Why am I blogging...?

When I should be getting to bed?!

Well...you don't just go to work Stitches West, come home and go to sleep, that's why! It's just not like that! Especially when I got to see and spend seven hours with Cockeyed, Etta Mae and IrishGirlieKnits!!!

Here's Cockeyed, doing the 'serious' setting up the booth thing!

This is Etta Mae showing me the back of "Michael's" shirt. He's working with
Cat Bordhi on some iPhone knitting application...Sounds cool. I have no iPhone...

I mean, just LOOK at all this Blue Moon Fiber Arts goodness I was surrounded by!

The whole left side? Socks that Rock! That rack in the front
(right side of pic, left side of table...) is all Mill Ends! And if you look carefully in the center back,
you can see a couple of the sample shawls!

Sandi and Nathania dashed over and found stuff to add to their personal stashes! And they have full access to the stuff since they own Purlescence Yarns, the only California retailers!

Can you tell they are happy?!
Purlescence Yarns will be hostessing an After Stitches
"Show off Your Stitches West Purchases" aftershow get-together
at their shop on Saturday evening

Market closed up at 8pm and we were out fairly shortly thereafter. Cockeyed decided this was a picture she could not miss...

Yeah, as snail on a RAIL! Hmm...I think she was getting tired and needed to get back to her room for a little winding down! Yes, Cockeyed, we DO have snails in California!

So back to the Convention Center tomorrow, bright and early for another day!

Just in Time for Stitches West?

Do any of you remember this post, when I received my merino roving from Scout dyed in the "Pomegranate" colorway?

Well, I happened to pull a bag out with what I had spun of it and realized I only had a few feet left to spin! So the other night, I focused my efforts on spindling up the rest of the roving. I cheated a bit in that Lil' Emp decided he wanted to spin, so he actually spun up some of it. So here are his efforts:



And here, all my Pomegranate roving, ALL SPUN UP!!! I sure hope it will be enough for a pair of socks!

So now that I've spun up a whole braid of roving, does this mean I get to buy more at Stitches West?! OK, for the record, Nartian and IrishGirlieKnits--NO Addi Clicks, NO Signature DPNs, NO patterns, NO MORE ROVING (I already got the Pigeon Roof Studios bonus last time at Article Pract and supported our local artist!) SOCK CAMP! SOCK CAMP! SOCK CAMP!!!

The good thing is that, though I willl be at SW this whole weekend, at least I will be kept busy working and hopefully won't have time to do too much damage. It is not realistic to think I will not purchase a thing, but I think it is reasonable to try and be much more controlled this time around! We'll see...

TWO MORE DAYS!!!! I'm sooooo excited!

ETA: ok, we often say we shouldn't present all 'nos' to little kids. So on the positive side: YES, I may purchase a reasonable amount of STR (a couple for gifts, maybe one or two for me...), YES, I may purchase a spindle (it's my Carolina Homespun/Stitches/TKGA tradition!), and perhaps one or two other special somethings...I will have fun! I will see great friends!

IrishGirlie is pushing me to get those second socks done! Marcy and Maria and waiting to see the SW haul revealed! I have a bit of time (not really, but hey-I can post a pic or two...), so I thought I'd share a pic. Not quite the revealing big stash-enhancement photos, but more the pic of all the little extras I got! Know that I have a compulsive buying disorder and am working on it this year. It will take some work to change my old habits, and the change in behavior cannot be expected to happen overnight!

So above, is my treasure trove of goodies that didn't make the "BIG HAUL" picture! An adorable coin purse that I could not resist-even at the end of the day and after purchasing all the other stuff! Come on-you gotta admit she's too cute! I can see myself going with Nartian to get our coffee in the morning, this lovely strawberry cutie hanging from my wrist, holding my coffee money!

And I could not pass up the adorable Lucy Neatby hat pattern! HAD to get a Bob and Ravelry pin and some stickers! The great thing about Ravelry and their designs/logo is that it is not obviously knitting. It's kinda like you need to be in the 'club' to know what the symbols mean! IOW, I could safely stick this to my car without SassyMan being too embarassed to move my car for me!

Some swag: the cute lil' pen/measuring tape, the way-too-cool Malabrigo lace sample in the ever delicious Col China colorway! Now answer me this-if the label says "Col China" is the colorway "Col China" or does it mean colorway, "China"? I need to know this!

Oh, what the heck-I might as well give you a visual of the main haul--sans the (ahem!) BMFA purchase! Yes, the BMFA purchase is a separate pic on its own and is actually its own sub-stash! I'm so shameless! The worst thing is that as I was attempting to take a picture of my purchases, I kept finding more stuff to add. Like the spindle. Like the patterns...

So what you kinda get a glimpse of here is: a Stitch Diva pattern (Giselle) by Marnie McLean, a Fiber Fiend sock pattern (Ruby) , a NEW Cascade spindle!, Shelridge Farms worsted weight in "Sage" for (hopefully) a Hemlock Ring Blanket (yes, Marcy-I think I am caving on that one!). The lovely skein next to all the sage-ey goodness? A skein of hand-dyed from Creatively Dyed (thanks for the recommendation, Maria! I found lots of colorways that I *did* like and if it hadn't been one of the very last stops prior to all the purchasing damage I'd already done, I would have probably bought 2 more skeins! Nothing like supporting the small indie dyer!) Hmmm...some "limited edition" (yeah, just call me 'Sucker') Capistrano Dyeworks sock yarn , Shelridge Farms multicolor dyed sock yarn, Malabrigo lace (Black Forest and some pinky colorway that I think will be fun to mix together for a lacey scarf...-no cracks about my scarf completion record!). In front of the Malabrigo Lace is some Tess Designer sock yarn in a paled out gray-green (LOVE this!), and behind, Baywood Yarns sock yarn (Sea Otter colorway) and a skein of merino/bamboo from the Fiber Fiend!

PHEW! (Again!) Yeah, IrishGirlie-another long-A post, but admit it-you were enjoying every moment of this one! Kinda make you feel better about your shopping spree? Yeah, I exist to make others feel ok about their Stash Enhancement Expeditions!-lol!