Stitches West 2008, Part 2

And now, Stitches West continued!

Marisa arrived on Friday morning. The Nut Graf had classes all day, but the rest of us spent all morning in the Market. Marisa and I continued in the afternoon, too, while Jessimuhka was at her class. I’d originally thought spending a whole day at the Market was excessive, but by the end of the day I was glad I had all that time – there was so much to see!

Not surprisingly, I bought even more yarn:

Tess’ Designer Yarns Superwash Merino. I can’t get this to photograph properly – it’s a slightly greener and darker turquoise in person. It’s one of my favorite colors in the world, so of course I had to buy it. It’ll be a cardigan eventually, perhaps a cabled one (hence the three skeins instead of two).

Tess’ Designer Yarns Super Socks & Baby Yarn. I’m not entirely sure what I’ll be making with this yet, especially since I only need one skein for socks and not two, but I’ll figure out something.

Brooks Farm Acero. This will be a tank or camisole. (And probably a pair of socks, too, since I don’t think I’ll use much of the third skein.) I actually wasn’t sure if this color would look good on me at first, but Jessimuhka and Marisa convinced me. And now that I’m seeing it in better lighting, I’m glad I trusted them – I really do think it’ll work. See, this is why it’s good to have knitting friends!

RedFish Dye Works 20/2 Silk. This is so much more beautiful in person, trust me. I was drawn to all the pretty colors in the booth, but this particular one wasn’t even on the display shelves. The dyer overheard Marisa pointing me toward the greys and silvers and then pulled out a bunch of other skeins for me from under the table. I’m planning on using this for the Cleopatra Wrap.

And though it’s not yarn, I also bought:

A pretty shawl pin. Which can also be used as a hair pin, and actually seems to be marketed just for that purpose on the web. But I’ll be using it just for shawls. Unfortunately, I can’t remember which booth I bought it from…

I also bought a couple of Cookie A sock patterns from the Full Thread Ahead booth. (Actually, her newest patterns aren’t on her site yet; some previews are on the Knitters Anonymous blog.) Just based on the pictures, I wasn’t sure I wanted to knit those particular socks, but the sample ones in the booth won me over.

On Saturday, Marisa and I took the Estonian Lace class with Nancy Bush, which was great – very informative. In addition to teaching us some tips and tricks, she also showed some gorgeous shawls and talked about her upcoming book.

We also stopped by the Market during break and after class. Man, talk about insane. It was a total zoo, and we had the misfortune of dealing with some very inconsiderate people (people bumping us without apologies, or ignoring me completely when I said “excuse me”, etc.) I didn’t actually buy anything on Saturday, which is just as well because I wouldn’t have had room for it in my bag!

And that was my Stitches West 2008. I had a very fun weekend with the girls, and I love everything I purchased, and I’m so very glad I went!