Stitches 2009

Stitches 2009 has come and gone. It was a fun filled fiber weekend for me. I spent the day on Friday in the market with Brett shopping and sitting at the Atlanta Knitting Guild table for a while. I actually only bought one thing on Friday. I got 7 ounces of baby camel and tussah silk in colorway blue jeans from Spirit Trail Fiber Works. It's incredibly soft and hard to put down. I'm hoping to spin a lace weight yarn with this.



Saturday we were back in force. Lou and I went together and got there soon after it opened. We had been there about an hour when Steve met us. We ran into so many familiar faces, even a few Rubberhoars. Unfortunately no pictures from the market. I didn't take my camera with me and was told we couldn't take photos in the market. Several other people did, so I wish I had taken my camera anyway. It got to be sort of a joke that we'd walk 5 feet to shop and see someone who we knew and talk for a bit... walk 5 more feet to another booth, see someone we now and yak, and so on, and so on... Saw a lot of familiar SAFF faces too.

Saturday I hit the market hard. I still haven't even attempted to look at my credit card bill. It's always more than you remember spending.

I had one yarn in particular that I wanted to find and when I saw WEBS I figured they would be the best place to start. I wanted some Kauni yarn. When I asked the salesperson, he said they had some but forgot to bring it! crap! I asked a few other vendors and still no luck. Oh well, there's lots of other yarn to tempt me to spend money around.

The first thing I bought on Saturday was at Sanguine Gryphon. I had ogled and fondled the Bugga sock yarn twice and just couldn't decide which to buy. So I decided to come back later. We went to get coffee and sit and knit for while then we headed back to the market. I told Steve I'm only gonna get two skeins.... I got 5. I just couldn't decide so I bought them all and I'm glad I did since I later found out this yarn is usually only available at shows and was also the current hot dramaz yarn. Who knew. I also blame Alma as she had to show me the skeins she bought before we returned to the booth.

Here's what I got.



From top to bottom
Twice Stabbed Lady Beetle
Polka Dot Wasp Moth
Cowkiller



On the left - Blue Morpho
On the right - White Tipped Black Moth (which is actually more blue than lavender)



I also bought a ball of the Schoppel Wolle Zauberball. It's sock yarn with very long color changes. Each colorway of 3 only appears twice in a sock. This color goes from black to grey to white.




I also bought a 1700 yard cone of alpaca silk from WEBS. The color is Sienna. I bought the pattern for the shawl they had there on display with this yarn as well.



There were a lot more incredible temptations. It was getting close to the time for Lou and I to leave and we were walking around with Rob, Michael, Nancy, Steve and Stuart. We were walking past a booth we had already passed a couple of times and guess what I spied!?! KAUNI!! I think the guy thought I was just a little nuts. I ended up buying 4 balls to make a sweater.



I guess the guy in the booth was happy I found it since Steve and Stuart bought some too. We are going to have our own little Kauni knit-a-long when we find the patterns we want to use.

Saturday evening we met a few of our closest knitting friends for an intimate dinner for 100 at Scalinni's hosted by Brittany and Wayne of KnitWitch. The food was great and we had such a great time. I had an incredibly yummy alfredo with scallops and shrimp. I know Michael and I will be going back there for dinner again. Brittany's dad, who is the owner of the restaurant, had a great time entertaining us and helping with the raffle prize drawings. I'm already looking forward to the dinner next year. I think it will probably be a little larger next year when the word gets around how much fun we had this year.

I thought I was done with my purchases, but actually I HAD to buy one more thing on Sunday when I went back for the Grand Prize Drawing. (which I didn't win, but a member of the guild did). I had heard someone else talking about Lisa Souza's booth and thought I'd take a look and see for myself. I found some beautiful roving of bombyx silk and merino in the colorway mother of pearl. It's mostly white with light touches of pink, blue, lavender throughout. I can't wait to see what it will look like spun up.



I finished the day at Knitch for the Sunday afternoon knit-in. I stayed a few hours and then headed home, wiped out and ready for a nap.

I'm glad to hear that Stitches South was a success and will be back again next year. I enjoyed myself thoroughly. There is only one thing I would like to see change. XRX, please spring for the carpet for the hall next year! Walking and shopping on concrete all day will diminish even the heartiest of shoppers. With carpet, the shoppers will hang around a lot longer. Just sayin...