Stitches Hangover

Is it possible to get too much of Stitches? I didn't think so but I spent the whole day today trying to figure out whether I was sick or not. I feel fine now, but this did of course mean that I spent the majority of the day knitting. Kind of nice really. And Stitches? It was amazing. Fun, informative, refreshing and a really great way to spend a weekend. My classes were very good, I learned some great new techniques:

I know how to make a traditional Shetland Scarf
I know how to do Twined or Two-ended knitting
I can knit Fair-Isle style with a color in each hand correctly (Really! I can now knit "English!")
I know how to assemble a Fair Isle and Norwegian sweater

Now I feel like I can tackle the Philosopher's Wool and Dale of Norway sweaters that I want to knit. Cool, no more intimidation.

Now, do you want to see what I got? I knew you would!

This is Black Water Abbey yarn for a cabled vest. This is a WOOL replacement for the Alpaca vest that I started last Spring... It shall be lovely!


Sea Silk. This was the "hot" stuff of the weekend (well this and Socks That Rock which disappeared very fast! I am going to make a wrap with this. Yummy!


Cashmere. Belisa Cashmere from Australia. Sold by the sweetest couple you could ever imagine, even though they will never read this blog because they live in the middle of nowhere and have dial up.


Sock yarn and patterns from Cookie (Kristi was there too!) via the Bay Area Knitters Co-op!!


A cone of Jaegerspun for a shawl.

New, non-alpaca yarn for a husband sweater.

I picked up a few more odds and ends that I had been wanting; books, patterns, a few tools. But that's it. I still can't believe what an amazing weekend it was. It was just so much FUN! I met some really wonderful people and had a relaxing, rejuvenating, inspiring time. Knitters are awesome! It started on Thursday in my Shetland scarf class, I had forgotten to bring cash for the yarn kit that we needed. The woman sitting next to me, another Cookie, quickly offered to lend me the money. Wow. How often does that sort of thing happen in the non-knitting "muggle" world? It continued all weekend long. I can easily say that every one I met this weekend, or simply got to know better, is truly a wonderful person.

oh yeah, Hannah got to model some socks for Cookie. Luckily she wore a l-o-n-g shirt...!
But aren't the socks cool?!

Ari also came with me on Sunday. She has been making noise about wanting to knit something. I was a bit skeptical, but I thought that if she was really interested that she could probably find something to knit at the marketplace. Well, I followed her down row after row... But she did finally find a pattern and some yarn (alpaca of course) that she liked. And when we came home she started knitting... she has made progress:
Now we just need to work on Conner. Dude. Boys knit too. (And girls like them...)
Phew. Long post.