Sunday, March 1, 2009

Whew!

(warning: picture-heavy post)

Wow! Stitches West is over for another year and I'm exhausted after working for the Purlescence Girls for the last 3 days. But let me tell you, I wouldn't miss it for the world!

There was lots of laughter and finding friends I haven't seen in a while, and making new friends along the way. There was lots of fiberlicious goodness everywhere and an incredible creative energy that is difficult to find anywhere else. I definitely love being a librarian, but those library conferences don't quite have the same vibe! (No, we don't spend the whole time shushing people...)

I can't even remember a lot of the people I saw - but I remember meeting KnottyLa, Cockeyed and EttaMae from Blue Moon, WonderMike from the YKnit podcast... and so many more wonderful local creative people in the Bay Area.

Oh - you wanted to see what I bought, right? Ummm, I vaguely remember telling someone not to let me buy any laceweight yarn because I already had a lace stash that will take a while to deal with. So how did this Malabrigo lace end up in my bag? 2 skeins of Purple Mystery and 2 skeins of Cypress. Got those at Carolina Homespun. And where did the MerinoCash (in the Pearl Ten colorway) come from (the one on the left)? Hmmm, can you say "Malabrigo Junkies"? Say the magic words at the Malabrigo yarns booth at Stitches and something wonderful may just fall into your bag!

A skein of merino/tencel from Ellen's Half-pint farms is on the left, and 3 skeins of a merino/silk blend from Redfish Dyeworks on the right.






2 skeins of BFL Sport from Blue Moon in Motley Hue.







For the Hubby (his request for his next project or two), 2 skeins of Fiber Fiend's Bulky Wool in the Mars colorway, and a skein of Brooks Farm Mas Acero.





Some knitting actually happened during the last few weeks!

Katrina Rib (a Cookie A. pattern, unfortunately no longer available)
Yarn: Rowan Calmer, 3 1/4 balls
Needles: US 8
Started Feb. 7, 2009
Finished Feb. 28, 2009
I'll be making the sleeves a little longer though.


A few other projects have happened recently. I made this beanie for our housemate out of a couple skeins of Noro Kureyon (from a swap)








A garter-stitch scarf from Lion Brand Watercolors (discontinued).







A scarf that The Hubby knit out of a skein of Malabrigo worsted.








And here was one project that took about 7 hours to completely untangle. This hank of laceweight was so badly tangled that it took that long to unwind it. You can see part of the problem: too many ends!




I will leave you with a picture of Nathania on Saturday night during the show and tell at the shop. Do you think she likes that plummy color?

3 comments:

Marie said...

It was great to see you and the Purlescence ladies at Stitches, and it looks like you had some fun too!

Anonymous said...

Nathania's picture made me laugh: I had one grandmother who kept her waist-length hair braided up on top of her head, and Nathania with that yarn looked posed for a second there like my long-gone grandmother!

Stacie said...

This year Stitches West went on without me as my sister arrived that weekend and I allowed myself to be distracted away from the temptation of yarn purchases. Not to worry--I think I'm set until at least my dying day. ;^) You bought some mighty fine yarns yourself, though.