Knitters Everywhere

So I made it to Stitches! The storm was approaching the Bay Area, and the weather radar Friday evening didn't look pretty. After that New Year's storm and power outage, the word "storm" gets me nervous every time. Decided to go early, early in the morning on Saturday to beat the rain clouds. Then by 8 am I was sitting at the lobby of Hyatt and knitting.

Left a voicemail on Erin's cell phone, but she didn't call back after an hour. An extended weekend away from kids, Liz and Erin are enjoying sleeping in, of course, probably high on the yarn fume. I called again at 9:00, waking the girls up.
"Come on up, we are in room 715." Okie dokie. After several knocks, the door doesn't open. The TV's on, but no one answer the door. I call on the cell phone.
"Let me in!"
"Oh, okay."
Still, no one comes out.
My cell phone rings, and it's Erin.
"Um. You are not at Hyatt, are you? We are at Hilton."
I laughed all the way to Hilton (just across the street), even harder when I found Liz in the lobby of Hilton in her robe, buying coffee! When you are among knitters, anything is possible, and everything is forgiven. Well, almost.

After admiring their yarn acquisitions and hearing hilarious stories at the Stitches Market, I headed out for some shopping. I had limited time on my hands -- I was still worried about getting stranded in the huge storm.

The first booth I stopped was Wild Fibers. Linda Cortright, the editor and publisher of the magazine, was smiling away at me! I wish photographing was allowed. I chatted with her on how much I love the magazine. Linda commented that she wished more knitters cared about where their fibers came from. I agree -- Being a spinner/knitter, I do wonder what kind of sheep, animals once wore the fibers. Who sheared it, and how it came to me. Linda is so fortunate that she gets to travel around the world to see all that. Don't you just wish? Purchased several back numbers that I don't own. The one I already have, with my favorite story about the traveling shearers from New Zealand, will go to Huguette, who didn't make it out to Stitches.



Right across the aisle, there's Carolina Homespun. I bought some Misty Alpaca cotton/silk blend yarn, 35% off! I think I know what I want to knit with this. Citrus Yoke Pullover from IK Winter issue.

I also got some merino spinning fibers -- $10 for 4 oz. What a steal! It's actually soft yellowish.

Some brown corriedale from Carin Egan.

After admiring Betsy's sweater at the lunch table, I visited Just One More Row's booth. Purchased a pattern and a huge hunk of silk noil.

I love the colors. I have not read through the pattern, but it looks like it's going to take some thinking and calculations. I think I like that over the "just follow it exactly as it's written" kind of patterns, but let's just hope that I am good enough to get through it.

The most expensive purchase was signing myself up on the Golden Gate Fiber Institute Summer Intensive. I'm already very excited.

I hurried home, and by the time I got to Oakland, it was pouring. But it wasn't as windy as they had been predicting-- in fact by the time I got home around 5pm, the rain was tapering off to just a shower. I could have stayed longer at Stitches! But then maybe it was for the better. My huge stash containers are all 120% full. It became awfully windy and rained hard late that night, so it was a calm before the storm.

Although it wasn't so good for my stash situations, it was a wonderful break for my mood -- it's so wonderful to be with friends and laugh away. I might just spend a few nights next year, just to get away and get more smile lines on my face!

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!