Stitches 2011 Recap and Booty!



A little bit of Stitches goes a long way. For me, that means four or five hours of browsing, shopping, meeting friends, chatting with shop owners, and absorbing all of the silky, woolly, warm vibes at the Santa Clara Convention Center this past weekend.

Many of the same vendors were back, some with smaller booths and less product, a reminder of how the economy has affected not only our pocketbooks but the livelihoods of our favorite creative shop owners.

At Interlacements, where I have purchased a couple of skeins every year, I was surprised to see the reduced inventory and booth footprint. The colors were as vibrant as ever.

The Mannings booth was buzzing with activity, as was Tess Designer Yarns. The Yarn Barn was full of people browsing, but it seemed to me that purchasing lines were shorter here and throughout the Market. I was pleased to see the popularity of Intwined Pattern Studio, the design software that I purchased last year. Demonstrations at Intwined were lively, and it looked like people were buying.

Tina at Knitwhits

A vendor new to me, The Sanguine Gryphon, was attacked by shoppers on the first day of the show, I was told. And something they had was all gone by the end of the first day. What was it? I must know! The booth attendants were dressed in long gowns, their hair tied up in ribbons. Medieval times at a yarn show? Their yarn was scrumptious, and I picked up two skeins of some cashmere/silk fluffiness. Yum.  I picked up these two handcarved shawl pins from Chappy (a.k.a., Purrfectly Catchy Designs).  Don't they complement the yarn well?  She's the vendor with the highligher tape, if you need some.

I also stopped by Cheryl Oberle's booth and picked up her Knitted Jackets book.  She graciously signed it for me and gave me a marbelized bookmark.  She's always so lovely.

I have to admit I am attracted to sparkly, smooth things, and these glass handmade knitting needles from Sheila and Michael Ernst of Drain, OR are no exception.  I tested them at their booth and the wool slid nicely over the pointy tips.  I'm not sure how they will do with finer yarns, but for a relaxing, satisfying woolly knit, I'm definitely going to use these.  They have a lifetime warranty against breakage (made with borosylicate, commonly known as Pyrex), and the smallest size is 4.  I bought one of the standard colors, but look at their website to see some of their gorgeous designer color wonders.

I can't leave out the man with the Midas touch.  The guy with the gold.  The Japanese silk man.  Who is he and where does he get this stuff each year?  He is  John Marshall of Covelo, CA and he buys out remaining stocks of Japanese textile companies.  He also teaches and lectures in dying, stencil carving, and various Japanese and other arts.  I purchased some extremely fine silk from him.  I don't know yet what it will be, but the colors are stunning.

And I do like this Handy Caddy I found.  The plastic organizer snaps onto a steel frame that will stand up on a table.  But you can unsnap it, and take just the plastic organizer with you in your knitting bag.

I'm looking forward to reading all the blog posts about Stitches this year.  Let's keep attending these events, and purchasing from the vendors, so we can enjoy Stitches in years to come.

Landscapes of color

Felt landscapes, yarn braids and some cute stitch markers

Stitches ... Sanguine Gryphon

The name and the costumes made me look. Gorgeous cashmere and silk yarn made me buy.

Quite a lot

More from Stitches

Knitwhits

My pal Tina at the Knitwhits booth. Stop in and say hello - and check out the new Freia yarns - beautiful!

Off the Hook

Hub is off the hook. He's staying home with the puppy today, partly because of the really nice gift he gave me for my birthday, and partly because he worked a double shift yesterday. Lucky guy, or lucky me?

The road to Stitches West

Headed to Stitches West on Saturday, so I thought I should test this mobile blogging thing. The results are fun, but a lot of teeny keyboarding is tedious work. Maybe I'll post some pics if I can. Wish me luck, good knitters!

Sofia

This is my great grandmother. Her name was Sofia, and she was the first person I ever saw knit or crochet. This photo was taken of her in Lake Tahoe at my Uncle Louie's cabin. It's the only photo I've ever seen of her knitting.


She was Big Nana, to me, even though she stood only 4'10". She spoke Italian and very little English. She went to church every day, walking up and down the steep Filbert Street hill to go to Ss. Peter and Paul Church in North Beach. She rode the cable cars well into her 80's.

I grew up around the corner from Big Nana, who lived with Auntie Florence and Uncle Ralph. I visited her on many occasions and always found her sitting in her chair, working on a bureau scarf or doll clothes or something for a baby. Sofia lived to the age of 92, a gentle soul who helped me appreciate fine handmade things.

Marin County Fair 2010

Just some photos of the textiles on exhibit at the Marin County Fair. I didn't enter any fairs this year, but I still like visiting and looking at the entries. Not too much lace was exhibited, but some talented knitters won ribbons, nonetheless. Click on an image to see it larger.

Krokus in Progress

The past two+ months have been a bit tumultuous, with Dad in the hospital, his recovery, and adding a new puppy to our household. (Ellie has a new blog where you may watch her grow up.) I've finally gotten back to Krokus, which sat dormant for at least part of this time. Thank you, Adrienne, for spurring me to update.

I don't know what possessed me to think that I would finish Krokus in time to enter it in the San Mateo County Fair this year. Even if nothing had gone topsy-turvy, the timeframe for completion was still much too short. In addition, I had thought I was knitting 209 rows.

I found the Krokus pattern in the February 1989 Anna magazine, published in German by Burda. It was a lucky find. Several years ago, I had purchased a stack of old Annas from an online seller at a low price, and the collection included the elusive Lyra (in English!) and several other Herbert Niebling patterns. Of course, now many of the Niebling patterns have been republished, since interest in these fine works has increased. However, at the time of my purchase, I felt very lucky to have found these.

If you know Anna magazine, you're aware that the more complex charts are located on a large pull-out folded sheet in the center of the magazine -- sort of like the posters we would pull out of old Tiger Beat magazines as kids. I admit, as a young girl, I had a shirtless David Cassidy pinned on my wall, complete with staple hole near his bellybutton. My mom was not pleased. These days, my heart beats faster for Nieblings than popstars.

When I picked up Krokus again, I happily knit along at a good pace, and at Row 123 I guessed I would easily finish in a month or at the most two. Then I realized, as I looked at the photo of the finished piece in the magazine, that I had barely made a dent in this mammoth thing. And it was not 209 rows. It was 245. How had I missed that portion of the chart?

On the Anna pattern sheet, the chart is printed in several sections. One ends at 123, the next at 167; the next at 191; the next at 209. But I hadn't noticed the very long final section ends at 245 -- which would make it exponentially larger than I had envisioned. Then, of course, there is a very long, tedious bind-off. Okay, I've done Lyra, but I didn't think this one was going to be so time-consuming. Anyway, it will be ready for the next Fair, whether it's San Mateo or the State Fair. No pressure. Only another year to finish.

The lifeline I'm using is now in three pieces. It makes more sense than having one long lifeline that could break under tension. Did I say tension? No, there is no tension in knitting, just as there is no crying in baseball.