The best part about signing up for classes is that you get to attend the Market Preview on Thursday night. Last year I had a major brain fart and thought the preview started at 7! That meant we had to book it through in the last hour it was open to get all we needed done. We did it, but this year we got there at around 4:45 so we could settle in and spend some serious time going to all our must see places. 5 is much better than 7!
There was also this Chicadee sighting while we were waiting to be let in to the marketplace. I love this pattern and I was especially enamored with this knitter's choice of colors. It was way more beautiful than this blurry photo can convey! Now I want to knit it right away.. guess I should have bought some yarn for it while I was there, but alas the budget would not allow.
Our first stop was the Plucky Knitter booth. P said we should go their first because apparently when their Etsy shop gets re-stocked people are queued up ahead of time and basically buy whatever they can get in their cart! Funny that I had never heard of them. The booth was beautiful, albeit it a bit difficult to see behind the mad throng of people.
Sorry for the craptastic photo but this was the best I could do…We had been trapped (literally) in the booth being squished from all sides by people. Yarn was falling all over the floor, and potentially getting stepped on and once we got out, we were not going back in. No matter how much we wanted more yarn! I got one skein of Primo Fingering in color way Le Jardin that I will knit a pair of socks with. I'm thinking Monkey.
After that we wandered around to some of our must see shops, which were (in no particular order) Becoming Art/ Never not Knitting, Sweet Fiber Yarns, Alpenglow Yarn, Canon Hand Dyes, The Yarnover Truck, The Verdant Gryphon and Cephalopod and of course Webs. We always seem to get great deals on Sweater quantities at Webs and this year was no exception. One surprise find for me this year was Oink Pigments. Their booth was in the same aisle with Plucky and I think in the rush to get to Plucky we just walked right by the first time. When I saw it on Saturday I immediately fell in love with their Peacock Feathers sock sample and had to buy both pattern and yarn even though I was already over budget!
I had a fangirl moment with Alana Dakos of Never Not Knitting. I was wearing my Gnarled Oak in her booth and she let me get a photo. I feel about a thousand feet tall when I look at this but it was still a great moment. I think we ended up in that booth 3 times! I wish I had had the budget to buy Botanical Knits and preorder Botanical Knits 2 but alas it was not mean to be. I really really really want to knit Wildflower, which she was wearing in a gorgeous color I just can not pull off.
Our class on Saturday was called Steeking 3 Ways and it was truly enlightening and empowering. Now I want to go knit some color work that I can cut up! haha.
We each had to bring a swatch knit in the round. Then a lovely lady sitting next to us let us use her white yarn and she used P's purple yarn so we each had contrasting colors. Then we did three different reinforcing techniques and had time to cut up one. The one we cut was the crochet reinforcement and then we knit a "steek Sandwich" to encase the raw ends in. I'm not quite sure where this application would work in real life but IT. WAS. SO. COOL!
Here's the stash! I am so happy with each and every one of my purchases. Not having many sweater quantities to buy for (MUST KNIT STASH SWEATER YARN) meant that I was free to go crazy on single skein lovelies!
Another successful year at Stitches. It really is just so much fun to be surrounded by people who love yarn and sticks as much as I do. Now to wait patiently until registration for Stitches 2015!
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