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-