Stitches West 2010

Stitches West was mind boggling and inspiring. From the opening presentation to my last purchase of Malabrio Lace, it was just what I needed. I realized, believe it or not, that I have been yarn deprived since Unraveled closed. I loved ordering yarn, opening the new boxes of yarn and most of all stocking the yarns on the shelves. Tactel and color therapy and I got payed for it!!

Thursday's Opening Presentation was with Jane Slicer Smith (Swing Swagger Drape) and Anna Walden of Twisted Sisters.

I was very taken with Jane's talk and her patterns. She uses a lot of color, love that, and the drape and fit of her sweaters is very impressive. The photographer for XRX was wearing her sweaters throughout the weekend and they all where wonderful. My favorites are:

Greta Swagger was my favorite. The shape of this cardigan and perfectly placed cables is just beautiful.


Jane was wearing this one done in different shades of green and longer. Beautiful!!


Metro A-Line. I saw a couple of people wearing this one and it looked really good on everyone.


Anna taked mostly about her garments. Her things are not my taste but her construction is very ingenious. I wish she had talked about dying fibers and colors since that is what I really know her for.

Thank goodness the Market opened Thursday evening for those registered for classes. This was about the only time you could walk around and see everything without the crowds.

My goal was to find MadalineTosh yarn and Qiviuet. I was sucessful and glad I made MadalineTosh first on this list for it flew off the shelves. My first color choice was already picked over but I got a sweaters worth of Duchess, black and purple. Beautiful!!


And 2 skeins of the Moss.


My second stop was for Qiviut. This is like gold. One tiny little skein of about 200 yards can run $70+. It is the soft undercoat of the MuskOx. There is not that much undercoat (see the link) and they collect what falls off. But it is the softest yarn ever. They have some of the skeins mixed with silk and/or merino. The blends lower the price point a lot and it is still really soft. I got one skien of the Royal blend


and one of the softest Suri Merino I have ever felt. These yarns made the cashmere feel course.



The classes I signed up for where all about shapping without really seeing the shaping. Especially around armholes and necklines. No more "stair step" shaping around here! They where very good and I learned a lot of little tricks that will make me look really good as a teacher. After all, that was the whole reason for trekking up here in the first place.

And you thought it was the yarn!

Here are some of my other aquisitions:

Malabrigo Lace to make a really cool scarf pattern that is due in the mail any day now.


Redfish is an amazing hand dyer. She has about 50 shades of the rainbow. Her booth was a wonder of color. She also had socks knitted from her lace weight bamboo yarn. The most delicate socks ever knitted on "000" (yes there are needles that small). I bought some for those socks, now I just have to unearth my "000" needles.


Feltz Inc had wonderful felted kits. Her bags a really well done. I got this kit for this wavy felted bag. It was so cool. She includes all the hardware and sewing directions for the lining which I really appreciate.


Next up was the Habu Booth. It was great to see all of these yarns and lots of samples knit up in it. This is a Japanese company based in New York. Their yarns are constructed of many very interesting things such as paper and stainless steal along with the usual fiber suspect blended in amazing ways.

They had the Aeolian Shawl from Knitty.com knit in bamboo lace.


It was so stunning I had to get some.


Just for fun. The felted flowers are part of the roving.
Scarf? Little bag??


Ruffling yarn (trendsetter Cha Cha) along with Merino 8


for another cute little scarf only in black and gray. The ruffles made with the cha cha yarn is really cute by itself too.


Last but not least there was a presentation by Anna Ziboorg. She is a retired MIT professor that now lives in the Mountains, on a vineyard, by herself and knits. Has she found heaven??

Her book "Magnificent Mittens" has been updated with socks. She figured out how to turn the same mitten patterns into socks. The one problem with stranded knitting is it doesn't stretch very well and makes it hard to get the socks over your heel. Replacing the sole with regular stockinet was the answer and she found a very elegant way to add the sole and heel to the stranded piece. She was just a delight and I am really glad I got to meet her.

So you guessed it. I have to try that too.



Now the only question is.....

How long is it going to take me to knit up my stash from Stitches 2010??
Any one care to place a wager?