Monday, February 25, 2008

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 :-)

10 comments:

z's momma said...

ooohhh. That is some pretty fibers. I really enjoyed seeing yours and fleegles shawls at Yarn Place.

I am surprised that you didn't pick up any Addi Lace turbos in 00 that was only available from one booth at Stitches (that's what I was told).

Thanks for the yarn pix (even if they are your sisters).

fleegle said...

What a gorgeous, envy-generating haul! I think Stitches West is bigger than Stitches East and I sure wish I could manage to get there sometime. Of course, if I wandered across-country, I would probably end up living at Little Knits and never coming back here.

Wish I could have seen Sampler Stole and Spider King--I am glad that they are generating interest in lace knitting and I sure hope they are selling some yarn for them.

BadCatDesigns said...

I want to shop with you...

missalicefaye said...

ooooh pretty! I'm interested to see how the bamboo works up--is it a typical laceweight or thinner?

Opal said...

What a jaw-dropping, gorgeous haul! I'm with badcat, I want to shop with you.

Lacefreak said...

Dear z's momma,

I'm glad you got to see both our work in person. I love how they displayed fleegle's Spider King shawl. I didn't pick up any of the Addi lace needles because i have a lot of needles in US 00 and I have had no problem using my regular Addi Turbos in that size. I also have HiyaHiya needles that size so I had no real need for more. I hope you got lots of stuff there too.

Lacefreak said...

Dear fleegle,

They don't let you take pictures at Stitches West if you are just a regular person buying stuff, but they had Spider King displayed against a white back-drop so it was beautiful. Your Lyra was draped near all the yarns and looked magnificent. I think the displays really do help to sell the yarn. I know they sold of the color-way that was used for my Samper Stole on the first day and had to run out and re-stock for the following day. I know I bougt Angel in Red after looking at your stuff so now I have to figure out what to knit with it :-)

Lacefreak said...

Dear badcatdesigns,

I bet it would be fun to shop with you too! I went with a bunch of family members and we always get seperated because it's such a large show. We meet up towards the end again and then spread everything out to look at it when we get back home. It's really fun to go to a place with so much selection on hand.

Lacefreak said...

Dear missalicefaye,

It's a regular lace weight. Nothing special about the weight. In fact, I almost didn't get it because I like my yarn/threads a little thinner than this but I wanted to see how it knits up so I will pick something like a lace scarf to make with it.

Lacefreak said...

Dear Opal,

I'm sure if we shopped togeather we would have fun. We'd be poor at the end, but happy :-)