total groupie

Some of you may not know this, but in the fiber community there are rock stars.  Yes, you heard me- rock stars!  Right now one of the popular young rock stars happens to be Stephen West.  He's one hot knit designer I tell you.  He recently taught some classes in Oakland at "a verb for keeping warm."  One of my favorite yarn shops!  Don't get there often since its about 3 hours away. 

My friend Rowen happened to be taking one of his classes and I wasn't doing anything that day so what the heck, I decided to go along for the ride.  (yes, I'm a Stephen groupie and I just HAD to meet him).  

cruisin down 80-saw a woop ass truck.

"git-r-done boys!"  that's what it says in the back.

  We had a great drive, full of laughs, a bizarre gasoline stop. (we're not in Kansas anymore) hey at least the gas was cheap here.

 We were starving when we arrived at "verb" so we went next door to the actual cafe.  they have a great place to put your bike while enjoying their fabulous food.

  We went back to "verb" to browse before Rowen's class started. Peeking in the window we got our first glimpse of Stephen! yes, that deserves a "squee" or a "woot!"

 Fabrics galore has been added to the shop! 

"Danger. danger Will Robinson.  this could get dangerous.   Back away from the fabric."

 Rowen got her hands on some cool stuff!

While looking at the fabric, I peered out the back window and yes, I had my 2nd Stephen West sighting.

The back of his head no doubt and he was just knitting away fast as lightning on the back patio.  Almost expected him to be drinking some sweet tea or something along that line.

Fell in love with this Rockefeller shawl color way.  Yes, this is one of Stephen's designs.  Rad huh?  love the romantic subtle hues.  unfortunately they were out of those 2 colors.  going to have to put a special order in!  looks even better in real life!

Rowen went to class and I shopped.  Oodles of good stuff to be had there.  I also met up with an old friend from Minneapolis and we went back to the actual cafe for the best fresh squeezed lemonade ever!  So great to visit with you Tom! Damn.  We forgot pictures!

Back to verb for more browsing as I waited for Rowen to be finished with class.  Snapped a ghostly pic of Stephen thru the window teaching. 

the moment of truth..... i got to meet Stephen!  it's a bit scary to meet someone you really admire.  as you build these expectations of them and what if they don't add up?  what if they are totally stuck up and full of themselves?  but by god he was as friendly and genuine as they come.  a wonderful person indeed-full of gratitude and easy to talk to.  

MOG!  i think we're related.  we were both going to have each others names if we were born the opposite sex.  coincidence?  i think not.  i'm sporting his thendara shawl. love love love this shawl! plan on making this for hubby.  he actually agreed to a man shawl!  im such a geek i asked him for his autograph.  he signed my westknits book 3.

okay enough gushing.  get on with it.  you may be wondering what i came home with.  most of you know my stitches west shopping spree was cut short in february due to my son breaking his ankle.  i considered this a "mini stitches" make up.

the yarn is quince and Co.  in bird's egg and twig colorways- i already have shawl patterns picked out. this yarn is fabulous and the wool is raised in the U.S.-love that! i also purchased a pattern for an everyday cardigan by Hannah Fetig.  she's another rock star!  a yard of the cutest fabric ever and a verb t-shirt complete the score.  oh happy day!

getting late we had to say goodbye.  stephen was on his way to the Philippines as he is helping with the ricefield collective.  check out their blog as well.  great to see knitting and people helping others!

dinner at Arizmendi. a worker owned cooperative since 1997.  pizza and bakery.  i'm not a huge pizza fan but Arizmendi was the best pizza ever and i could eat it all the time!   

heading home the sun was blaring in our eyes and siri forgot to mention an exit and the next thing we know we are in the bus only lane(with a cop aleady pulling a nonbus vehicle over)  heading NOT towards sacramento but the big san francisco!  hello city.  OOPS!

we ended up on frickin treasure island.  never been there before.  nice place for a turn around though!

we got home late but it was worth it!  i will soon be off to another fun fiber filled adventured.  stay tuned!

Stitches west revisited!

leaving "stitches" early was a bummer.  but i knew where i needed to be.  home with my sweet boy.  see previous post for more details.

after i got on the road to head home hubby called to say they were going to wait for surgery.  i was stuck in san jose friday rush hour traffic.  i knew there was no turning back.  even if i did return to stitches-i couldn't enjoy myself.  it took me 6 hours to get home- what a nightmare. san jose has the worst radio stations! can't believe folks deal with this traffic on a regular basis-insanity!

one of my favorite items i came home with was a soxchik original totoro project bag!  check out her etsy shop here.  i need to get a better picture.

my new buttons:

 
 i usually like to give my opinions on the market place each year. keep in mind that i only saw about half of it-so it's not a fair evaluation. but here are my thoughts and a few awards:

prettiest booth once again- a verb for keeping warm!  sorry i didn't get any pictures this year.  check out their blog-you can see some there.  verb's booth is always so warm, inviting and cozy- you just want to stay and hang out-and sell yarn for them. the wonderful and amazing knit designer romi was sharing a booth with them.  i bought her kleio shawl pattern and had a great chat with her about the edmund fitzgerald.

my favorite "newbie"  booth award goes to sweet fiber from british columbia!  i bought some yarn in the color way "shipwreck" for my edmund fitzgerald shawl.  although they were a bit young to appreciate my edmond fitzgerald chatter they humored me and pretended to care.  here's a photo i stole from their blog- click the link above to see the rest of their pictures!  yum!

the award for funnest booth of all times definitely goes to fickle knitter!  kindred spirits at that booth i tell ya!!! you simply must click on the link which takes you to fickle's recap of stitches!  you can watch the stitches harlem shake flash mob.  i mean what other booth has an abundance of fun masks, devo hats, a disco ball and a karaoke machine???  unfortunately, liam's accident happened before soxy and i had a chance to try out the karaoke machine.  maybe this is a good thing?  fickle has awesome patterns too!

this is how i want to remember this years stitches adventure- gazing into the eyes of a a real life unicorn- stitches west rocks!!!!

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 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-