Hi! Remember Me?

Yes, I know. It's been a while. So. How ya been? Weather's nicer now, isn't it?

Stitches West made me do it. The ultimate fiber conference-convention-learning emporium is held right in our little corner of the world. Once a year, Stitches takes over the Santa Clara Convention Center and the Hyatt Hotel (formerly the Westin, formerly the Doubletree) for four days. Four days of lip-smacking fibery goodness. Hundreds of vendors of all things knit/crochet/spin and every peripheral thingy there is. Heaven. Nirvana. Pick your bliss-word.

The after-glow hit on Monday and Tuesday, today was just withdrawal. Work? You expect me to work? How can I work knowing that I didn't get that extra skein of handpainted merino? That I was silly enough to walk away from the Jordana Paige bag (again)?

I didn't do too bad. Current situation being what it is, I couldn't go overboard, but I actually spent far less than I thought I would, and tried to buy more intelligently than at past Stitches.

Thursday was a hoot. The Monday knitters (ChickenKnittle, LMKnits, Gromnits), ChickWithSticks, and I all had Thursday afternoon classes, so we congregated afterwards and stopped into the Ravelry party going on in full swing. Jess and Casey are so awesome to have come up with such a great site; I almost went stalky on them, gushing over it. I wiped up my drool and our little gang went to Tomatina's for dinner. Bright and early Friday morning, I was back, this time with Kadootje. A few more people there than Thursday night, but still manageable.

Avoided Stitches on Saturday like the plague (it's sooooo crowded on Saturdays), then had two classes on Sunday, meeting up with ChickenKnittle for lunch and not hearing our names called for the big prizes. But she won a Ravelry prize - a hat kit!

So, here's the haul. I'll try to describe...

So the freebies first... There's a sample of TOFUtsies sock yarn (wool/soy/cotton/chitin) and the current Knit 'N Style magazine, from SWTC. There are 3 tiny skeins of Malabrigo lace weight (I told the guy I already had gotten 1 sample and he told me to take another... then when I told another guy later on that I already had 2 samples, he told me to take a third! Guess they really didn't want to cart them all home.) I picked up a NSK (Notorious Sock Knitter) sticker to replace the one that fell out of my car window.

Five skeins of Newton's Yarn Country's merino/cashmere blend in autumn colors (lower right). Lush, absolutely lush. Some dyed roving (center top) that I will not spin, but will knit with, right from the roving (how cool is that?). Some Leggero from Yarn Place that I had bought for ChickenKnittle and LMKnits, but hadn't gotten any for me - remedied! Picked up some wide beads to go with the Leggero.

My favorite purchases, though... Signature Needle Arts, size 4, 10", stiletto tip, spiral top (upper right). They're like works of art that you can really knit with. Very well balanced in your hand. The favorite yarn purchase? Pigeonroof Knits' hand-dyed superwash merino (lower left). Krista has quite a beautiful eye for color; these are the most unusual colorways I've seen. In the picture I caked the blue/green, but the gold/eggplant is still in its skein; I've since caked it and it's just as pretty that way, too. Yeah, I know, I needed more sock yarn...

And I'm making progress on Serendipity; almost done turning the heel of the second sock. Decided I'm going to knit the instep plain and shrink the stitches down to a more manageable number (i.e., 'way less than 72!).

I really do need to get some real work done tomorrow...