Stitches West Part II

I promised pictures of the stuff that I purchased from Stitches West. I was trying to be very good and not spend a lot of money so I got 5 things, two of which were mill ends.



The first purchase was mill ends at Blue Moon Fiber Arts. I got 2 skeins; one light and one medium at a super deal, no wonder people kill each other to get their hands on mill ends. The only problem is that the skeins are hung on a display that hold about 8 skeins of yarn and if you want the one in the way back you have to get the other ones off first. The lighting wasn't meant to penetrate 8 skeins back so a color you thought you wanted finally emerged from the way back into the light of the Market to be something you didn't want and now have to put back on the rack. ItShe was brave and when for the yarn on the bottom of the display, I seriously thought she was going to get eaten alive.

Here is the picture of the lightweight in what I think is Dutch Canyon. The first time I saw this colorway it was a few years ago and I loved it. I have been keeping this colorway in the back of my head because I didn't have a need for it but always wanted it. The reason why I said I think it's Dutch Canyon is because the mill ends don't have a colorway on the label.



Here is a close-up of the same skein:


The second skein was medium weight in what I think is Puck's Mischief. I was so taken by the color (it's so me, seriously you will see why in a minute) and I couldn't tell what it was (no colorway on the label) that I bought it. When I got home I tried to figure out what color it was which is kinda of hard since not all the colors are on the site at the same time. So I was adding the newly acquired skeins to the Blue Moon section of my stash and I hold it up to the two skeins I have in heavy weight and what do you know they are the same colorway - Puck's Mischief. Oh well at least I got a great deal on it, it's in a different weight, and I'm consistent right?

Here is a picture, the darker color on the top is more maroon-ish in person.


Here is the skein up-close and personal:


The next thing I bought was a darning egg from Knitting Notions. They are a lovely family company from TN that makes all their own wooden fiber accessories such as swifts, pins, nostepinnes, wooden sock blockers, and darning eggs. I read about them before I left and wanted to check it out. I wanted an egg made out of cherry or mahogany and when I got to the booth there was only one left in mahogany so I bought it.

Here is a picture off their website because I ran out of light here to take a picture, mine looks like #1 not exactly but close.


The next purchase was from Creatively Dyed. I have got to know Dianne through the wonderful world of Ravelry and it was nice to meet her and her husband (who she calls Superman, and yes he is super indeed). I wanted to buy something that was sort of out of my comfort zone so I got fiber instead of yarn (for when I start spinning) and I got it in a colorway that reminded me of the beach and sea glass.

Here is a picture of the fiber, it's 20% milk protein, 20% silk, and 60% wool:


The last purchase was at Webs I wasn't going to get anything else at the Market but there were special circumstances that pushed me over the edge. Before I left home I got the latest copy of the Webs catalog, there were two projects that I really loved. One of them was the Taconic V-neck sweater made out of Valley Yarns Williamstown. I wanted to touch the yarn and look at the colors myself since a few of them look very close on my monitor. The yarn was softer than I expected and really a very nice tweed (I'm a sucker for tweed). I picked color #14, it's sort of a purple/maroon.

Here is a picture from the Webs catalog (sorry it's a crappy picture but it's the one that is on their website) it is a deep V-neck sweater with cables that run down either side of the v-neck and down the center.


Of course Webs has great prices and I like most of their yarns and of course it's something that I could have gotten at a later date but there were reason why I bought this yarn at the Market this year instead of waiting. One, a bunch of us girls did a big group buy so we could all get 25% off. Two I didn't have to pay for shipping. So I got a sweater's worth of yarn which would have cost me well over $60 for a less than $40 which I thought was a pretty good deal.
Here is a close-up of the yarn:



So that does it for the Stitches West '09 purchases. Later I will post all the wonderful birthday presents I got while we were at Stitches and a few free goodies too!

A Year Older and Hopefully a Little Smarter

I personally think that it is a little gift from the universe that my birthday and Stitches West are very close to each other on the calendar. This year my birthday was on Tuesday and Stitches started on Thursday (really how lucky can one girl be).

This year it was the usual suspects (the OC girls) and a few new comers (Grape, Wendy, Denise, and Laura) and as always we had a wonderfully fun time. It is amazing how funny, talented, wise, and creative our little Stitches group really is. If only we could have that group together all the time, it would be the best!

This year ItShe and I applied what we learned from last year's Stitches West to this year's experience. We learned last year that eating 3 meals a day from a slightly swanky hotel adds up. We also learned that enjoying alcoholic drinks at said slightly swanky hotel REALLY adds up. So this year we checked into the hotel dropped our bags and headed out on the bus to the closest Trader Joe's. We stalked up on oatmeal, fruit, granola bars, yogurt, cheeses, crackers, egg white salad (super yummy), healthy "just add boiling water" rice stick noodle bowl soups and most importantly booze (many many bottles of wine and a bottle of champagne for mimosas). This allowed us to do two things, eat much healthier and save a huge amount of money. Lesson one learned.

Lesson two, last year we did the "Almost the Works" package, this left us with one time slot open, that is one time slot out of 8 possible time slots. This made it almost impossible to sleep (we got less than 16 hours of sleep in 4 days) hang out with our friends very late, and it was very exhausting(very fun but draining). This year we took 12 hours of classes as opposed to 24 hours of classes (which was also cheaper too). This allowed us to go to the gym (twice), sleep in on day two (which was key), hang out with our friends, and most importantly keep our sanity. Lesson two learned.

