wait? For them? When there's yarn to be fondled? What were they thinking? Of course I went ahead without them. In fact, I think that I was fondling yarn when they called to tell me not to wait. Not even 5 minutes had passed when a big chunk of my cash was flowing freely from my hands. It was crazy! I had the best time, but missed experiencing it with my friends. I found all kinds of yarn that I can't get easily in my town. By the time that Huguette and Liz arrived, I had already used all my cash and whipped out my credit card twice in order to buy more. I definitely went over my limit. However, I vow that this is the last yarn purchase until September when there will be another conference in Oakland. (Ok, let's really see how long that will last!)

We had the best time looking all around at the goodies. Liz took quite a while before she purchased any yarn, but she did good. She found what she called "Happy Yarn". Huguette found lots of yarn. I was exhausted and found a place to sit and knit for a while. Liz and Huguette left their bags with me and went forth to buy, buy, buy. I had fun waiting to see who would return and with what. It was almost like a yarn treasure hunt. Before we left Huguette purchased enough beautiful, soft, luxurious alpaca yarn to make a sweater. I can't wait to see it in progress! We made one attempt to leave, but just before going through the door we realized that we had to go back. We heard some specific sock yarn calling our names. It was just whispering to us as we decided to leave, but Huguette and I could hear it yelling our names before we reached the Exit. Our second attempt to extract ourselves from the ultimate yarn shop was successful. We headed to the Hyatt hotel next door to eat. We were tired, thirsty, hungry and high on yarn fumes! Here are our purchases:

First, Liz and her Happy Yarn

Next, Huguette (she won the prize for most yarn purchased)


Then there is myself (Erin) with my purchases:




I have that "MINE, ALL MINE" look on my face. I can't wait to start using all this wonderful yarn!

We missed you Tamami!