stitches west 2012

EFFIN MOG! not much more i can say than that- i'm home from stitches and still floating on yarn fumes!!! i'm sooooooooo inspired to get busy. spin, knit, dye, spin, knit, dye, spin, knit and dye-it's all i wanna do!

rhodi and i left thursday morning-yes, she decided to come after all-yeeha!

all ready with back brace and my born to knit t-shirt!!! WOOT! stopped in davis for a trader joe's run(you don't think we'd waste valuable fiber money eating at the $$$ hyatt restaurants do you?) and i turned in my rolled coins for paper money!

the wind was treacherous and my arms got a good workout trying to keep the car on the road! when we finally reached the santa clara convention center- we had a wonderful surprise- the fiber trash girls had joining rooms at the hyatt!! let the party begin!!!
barbara sue- brought quilts to make the sterile hyatt more like home.


barbara sue with wine for the fashion show in canning jars! (note the blue fiber trash cooler in the hyatt! we shoulda brought a few hens for fresh eggs!)

Yes, we are the fiber trash girls- "if yarn were meth we'd have no teeth. we get high on fiber, chase down breakfast with corn whiskey, drink from canning jars and believe in outhouses. we love sittin' on the porch in our aprons, spinnin' fuzz into strang & knittin' it up while talkin' & livin' fiber trash."

there was some nail polish happenings-soxy brought some boom boom pow-24 ct. gold-hey, us fiber trash girls have class!

thursday nite market was a blast! shop shop shop!!!! visited old favorites like "verb."

got me a new project bag from slipped stitch studios! that booth rocked.


so much better than my tacky plastic grocery outlet bags-dontcha think? and best of all it's corduroy!!!

mannequins rocked!


there's soxy sue ready to spin the wheel of fiber!

nice hand knit skirt soxy!!!

knitting's not just for grannies anymore. here i am with tess(we all know tess-don't we?!!!!!!!) she is adorning her new "knitting is sexy" t-shirts!! love this photo!

check out her fabulous footwear!

i'd injure myself trying to walk in those! love the diversity in us knitters! you should see my feminine footwear!!!

Yes, i did get to meet rock star ysolda teague! she was very sweet and helped me a bit with my pixie hood frustration. i am sooooo bummed, i had a picture of us together in her booth both wearing her pixie hoods and somehow i deleted it. so sad:( must admit- i'm crushing on ysolda! but i did get a great shot of rhodi with ysolda and adrienne of "verb" though!

gonna make me a pixie hood! ysolda's in the middle. adrienne is on the left with her hood that was dyed with mushrooms!!!!! i bought Ysolda's book-little red in the city. it's awesome. she signed it! ***sigh****

knitted wit was a new booth this year that i really enjoyed. bought some merino/silk yarn to make the 198 yds. of heaven shawl.

the woman in the photo is NOT lorajean the proprietor. tried to get a photo of her but it was a blurred mess. Lorajean was the sweetest and she brought her fiber goodies from oregon.

my new most favorite booth this year at stitches were the fabulous girls from montana-western sky knits. didn't i say i love everything from montana?

i just love indie dyers!

okay- you ready for some stash enhancing shots? i am so thrilled with my score.


couldn't resist a skein of malabrio rios-the colorful one on the bottom. i bought the malabrigo book 3 i have been wanting forever! the green knitted thing is a small shawl i started at the show with some alpaca i got from lisa souza. here's a few close ups.

this corriedale rovingis from judy's novelty yarns- it's going be a sweater someday.


last year i got a roving from "girl on the rocks" and was so pleased with how it spun up that i got another one this year-couldn't resist!

sorry for the dark photo-this is what i got from western sky-the 2 skeins on the left. the color is called barnwood-going to make the breakwater sweater with it. the skein on the right is from becoming art-another favorite of mine. it's in the driftwood colorway and i'm going to make stephen west's blue whale shawl with it! the colorways go perfectly together! can't wait to get started.

thanks to all my fiber trash girls for such a wonderful wonderful time- i soooo needed the laughter:)

STITCHES OR BUST!

OMG! or MOG!!!!! as i like to say now!!! MOG MOG MOG!!!! today is the day i pack and get ready for my annual pilgrimage to stitches west. the "mecca"(thanks bsue!) of all things wooly and fibery!!!!! i feel a bit angst. been dealing with major back issues lately-sitting in a car is the worst for it- will my back hold out thru the 4 hour car trip to get there?? damn!!! i also feel a cold coming-shit!!!!! my buddie rhodi may not come with me- you mean i might have to drive to the city all by my lonesome???????????????????? i do NOT freeway drive well. major anxiety. give me a curvy mountain road anyday-. sigh! heavy sigh!!!!!! not to mention- she's a great source of entertainment as well-stitches would not be the same without her!

I'm on a very tight budget this year. stitches is very dangerous for the bank account- extrememly!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! fiber is my drug of choice these days! and then there's the fact of my serious stash- how much more fiber do i really need? need? want! need? want! need? want! will i be able to use self control? that reminds me- gotta start rolling my coins!

here's a list of merhants i just can't miss!!!

* becoming art- i so regret not getting some of her roving last year!!!

