Stitches Midwest! My Oh MY!! What fun!!

Well, Ladies and Gents,

Lovely K- (from the new Word Wits n' Wool Knitting Group) and I spent the day at Stitches Midwest yesterday. Neither of us took any classes, we just went for the shopping! And oh what shopping there was... I spent WAAAY too much money. :) Ooh, and we ran into A- who's blog is http://wordsandwool.blogspot.com. She's too fun!! and better yet she was wearing this yummy bolero that she'd knit!

First some pics of the Conference itself. This rainbow table is Tess'" Designer Yarns aren't they yummy? I really couldn't decide which color to get and K- helped me pick out this fabulous silvery blue-green colorway called Seabreeze. It's a sensuous 50/50 blend of silk & merino (that's what it's called actually). You can kind of see the green at the bottom of the twist here but it's just a lovely subtle colorway. Mmmmm.....
BTW, I had a fabulous time (I'm pretty sure she did, too) because we figured out what colors we each liked and while they were different shades, they were always of the same intensity, so we could skip entire booths!! (Who knew you could skip a booth at a Knitting Conference?)

Oh yeah, and there was a woman walking in in front of us who said the only reason she didn't bring her suitcase was because she had a bum knee and couldn't get under her house to get it!! Everyone was carrying a REALLY BIG shoulder bag to carry recently purchased treasures in, it was so funny! --- "Oops, sorry, 'scuse my bag!!" "Oh, no, it was mine! Excuse me!"

Here's a pic of the other WONDERFUL new vendor I met: Brooks Farm Yarn, that my Darling Mum told me I HAD, HAD, HAD to go visit. We were walking along and I came to this booth and (you know how it is... think two lovers slow-mo running toward eachother in a field of wildflowers...) I walked up to this hank of yarn and it's been STUCK, and I mean STUCK to my hands ever since!

I recently got my order from Fiddlesticks Knitting of the Garden Shawl and this colorway leapt into my hands! I think it's called Coral Honeysuckle and it's actually the same colorway that's on the home page as the example for Primero (which is what I got).

Another thing K- noticed was that there were so many generations of women there it was cool! There were young tatooed women with crazy hair there with their mother's shopping together. The only unfortunate thing was that it was so humid in Chicago yesterday that very few patrons were wearing their own creations. :( I always imagined the best part about a knitters Conv. was seeing everyone else's creations.

OOHH!! And we found a pattern for the exact sweater that I created for my girlfriend's baby in adult size!! It made us both laugh! Vines and leaves and all!

Two more quick pics of yummy purchases. I was proud of myself, I only bought one thing I didn't plan on (the Tess' Silk and Merino, but who could resist??!). I picked up two hanks of this faboo colorway from Manos called Bramble because everytime I see it I drool and have to touch it. No telling what I'm going to make with it but I've got it and that's all that matters! The other thing I bought was enough Zephyr in Aegean to make the Peacock Feathers Shawl.


Woof, I think that's probably enough for tonight. I'll just close with a pic from one of two center aisles at the Convention just because it was so fun. BTW, I decided to wash and block the baby sweater and it's currently pinned and drying. I won't bother you all with MORE pics of it because I'm sure you've had enough. Suffice to say that two front sides are now even with the back bottom edge. I love the magic of blocking.... :)

Homemade baked bean smooches,
Jen in Chicago