Stitches West 2008 (Sibling Rivalry)

Whew! Don't get excited Jason. The first pictures are of my sisters stuff :-) This year my sister found much more at Stitches West than I did but that may have been because I was trying not to buy too much yarn since I have so much. I put her treasures first though some of theses things we will share. At the top is a picture of a circular needle storage system (zip lock type bags inside) along with a few circular needles for sock knitting. She has recently switched from double points to circular and is doing well with it. The second picture is a wrap/stole pattern we got at the Lisa Souza stall. it's by Queenie Sisters Designs and is called "Eve", a nearly reversible stole with four simple slip-stitch patterns. It is really a nice wrap and my sister is going to to knit me a stole out of the lavender Lisa Souza yarn you see a few pictures down. She has also ordered the "Mars Quake" colorway (pictured) so she can make one for herself. I imagine I will also knit this stole but I plan to use some hand spun yarn I have in my stash that I made a few years ago. Below this phamplet and a pattern for a knit teddy bear that my sister-in-law wants to have us all knit for the "Mother Bear Project". We donated $5 for the pattern, will knit a bear and then give them money to send it to any place where there are children who might enjoy such a gift. They also accept donations of supplies to make the bears. It's a very straight-forward looking type of effort and a project we can all do together. The next few pictures are sock yarn stash enhancements for my sister. This should keep her in yarn for some time. Below those is the yarn from my Eve stole and below that is blue/green silk/merino fiber from Chasing Rainbows that we purchased at the Carolina Homespun stall. Even though they are local, we always find ourselves buying from the at Stitches West because they have so many tempting things! My sister plans to spin the roving she got to make a scarf for the Winter to replace her old one. And lastly, big old skeins of wool yarn to knit one of the great nephews a sweater. My sister is going to be a very busy woman knitting. I bought the sock yarns for her, she bought yarn and fiber for me as well. This was in place of giving each other Christmas presents last year. I think we both made out really well!

My own prizes start with a cone of Xie bamboo lace weight from South West Trading Company. I got it on a whim and will see how it holds up to lace knitting/blocking. Then I have two skeins of 30/3 silk/camel from Skaska Designs (1,650 yds/95 g). It feels great but it's always so very tan in color. I may try to dye it to make things more interesting. I also got some silk/merino roving in a mostly blue color from Chasing Rainbows and beautiful BFL from Lisa Souza in colorway "Aww Tum" in honor of her first Autum in her new home. On the bobbin you can see me spinning the Chasing Rainbows into a substantial single. Once I ply, I can have my sister knit me a scarf with the end product. Not shown are a Ravelry tote bag, 2 sets of double pointed Boye needles in US 1 and US 0 and some plastic safety-pin type stitch markers. Considering all the temptation around me, I think I was very moderate.

The market place was really nice and very crowded. I got to see fleegle's Lyra and Spider King being displayed at the Yarn Place booth along with my Sampler Stole and I think they looked really great up there for all to see. The Spider King shawl was displayed against a white back-drop and stopped traffic! I mean that sincerely. Knitters stopped in their tracks to gape at the beauty and wonder of it:-) There is a lot of knitting going on and I think there is a growing interest in lace knitting. We got there at 10 AM and left around 3 PM. My sister only had $20 left in her wallet at the end of the day but she left happy! Needless to say, I had a great time. Now to justify my purchases and knit some beautiful things :-)