*a verb for keeping warm- has some new colorways!!!! and they are sharing a booth with the fabulous designer "romi"

* can't miss judy's -affordable rovings. and judy is always ready with a good joke!

*Tess' yarn- gotta go see how tess' boobs are holding up and to check out what kind of shoes she's wearing-her shoes amaze me. MOG! did i just say that????

*miss babbs- stitches is never complete without a stop at miss babbs!

*chicken boots- with a name like that-who can resist?

*lisa souza- local dyer extraordinaire!

*coco knits- love her designs!!

*jimmy beans-deals galore

*webs- more deals galore!

*western sky knits- new booth from montana- i love anything from montana!

*ysolda- do i tell her of my angst and frustration when i tried to knit her pixie hood? or do i just bow down and kiss her rock star feet?

*pigeon roof studios/ girl on the rocks- COLOR!!!!!

and of course we'll be on the look out for a wondermike siting!!!!

well- i better get off me arse and get ready- i have granola to make and bread to bake-you don't think we waste precious fiber money on eating out do you????

if you've never been to stitches you can check out last year's blog post about our fiber trash girl adventures- you'll get it! click here and here!

amnesia

GOOD GOD! it's been almost 5 freakin months since i've stumbled into the blogosphere. i haven't even had a chance to read and catch up on your blogs. WTF? where have i been? what have i done? it's all a blurr-time has been melding together lately and half the time i don't even know what day it is. yet i seem to make it to where i'm suppose to be going.

i guess i've already failed miserably at my new year's resolution to blog at least once a week! Oh crap on it- who needs stupid resolutions anyway- they just make you feel bad when you don't measure up! remind me next year- not to make any.

How can i possibly recap the missing last 5 months of my life? it's like i had amnesia and i've just started remembering things. -i guess i can give you a little photo documentation.

early last fall (yes, i'm talkin 2011) there was spinning at the celtic festival- an annual treat our fiber guild partakes in. always fun! my favorite "molly's revenge" was performing and i saw a bunch of new favorites but unfortunately with the passage of time my brain fails to recall the names. a lot of fun new punky celtic stuff.

there's been biking- lot's of biking. here's my bike....i love her!

there was biking in tahoe:

we biked the marlette lake trail which gets you to the famous flume trail-unfortunately we didn't get to do the fume trail as shuttles back to your car were closed for the season and we didn't want to ride the 9 up hill road miles back to our car-i know we're wimps!!! it was frickin cold- 30 degrees with fierce biting winds-

knocked a tree down luckily after we passed thru-

the elevation was kicking my ass- hard to ride uphill when you can't catch your breath. i'm usually not affected by the elevation but wow- it made for hard riding.
we did the stiff climb from spooner lake to Marlette lake.

the photo above shows the ride heading back from marlette lake. this is where i started weeping. it was so fricken cold and windy and i had fingerless biking gloves on. my fingers felt like they were being put into a meat grinder- the tears started coming when i thought (for sure) by the time we reached our car i would have black frost bit finger tips and they would have to be amputated and i would never knit again.

yes, i can be dramatic at times - no amputation needed! the next day was warm and fabulous and we had a great ride on the powerline trail and cold creek trail.

we did some coastal riding at point reyes. not the best mountain biking area. deeply rutted trails with california happy cow poop and hoof holes everywhere! we did get to see some roosevelt elk though!


there was local wild blackberry pie and jam making. yes, i finally made homemade jam and it came out awesome!

there has been lot's of knitting and spinning.

going to make some funky knee socks with this corriedale handspun!

blue helped me model some fingerless mitts i made for a dear friend as part of my hand made "pay it forward" project. 4 more gifts to go- don't worry friends- i haven't forgotten about you-just a bit behind.

i hand dyed some yarn for my new winter slouchy hat-

i chose to knit gudrun's norie hat from her shetland trader book. i love gudrun's patterns. this is the second norie i've made- this time i omitted the lace sections and made it shorter as i have a very small head. it turned out great -i love it and wear it all the time. unfortunately i don't have a photo of the finished hat.

finished some handspun fingerless mitts that i adore- they match a cowl i made in the summer.


what else have i been doing with my time besides homeschooling and egg raising? well, most of you know me strictly as a black tea drinker- no cream and no sugar- just good and strong. well, that all changed this past summer when hubby bought a stovetop espresso maker at a yard sale this summer-for only 2$. it was enough to get my addiction going and now i can't stop!!! ZOOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

can you say instant coffee addict?????? with plenty of foamy half &- half (gawd-please no wimpy 2% for this coffee chick!) and lots of sweetener as well..real maple syrup is the best but brown sugar will do in a pinch. i went gung-ho with this addiction and well as you can guess insomnia and some aggitational imperfections have begun to creep into my personality and i just may have to put the reins on this imbibing activity- not sure if i truly understand the meaning MODERATION!!!

there were several trips to lassen. i so "heart" lassen!


here's my boy's "John Muir" pose.



the colors were amazing everywhere- i wanted to dye wool capturing all the beauty i drank in.


bumpass hell



if you have never been- put it on your list!!!!! i think that's enough so...

i end with a bang!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! better late than never.