Stitches West: Sensory Overload

The minute I walked in, I got a bit befuddled from the the crowd, and from the abundance of colorful stuff!

Saturday morning started out rather quiet and mellow. Aubrey and I went to Rainbow Grocery with my sister, where we bought an assortment organic and wild mushrooms to cook for brunch and one of the best green teas I've ever had. Because the tea was priced at $59/lb. (organic green tea with organic toasted rice), Aubrey and I each got a measley bit, but the tea is so earthy, rich, and definitely worth the price. I love Rainbow and wish there were more Rainbows, especially where I live!

After lunch, not only did Christina come to pick us up , she also brought some knitting books for us to peruse during the 45-60 min drive. How thoughtful! Christina also gave me some nice vintage crafty stuff (see photos at right). Once we got there, we were so disappointed that photography was prohibited. We thought about sneaking photos, but that would've been difficult.

There were many many many booths from all over the country, of course there was good representation from shops in the SF Bay Area. My favorite booths were the cashmere and alpaca vendors. I molested a lot of those yarns. There was also an Alaskan vendor specializing in qiviut. At $70 a tiny tiny ball (1 oz, approx. 210 yds), this is definitely for the bold and undaunted, and not for the faint of heart. Even though I have confidence in my knitting abilities, I don't think I'm worthy enough to knit with qiviut yet, even if I win the lotto and can manage to cough up the dough. Imagine, you'd need about 20 or more balls for a sweater!

Since Saturday was a dizzying blur, Aubrey and I headed back to Stitches on Sunday. We talked to many nice and friendly people at the booths, including the owner-family of SWTC, and an amazing artist specializing in traditional Japanese painting and dyeing techniques. I also had several people stop me to comment on my Laced scarf, including a group of 3 sweet elderly ladies. They were so adorable I decided to give them each my Laced scarf pattern on a button. I hope they have magnifying glasses!

Seemingly, there is a trend among ladies over 50 at Stitches: shockingly bright hair. We saw a woman who looked like Violet from Willy Wonka, except she was a grape from head to toe. Yes, she had bright purple hair to match her purple sweatsuit. Then there was a woman with hot hot neon pink hair and another with neon teal hair. I didn't spot any younger persons with brightly colored hair. Apparently, like all the folks under 50, Aubrey and I just are uncool and did not stay ahead of this neon hair trend. This might be something novel to do when I'm 50.

Here are my purchases:

Aubrey and I collectively bought the spinning fibers above for Renata, fearless leader of our knitting group. From L-R: Hand-painted merino roving, Cotton Cloud roving, hand-painted silk hankie.


Left: A bag of 80/20 Alpaca/Silk from Webs and a bag of cotton roving I want to try to paint. Right: One of the booths had an already decently-priced Misti Alpaca Bulky on 30% off.


Left: from Blue Moon Fiber Arts. I love the strand of brown yarn plied into the yarn. Right: some vintage patterns Aubrey and I purchased. We got the bottom two for the funny 80s kitsch factor.

Stitches West, Here We Come!

Aubrey and I will be trekking up to SF this weekend for Stitches West. Woohoo! We'll be crashing on the floor of my sister's tiny apartment in SF, then I'll be stealing her car so that we can go down to Santa Clara. I used to live in Santa Clara, so hopefully, the ways of the road will come back to me and I won't get discombobulated and lost. Part of our itinerary includes checking out Craft Gym and meeting up with my friend Christina, who will be going to the Stitches Market with us. And if we have time, maybe revisit some of the SF LYSs.

Now what will I pack? Nah, clothes aren't that important...for a knitting weekend, I think I need LOTs of room to bring back yarn and other goodies that might acquire. I will also need to bring some WIPs. I think I will bring my latest new WIP, an entrelac scarf/wrap made of handspun yarn by Zona and chocolate and rust colored baby alpaca. I think I will bring one of my handpainted yarns for Christina. I should also make some buttons, in case I find people who want to buy some. I've come up with some cute and original button designs. I just need to list and photograph them.