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-

A VERB..............

saturday morning rhodi and i planned to leave the security of our hill and head to oakland. why? you ask why would we leave our nests of comfort and quiet and head to the city despite the snowy weather. well, it's a 5 letter word baby!!! FIBER! seems like the only reason we leave the hill these days.

i get a phone call at 7 am- a very groggy barbara sue says she needs a fiber fix too. so we head to oakland in rhodi's green machine-which by the way is a toyota with 350 thousand miles on it.- that is not a typo- 350 big ones!!!!!

you see one of our favorite fiber companies was having a big grand opening party as they just opened their new store. they used to have a teeny tiny store in bezerkely . if you haven't heard- A Verb for Keeping Warm has moved to oakland! i cannot begin to tell you what a fabulous job they did- the store is beautiful.

all of "verbs" yarn and fiber is naturally dyed. now they carry many other yarn companies which are not not naturally dyed but beautiful as well.

you can also get yarn that has not been dyed-just the natural color of the sheep-gorgeous! as well as locally raised fiber.

making choices was tough! here's another view:

barbara sue won one of the hourly raffle prizes!!!


and yes, there were celebrity sitings as well....WonderMike of the fabulous pod cast "fiber beat" was there. he teaches at the store as well.

the STASH & BURN gurls were there as well as lexi boeger. sorry no photos of these rockstars- didn't want to get too paparazzi-esque. i'm sure many other as well- but with the hermit lifestyle -you know i don't get out much or keep up on such matters.

Best of all, here is the beautiful Kristine-proprietor of this amazing venture-pictured with partner Adrienne-who helps out in so many ways.

it took ALL day to decide on what to get-it was agony. too many choices. i ended up getting 3 skeins and a pattern.

from left to right: think prairie here, a gorgeous golden and yellow 65% falklands wool 35% tussah silk blend-going to make a shawl. the other two are superwash 70% merino 30% silk-sport weight. socks indeed!!! happy socks!!!! the pattern is a coco knits(local designer)design called "sabine"-seamless and top down-my kinda of sweater! the day was made complete by visiting an old friend that i haven't seen in like 20 years!!!! he came to the opening! what a great day!!! the best i've had in along time. still glowing.

well, the bewitching hour was approaching and we needed to head back to the hills before we turned into trolls or possibly worse. we waited for one more raffle and departed at 4. wow! the 3 hour drive turned into a 5 hour escapade- torrential rains, lightening and a pee stop at a starbucks in marysville turned into a car unable to start-wet starter perhaps. to make a long story short which involved barbara sue's adventure with a CHP officer, a tow truck that luckily wasn't needed as we got the green machine started and white out blizzard conditions on scary canyon roads-we did all eventually make it home safe.....all in the name of FIBER.