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Stitches West Summary 



Let me just say that the only way to buy your ticket for stitches is online.... it broke my heart to see the GIANT line (literally hundreds) of people waiting to give their money to the two (yes only 2) people that were selling tickets. It was the only ticket that I have ever bought that I was more than happy to shell out the "convenience fee." I'll bet you could scalp tix to the people at the end of the line for a pretty penny...

Unfortunately this post will not contain any pics of the event. mainly because I am a chicken. the only stuff I wanted to take pictures of was stuff that i thought was really ugly, so I was sure that everyone would know i was taking a picture just because it was ugly.... anyway, i will have it in me by next year.

I will mention my favorite stitches sight... I like to call it The Writing Pit of Manos. Someone was offering skeins of manos at what seemed to me only the moderately discounted price of $11 for solids ("Saturday only!"). As yarn seems to hardly ever go on sale, especially at a knitting convention, this drew a lot of attention. Thoughtfully, the sellers decided to put the manos in a pile on the floor rather then force the customers to deal with the peskiness of shopping off of a table. I am sure it just started with one overzealous shopper, but by the time i walked by it was a mess. i must admit that in the fraction of a second it took my brain to process what was going on, my instinct was to jump in for the sale item and evaluate the bargain later. Somehow i resisted - probably because in the next fraction of a second I realized that i would probably get hurt, or worse yet knock out an old lady, and i was trying to be on my best behavior. So the floor of this booth was a mess of hands and skeins of yarn, and i stayed and watched it for a good 5 minutes.

Now, let's review my list

  • extra bobbins for my wheel
  • sock yarn
  • cheap white fiber and dye
  • possibly a drop spindle depending on price
  • one ridiculous item (to be determined)


Bobbins - check. I got extra bobbins for my wheel from the Carolina Homespun booth. okay, let me tell you about this booth... i was shocked to find that a complete and total swarm of knitters had descended on this booth. Maybe it was just spillover from the neighboring fashion show, or maybe it was the 25% off bins, but it was packed! the only thing more shocking to me than the number of people, and the fact that there was actually yarn that was on sale, was that they had everything under control. the line went very quickly and magically everyone was nice and patient. i will admit that at one point the action around the sale bins did approach that of The writhin pit of manos, but it never got that bad. Probably because everything was in bins instead of in a pile on the floor.

sock yarn - check.... i got some wildfoote yarn on sale from Carolina Homespun and also got some self-striping yarn from the "not just for socks" booth.

cheap white fiber and dye - that was a no go. but for the best. i have more stuff than i can spin right now anyway.

drop spindle - to expensive, and too stressful to try to shop for in the overstimulating stitches marketplace.

one ridiculous item - uhhhh.... double check... For some time I have had my eye on the alpaca fringed vest in the Interweave winter 2004, and even investigated getting the necessary yarn to make it. while browsing around, I saw a more technical/less stylish looking zippered vest made from gray alpaca (this was at the Alpaca Fiber Exchange booth. don't look them up, their webpage doesn't work). however, the fiber at this place was totally out of my price range. then I can across the West Valley Alpaca booth and fell in love with the bulky weight Misti Alpaca. So i bought enough for a vest, and I also bought the afore mentioned non-interweave vest pattern, which is probably the one that I will make. I am very excited to work with this yarn. it is so soft and fluffy! I am a little nervous because the pattern that i bought doesn't come with a picture at all.... i should have taken one of the sample they had hanging up.
 

Posted: Sun - February 13, 2005 at 11:10 AM           |

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