Stitches East

Yesterday after work I met up with my friend Geraldine, my knitting sensei....the woman who taught me to knit!

G-dine in the yarn buffet that was Woolstock (there was even Noro in there!).

We drove from her place to Baltimore for Stitches East and really, really had fun. We were worried about onlyhaving 4 hours but I think it was just perfect. We saw most of everything and any more time would have forced me to....well let's just say I decided to feed my children this month instead.

My personal haul.

I was convinced by Geraldine to buy a bag of gorgeous roving simply because it was screaming my name from the corner of the booth. I do love it! All it says is "Wool" so I have no idea which type of sheep it's from. It's nice though. And don't worry, I paid G-dine back by talking her into a giant bag of yarn from Woolstock. It matched the shirt she was wearing perfectly! :-)

O.K., where was I? Oh yeah. Roving. Then, after wandering and drooling and talking myself out of so much yarn we hit Tess' Designer Yarns. I was a gonner. Giant hanks hung by color, and what amazing color! Silk, silk/wool blends, wool, etc, etc. It was a feast for the eyes...and hands. Then I stumbled on her sock yarn table. Crap!

The amazing wonders of Tess' sock yarn table.

I don't know who this woman is but God gifted her with some amazing color sense! I had an armful before I knew what I was doing. At only $15 a skein (450 yards), who can argue? I managed to pry some out of my hands and only bought 3 skeins. I kept chanting tomyself, "I can go online, I can go online, I can go online..." It was my favorite, though the Blue Moon booth was a sock yarn-stravaganza as well. I managed to refrain there. Geraldine bought me some Regia silk-blend sock yarn at the Webs booth so I'm all stocked up on sock yarn now! Not bad for a chick who, this time lastyear, didn't own a single skein of sock yarn.

So. I took cards from booths but only the ones that looked really interesting. And for your browsing pleasure, here they are:

www.tessdesigneryarns.com (the beeeest!)

www.woolstock.com (not impressed by the site, but the prices are good)

www.NeighborhoodFiberCo.com

http://www.kidhollow.com/

http://www.hempforknitting.com/

http://www.windyvalleymuskox.com/

http://www.dellysdelightsfarm.com/

www.weatherly-mize-designs.com (shawl pins)

www.justouryarn.com (nice kits)

http://www.dancingleaffarm.com/

I haven't checked all the sites yet but I figure that'll keep you busy a while.I'm trying to think of all the different vendors you'd be interested in. Blue Moon was there, Webs was there (were there?),

A small corner of the WEBS booth.

the big vendors were there (Cascade, SWTC, Skacel..) but they couldn't sell, only promote. Individual booths carried their stuff. Jojoland was there! Everybody was carrying Addis and Lantern Moon stuff. There wasn't a whole lot in the way of fiber or spinning stuff but there was enough to keep it interesting for the spinner. Like that giant shelf of "pick your own" batts sold by the ounce. You ripped off what you wanted and they weighed it. Too fun!

rip it and weigh it....mix and match

I plan on checking out some other conferences as they come along so I can compare them for you. 'Cause, you know, you never know when you'll be on the East Coast, eh?

So. How's that for TMI?

Enjoy!

-Teresa