Stitches Pics (or Sorry, my camera battery died...)

Whew!!! Stitches was amazing! I had so much fun with Mom and running around seeing all my Peeps! (OK, so I'm not the type of girl to say "Peeps" but, well, you know...)

I SHOPPED, I gawked and I talked A LOT!


I thought I went shopping bananas but in the end I really didn't. Mom, on the other hand, was a shoping maniac! She reminded me of my first visit to Stitches last year with Kara. (Kara bought a "Fixer-Upper" house, BTW, and has since gone MIA).

First things first we hit the Socks That Rock Booth. I must say: WOW!

From Left to right in Mediumweight: Smoky Topaz, Celestine, Thistle, Falcon's Eye & Rock My World. Then in Lightweight on the right: Yosemite and Mist. Above: Sock Candy (96% cotton, 4% elite) in Kabuki.

Next we went to Tess Designer Yarns. I wanted to get some more 50/50 Silk Merino in this beautiful dark grey color but she didn't have enough and unlike Lynae I was not prepared to order $210 worth of yarn right then and there. SO, Mom bought some really yummy Seabreeze Silk and Merino. It's the same color I bought last year and it's going to look lovely on her. (You can see it in the total stash pic above. It's in the botton left corner.)



Third we went to Brooks' Farm. Soooo Beautiful! Above is what I got in Harmony. I still haven't used the Brooks Farm I bought last year, but I'm holding on to it for the perfect project. I love Brooks Farm because they're NOT cheap with their Yardage. 500 yards per hank at $34 for silk, mohair and merino. That's cool.


Next Stash enhancing visit was to the Book Booth (I think it was Village Spinning & Weaving but I always remember it as the book booth).

Here I got EZ's Knitting Workshop book that I have been coveting for a while and some beautiful Superwash Sock Yarn in this yummy Grass Green. I must admit that I picked it up because I've been envying Alyssa's Shamrock Socks since she made them last month. This generous hank has 582.4 yards (it's sold by weight and it's 1/2 lb). I'm hoping, depending on the gauge, to make some Loooong Knee high socks to wear with winter boots.



Finally (for me at least) we went to the Webs Booth. How amazing was that? I got to touch a lot of their Valley Yarns (really soft and lovely), I met the girl on the cover of their catalog (she works there and helped me find something) and bought some Tahki Ghost print that I've been oogling for a specific sweater for along time.

Now. Here's the dilemma. I'm not a little person and I got this faboo SUPER BULKY yarn. But I absolutely LOVE it. It's Tahki Ghost Print in a yummy colorway that I like to call Watermelon cause it's pale beige/green and pink.

There was a pattern in VK in Winter 2004 (It's the blue and sand colored one). It would be nice if I looked like that when it was finished, but then there's that whole reality thing. That being said, of course I'm going to alter it to be a cap-sleeve sweater and a little bigger than the pattern in the book.

I had to ask everyone's opinion about whether a big girl should make a big knit and Lynae finally convinced me by saying "If it makes you look like a house, you can always make it your "at home" sweater for the winter." SOLD!!

I lurve this yarn......

The guy at the Webs Booth was wonderful, too. I didn't know exactly how many balls I would need to make the sweater I wanted and he called the shop at 5:00 and asked one of the women to go look for the VK magazine for me. They couldn't find it in the store so he ran over to the Book Booth an looked for it, too. It wasn't at the book booth but the girl in the shop found it online. They really went above and beyond the call of duty and helped me to get what I need. Thanks WEBS!

So I came home and Swatched for the Sweater. Yes, Alyssa & Josie, I washed AND blocked it (you can see proof in the Summary Stash pic above). My gauge was exactly what it needed to be (2 needle sizes smaller than usual of course, but that's still on US 10's I NEVER get to use 10s). So I'm working on editing the pattern, but I figured out that I will definitely have enough yarn and I've got some of the schematics worked out. So, last night I cast on for the yummy sweater and later I will get you a pic of my progress.

Finally-Finally we stopped at Moving Mudd buttons. I picked up a lovely glass button with a pink center that is going to look great with the Bulky Sweater.

Overall, we had a wonderful time at Stitches Marktet and, like Claire, because this was my second trip to Stitches I already have all the knitting accoutrements that I need so I was able to concentrate on YARN and only yarn that I can't get at my LYS.

I hope you all enjoyed this little trip down Jen's Shopping Spree Lane.

Tomorrow: Mom's Purchases (which she left at my house to ship back to her in Houston what with the crazy airplane situation lately)

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GROUP Night is tonight!! If you want to see the newly acquired yarny goodness in person, feel free to join us at:

Border's Books & Music at Lake and Skokie Blvd. in Wilmette, IL from 6:30 to 8:00 p.m. in the Cafe'

Stitches is happening RIGHT NOW!!!

Mom is here from Houston for the weekend and the Stitches convention. We've got our tickets and I have the afternoon off!!!

