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 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!