Stitches West weekend

What I learned at Stitches:

When you take a group photo at the end of the show ...

Em, Kimberly (XRX's social media extraordinaire), Zoe, me and Tracey

Try not to knock over your boss.

(photos from Em's camera)

We had a busy busy weekend and you know what, the trip is not over! With a snowstorm hitting our Minneapolis layover and home of Green Bay, we're not flying out of California until Wednesday. But first, let's see some more goodies from the show.

I think I spent my preconceived yarn budget at Urban Fauna on Saturday. The shop stocked some handspun yarn candy and cute gadgets. I splurged on three skeins of San Diego-based Darling Bud Designs yarn in what we call muskmelon.

I have a bad habit of only buying one of handspun yarn and then I'm stumped for a project that isn't a hat. So I brought two to cool dude at the register. He talked me into the third who would have been a lonely widow on the rack. I also found a nice wooden multi-needle for felting and a sock monkey gauge ruler.

The sheep WPI gauge and nail file are from Friday's previously mentioned haul. Then Zoe surprised me with some pretty beaded split-ring stitch holders.

But it was mostly work with just short bursts of yarn play. Back to the booth ... where Zoe welcomes me back with grace on Sunday.

And then sneaking away for a bit to pick up some smelly soap from Sanguine Gryphon. They decorated their booth with a medieval flair.

Yes, I do believe those are handknit undies on the table.

And then run down the aisle to get a quick pic with "somebunnyslove" Kimberly and Rowan the bun. My heart goes out to her since her real bun Sweet Pea hopped across the rainbow bridge while she was away. May he be munching lots of bananas and carrots on the other side with his bunny friends.

Deanna, our partner in beady crime — and lady in purple, sneaks into the photo on the left.

I also returned to Ellen's to buy the rest of her sharp loom picks. They work wonderfully!


And then the show was over. We tore it all down in an hour. We headed over to our much more snazzy hotel, The Avatar. (We got poor service and little sleep at the Hilton.) This is what I imagine when I think of Silicon Valley.

We will be bunking here for the next two nights as we recover from the show and wait for an airplane that wants to fly to the snowy Midwest. We'll be treated to wine-and-cheese happy hours and mod living arrangements.

Jetson furniture!

Robots!

Cheers!