INSPIRATION

this week i was inspired by two women in scotland. these women are on my blog roll. i love reading about their lives and what they are creating. the first one is magnusmog. she's traveling to america to visit a friend. look at the photo of her handknit socks she is packing for the trip. can you say awesome? this picture brings a smile to face. she is inspiring me to be diligent in my 12 in 12 challenge for 2011. yes, i am attempting to knit a pair of socks each month of this year and keep up with other knitting projects. i'm on my 3rd pair. i will post pictures of the socks soon. i hope to have a nice line up like that in year!

the second woman is Saz. here's her blog. i've always wanted to learn to quilt. she just finished this amazing quilt she named the pink pansy.

go to her blog and check out the other photos-it's super cute. i just love the colors! she also knits up a storm! prolific people amaze me.

well, that's it for now- short and sweet.

stitches west 2011 part 2

Dang, i better wrap up my stitches west trip-before it's ancient history. we spent the entire day friday till 6pm on the market floor. oh the intensity!!! i found a few new vendors that i just adored and thought i'd share them with you.

there was WOOL CANDY from san carlos ,ca. adrienne had beautiful colors and ultra soft fibers. sorry, i didn't get a photo. i bought some roving from her-couldn't resist.

BECOMING ART was a definite must! Lisa was super sweet. here's rhodi and i modeling with our favorite colorways-merino and cashmere roving- buttery soft!


of course there was SANGUINE GRYPHON. amazing-about sums up their booth.

here's another booth photo- the photos don't do it justice. they had some awesome steam punk stuff too! i wish i'd gotten some photos of the gals working the booth-their costumes were amazing.

we spent a lot of time at the SUNSHINE YARN booth. dani put up with our weirdness and out came the credit card....shhh!!!!

SOXCHIK and i had the opportunity to meet ALI MacGRAW!!! OMG! she was so nice and sincere! ALI just loved my fraggles. she still looks fabulous! she was there promoting the ali hat from "love story."note her hand on my shoulder!


about half way thru the day-i was overcome with waves of intense nausea and faintness. oh no! i was beside myself-i just couldn't get sick at stitches. then my mom's instant cure popped into my head:

works every time!!! there's nothing like a cold icy coke when you need one. i was feeling refreshed and ready to walk the floor again, breath in more yarn fumes and spend more money.

found some awesome buttons- my computer has decided the picture should be sideways-????

this is the first year i took a class at stitches. i have realized that my knitting knowledge hasn't really deepened or expanded in the past years so, i decided to take a class- a real class. not a "fun" class but a "brain" class. i had to leave all my friends in the market place and head to my classroom. i was feeling a bit anxious. of course i was the last one to arrive to class-i wasn't late, but i wasn't there early getting all set up like a good student. i came in with fraggles, wearing a vintage apron, dropping all my stuff like the total geek that i am -at least i remembered my homework. but forgot my calculator-! i was taking J.C. BRIAR'S slick set in sleeves-seamless!!! after 5 minutes of the class i was ready to bolt. thinking about all my buddies having a gas in the market-and me sitting at a table in the back of the room, completely confused with a brain that was really hurting. wow! i realized- you haven't worked the old noggin in awhile. having a major conversation with myself-i talked myself into staying-mainly cause the class was not cheap. i'm sure glad i did. i ended up learning tons and J.C. was a great teacher. i'm hoping she can come and teach this class for our guild. i want to take it again!

after my class, i headed back down to the market to find my cronies. i had a fabulous surprise waiting for me. i had won one of the daily drawings-i felt like ed mcman just knocked on my door!

check it out:

i effin won a skein of BUGGA from sanguine gryphon!!!! blessed be! i chose a stormy ocean color, the name really got me too! potato leafhopper.

i plan on making the clothilde shawl with it. chomping on the bit to start-tying to be good and finish up some projects first.

needing a break, i sat at a table for needle felters... tatoos. right on!

here's the gals from girl on the rocks and pigeonroof studios. got some sock yarn and roving....wanted more.


saturday evening rhodi and i had to head back up to our hill before we turned into pumpkins- we said our goodbyes and sadly left the convention center.

as promised, my stash enhancement:

have a closer look!

the colors make my heart sing!

i reserved the fleece last year at stitches from judy gunn of judy's novelty knits in utah. the fleece is a from one of her merino sheep named "darlin." it's her 4th shearing. she has wonderful fleeces. last year at stitches judy taught us locker rug hooking.

nice! i also got many cool patterns. nice to see stuff knit up in real life before buying a pattern. another fabulous time at stitches...still floating!

stitches west 2011 part one

okay, i know it's been forever since i've posted-but i have good reasons. i went to stitches west(the most amazing knitting convention evar!!!) a few weeks back and was very excited about posting immediately. BUT- when i returned home the "courier" had to be done. for those of you that don't know , i do our monthy town newsletter. all my waking hours were spent doing the courier to meet my deadline. once that was finished-that very night,when i was about to start blogging- we had a major winter storm which knocked out our power, phones and internet.

i was S.O.S. what a bummer. finally the power has been restored(only 5 days this time!) internet still not quite right-but i am attempting to catch up today.

as usual, rhodi and i left the security of our "hill" and headed to the bay area in the blinding rain. as we hit sacramento we saw the coolest thing-a shuttle bus that said "The Llama Limo"on the back. we figured it was a chartered bus headed for stitches- when we passed ready to wave at the knitters we were met with a bus full of llamas!!! it was awesome.
unfortunately i didn't have my camera ready when we were right next to the bus-but there it is. the limo is from fallen oaks ranch. the journey continued and i got a lot of knitting done.

no, i wasn't driving! we arrived at the santa clara convention center around 2ish and had an immediate 'fraggle' party in luci and vail's room while waiting for soxy sue aka soxchik to arrive. luci is a hair braider extraordinaire. she always makes us look great at the celtic fest; so we figured braids were a must for this event as well. fraggles are my favorite braids-thanks luci!!! all the small photos courtesy of soxy -not sure how to make them bigger.

soxy arrived shortly and the party really began. we all got ready for the thursday nite market preview. it's my favorite part of stitches. the crowds are manageable and there are special deals to find and you get first pick of all the luscious fibery goodness. squeals of delight can be heard from around the market floor.

i bought some patterns from the fabulous designer rock star rosemary hill aka Romi.
she was so genuine and she blessed me with her magic wand-look closely at the photo below and you will see her wand and her tiara.
tiaras were big this year.normally we try real hard to have some sort of organization when walking the floor- so nothing is missed. this year-i had major ADHD and was willy nilly flitting all the over the place. i could barely contain myself, i wanted to run madly down the aisles shrieking with joy and delight. the colors, the fibers-the yarn fumes. it's all too much.

we headed to one of our all time favorite booths: VERB!
hey, look it's rock star podcaster, wonder mike of fiber beat running the register! nice view of the back of his head. at least we know he's not going bald.

the lovely proprietor, Kristine loved our braids so much, luci braided her hair as well.

you gotta see the back!


after an exciting market preview we headed to the ballroom for the ravelry party. here's soxy and i- not much happening here.

but i did manage to get a fiber rock star line up photo.

from left to right: mystery woman(so sorry! anybody know her?), rainy day goods(from ravelry), adrienne (verb), kristine(verb), cookie a., wonder mike, and dani from sunshine yarns(a new favorite of mine).

I need to get this posted before my internet goes out again. stay tuned for the next episode......photos of new favorite vendors, a movie star, and yes, embarrassingly so-a photograph of my new swag!!!! ta ta for now-