Lesson three, don't spend money just because you can. Last year we both stayed within out budget (we should be given an award for that alone) but both of our budgets were bigger and I think slightly more fluid (i.e. if we skipped on a few drinks we could move that money from food to yarn). But this year the main goal was to save as much money as possible on all fronts and that included the yarn budget. I still have a lot of what I bought at Stitches last year so this year I was very selective on what I bought this year. I added up what I spent last year without hotel, airfare and classes (because those are out of my control) so I compared this year's money spent on yarn and food and I saved $400.00. That's right 400 HUNDRED dollars and I saved far more calories as well. Lesson three learned.

Lesson four get in line at the Market early. Last year we got in line early (we waited almost an hour) but the Market opened later in the day. This year the market opened at 5pm and we were the FIRST people in line (pretty cool actually). There were people who were sitting in the chairs close to the Market area but we were the first people at the door waiting. I think the combination of the market opening early, people in class till 4:30, and the slow economy "helped" I'm sure. Lesson learned.

Lesson five, know where the good deals are and go there first. Last year we missed the mill ends at Blue Moon Fiber Arts because we didn't get there soon enough and by the time we got there it was a mad house and all the good stuff was gone. This year we were in line first (see lesson 4) and we went straight to Blue Moon. We were the mad house, but it paid off. Normally a skein of lightweight Socks That Rock cost $20, we got the mill ends for $12 (yes 12 bucks). I wish I had a bunch more money to spend on mill ends but I was trying to be very good at not spending money (see lesson three). But I did get two skeins, one of which I have been seriously wanting for over 2 years, and boy did I get a deal on them.

So this year I think we did a very good job of applying lessons that we learned from last year (go us!).

I will post pictures of my (very few) purchases and what I learned in class in the next few days.

Stitches West Rocked.

One to Go

I finished my first sock from the year's first installment of the Rockin' Sock Club. Which is good because last year all I knitted was the last shipment. This pattern was great and since I don't knit two socks at a time I get to do it again (which I love). Did I mention I love this sock pattern and color, lol



I did the MomofTwins toe modification, which is to take the pattern in the center section of the foot all the all to the toe, very cute. I forgot to take a picture of it but I will when I finish up the pair.

This is just a little macro picture I took of something common but I loved the subtle shift in colors and the shape so I snapped a picture.

Just a Little Progress

This is just a little progress picture of the latest sock from the Rockin' Sock Club. The pattern is great, I really love the look of the pattern and even more I really like knitting it. The colors of the yarn are wonderful, Blue Moon you did it again. I've never knit with beads before and surprisingly I don't mind it, and it really adds something special to the sock. So I learned that there are two methods to beading pre-stringing and using a crochet hook. The method that was recommended for this sock was pre-stringing the beads because you can set the bead between the stitches. I also got to try a new cast-on called the tubular cast-on. It worked great, super stretchy and it has a bit of knitting magic in it too. If you ever need a cast-on try the tubular method.

World Domination Has Begun!

As previously stated I could not say no to this year's Rockin' Sock Club whose theme is World Domination Tour 2009. And today has reconfirmed the reason why I re-joined. First the designers this year are amazing, Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, Cat Bordhi, Cookie A., Melissa Morgan-Oakes, JC Briar, Ana Zilboorg and this installment is Sivia Haring. Second I wanted to join to expose myself to new things and new colors. And can I tell you that this month delivers.

The colorway is called "My Blue Heaven" and according to the Dyer Notes it is made up of sapphine, azure, colbalt, cerulean, indigo, turquoise, teal, navy, denim, cyan, prussian, periwinkle, and aqua.



The yarn is amazing the pattern is very nice and it includes beads, something that I have never done but was always interested in trying. This month we also got our standard mini-skein, a large oval sticker, the cover to a binder that we will decorate, a key chain, and a button, and of course the beads. Thank you Blue Moon!

In the Words of Carrie Bradshaw . . . . . . .

. . . . . "Hello lover". I realize that when Carrie says it she was talking to shoes that cost her a month's rent. But I really love them and I have been stalking them for a very long time.



I have been wanting a pair of Fluevog shoes for the last 10 years (seriously its been that long). But these shoes are so expensive it's not even funny. So I would go to the website and just look at them, and check on them every month to see if they had gone on sale (they had but were still sooooo expensive). Checked and checked again for months and months and then they finally went on clearance.

And get this I got the last pair in the country, in the entire country people. How do I know I got the last pair? Here is the story, I originally wanted them in red, but I take an 8 1/2, but the red 8 1/2 was sold out so I ordered them in black. When you place an order on the website it goes to the brick and mortar store that has the pair of shoes you want, in my case it was Boston. When you order you can have them contact you to help you with sizing, which I did and they told me these shoes run small and to order a size larger. I asked if there was a pair of size 9 in red, the very nice lady in Boston (her name was Eleanor) said there was one pair left in the country and they were in L.A. at the Melrose store.

And they were just delivered, I'm so very very very happy. And many thanks to my brother who sent Christmas money that made these shoes possible. You will never know how much these shoe make me happy.

No Knitting Here

Why is that you ask, oh because this has been getting the attention of all my free time.