We'll be meeting Lynae, Alyssa, and Claire as well as some other blogless friends this afternoon for some amazing shopping and fun.

I'll be back with pictures too!! I'm going to charge up my camera bettery right now!!

See you soon! (um, yeah, I did dream about yarn last night now that you mention it!)

Just a note to all my dear friends out there....

I'm sorry. I must admit that I have thought of you often, of late. But as can be witnessed in my blog, I have done NOTHING to remedy that situation. I know that if you haven't forgotten about me (Thanks Lynn!) that you'll probably expect pictures to accompany this post. Unfortunately, I'm at work. Camera? At Home. So pics will have to come later.

The briefest of explanations is due to you regarding my absence (ok, I'm incapable of blog brevity):
1.) I have a new job.
2.) I'm in a knitting slump.

"Cur-int Projeks"

1. ) I'm still working on my Lotus Blossom Tank ("top": I'm adding sleeves). I got all the way through my first attempt at a top down sleeve (which was way cool, btw) and I discovered that, despite the inordinate number of times I COUNTED. I picked up 12 stitches TOO MANY!!

Exactly how many is 12 stitches too many, you might ask?? Well, I'll tell you. 12 stitches is exactly the number of stitches I need to pick up under the arm in the bound off row.

What does this mean you might ask? It means I have to rip out the whole friggin' sleeve!!!! ARRRRGGHHHHH! I wanted this to be an easy summer project!! I wanted it to go fast!! BUT NO! I am physiologically incapable of following a pattern. I must always change it. So, could I just go with the little tank with pretty straps? Nope. I had to add sleeves. From the top down, nonetheless! So to fix them I have to rip them out entirely. [sob]

That bloody "quick and easy" top is sitting in my bag and it just might remain there until next summer. OR, I could follow EZ's advice about ripping and say to myself "Hooray! More of my favorite hobby!!" (Or I could just parcel post the whole damn thing to her, were she still with us.)

OK, I've got my emotions back under control. Sorry.

2.) In class I've started a swatch for a lace sweater out of Blue Sky Alpaca Silk in color Kiwi for an all-over lace sweater, but then I decided to boycott the project. Not because I don't want to do it. It's just that I don't want to do it RIGHT NOW. I finally got the yarn for my Alice Starmore sweater and I want to work on that since it's already started.

3.) Sock 2 of 2 in Koigu KPPPM. Stash knitting. I bought the Koigu more than a year ago and I want sock from it. So, I'm making some twisted rib plain socks for myself. I still can't seem to get the foot length thing right. They're either a little too long or a little too short. Annoying, if I do say so.

4.) Baby blanket for a girlfriend's friend. The friend who asked me to make the blanket for her friend is kind of going through a rough spot right now and needs all the support she can get.

OK, so it was also an opportunity to try some of that yummy Blue Sky Cotton in delicious baby colors (baby blue, pink, teal, yellow and mint green). I wanted to reverse engineer the log cabin blanket from Mason Dixson but then my conscience got the better of me and I went out and bought the book. It's fun and has some lovely non-challenging projects. I can use big yarn on big needles and I fell in love with the Contemporary Baby Blanket. I'm still using Baby colors but the squares are kind of random vs. in lockstep log cabin style. Loving it.

5.) On hold until I finish something else:

• Innishmore by Alice Starmore
• Lady Eleanor (OMG, boring) from Scarf Style (all three projects are listed in this link)
• Those really cool fair isle socks out of two solid colors of Koigu that I was making (that two handed knitting stuff is hard) with the pattern from Estonian Knits
• Somewhat Cowl in Elann Alpaca Silk doubled by Wendy Bernard from Knitandtonic.com. (pending cooler weather, it's too darn hot to even hold that yarn) Finally...the OTHER mitten.

Hey! That's not so bad. I know I'm forgetting something, but then, I went through my stash a few weeks ago and ripped out anything that I wasn't loving.

For example, I ripped out that Cowlneck Mohair Sweater from IK Winter 2004. Boy was that a disaster, anyone want 11 skeins of La Gran Mohair in Highlighter Blue? That was my first attempt at a sweater. Ever.

While I didn't end up with a sweater, I learned several things:
1.) I hate fuzzy fly-away mohair.
2.) To wear that particular mohair sweater, you must be rail thin as mohair clings to all your bumps and curves.
3.) That cowl would have been better served in a darker color. The blue was just too, tooo, for that sweater. Pretty, but not a good person to sweater combo.
4.) Swatch, check your gauge. Do it again.

Finally, I say I'm in a knitting slump because I'm not in love with anything I'm working on. I just want to finish something and that seems to be a challenge for me. Then I think back about the projects I've done and I realize that it's not that I don't finish things, it's that I give them away once they're finished. So, I want to finish something for ME and that blasted tank top is giving me fits!!

Oh yeah, and it was my blogiversary on July 26th. I totally missed it cause that was my 2nd day at my new job.

Pictures are coming tonight. I promise.

See, you didn't really miss this did you?

Smooches,
jen