Monday, February 22, 2016

Stitches West 2016 report...

...in a nutshell: I saw lots of pretty things, bought some of them, and had a great time. The longer story below.

Thursday
I didn't find any classes that called my name, so I signed up for the Opening Day Spotlight-Teachers Luncheon combo, and convinced my friend Loretta to do the same. I had never attended the spotlight or the luncheon, so it was something different to do. Plus, I still got into Market Preview that way. :-)

The big draw for us was that our weaving teacher and one of the former owners of our local yarn store were two of the panelists. The topic was "Working Fiber Arts into Your Wardrobe." We enjoyed hearing about the process each panelist used to create their garments. My favorite was the garment created by our weaving teacher, Deborah Jarchow. My least favorite was the felted garment, but I don't like felted things in general.

Lunch was fun, but very quick. I had never taken a class from any of the teachers who visited our table, so it was very interesting to hear about their classes. The class that sounded the most interesting was the intarsia (Anne-tarsia) class.

Market preview was a whirlwind. Usually, I buy the majority of my treasures at the Preview, but this year I spread it out. I made it a point to visit Greenwood Fiberworks, Ranch of the Oaks, Lisa Souza, and a new vendor (to me), Mosaic Moon. I bought something from each. I also visited some of the other vendors on my list, but didn't get anything else. 

Here's the Day 1 haul:


Friday
I had two hats that I knit for Halos of Hope, so I delivered those to Purlescence Yarns booth first. After looking Thursday's purchases, I decided that I needed to make another visit to Mosaic Moon. I really loved the two fibers I bought from them and wanted to look at more. Since I had already purchased fiber from my favorite vendors, I decided to concentrate on yarn vendors.

The night before, I'd seen some beautiful gradient bundles at A Hundred Ravens. I found one that I loved and picked a dark yarn in the same line...I found my next weaving project! I found a second weaving project at Dragonfly Fibers:  one teal variegated yarn and one coppery yarn. I also visited Williams Wool and Weavings for some great llama and sheep fabric.

When I got back from the market, I took photos of my new stash and uploaded things to Ravelry.  I cruised through the Facebook posts for Stitches West and noticed a new shawl pattern that was just released and really liked it a lot. Unfortunately, it looked like the limited edition yarn dyed for the pattern was probably sold out, but I decided to check it out on Saturday. 

Here's the Day 2 haul:


Saturday 
I had a short list for Saturday, made up of mostly small yarn vendors. I looked at Space Cadet yarns and bought a skein in their limited edition color for the show.

I headed to the Yarnover truck to check out the sample for the new shawl and to look at alternative colors for it. I got to talk to the dyer and she helped me pick a color that reminded me of the beach.

I also took my final swing through Greenwood Fiberworks booth and  couldn't resist getting a few more (!). I have a sneaky feeling that  I should spin nothing but Greenwood Fiberworks fiber for Tour de Fleece this year!

On the craft-side, I finished spinning the singles for Sweet Heat [Ravelry] that I started earlier in the month.

Here is the Day 3 haul:

Sunday
After loading the latest purchases in Ravelry and uploading the photos to Flickr, I decided that I didn't need to go back for the final day. While it would have been great to see some of my knitting friends, I was itching to warp my loom with some of my new yarn.

Before I could do that, I needed to find homes for my new stash and straighten up the studio. I also needed to get the vacuum monster in there to clean up loose threads and fiber.

After that, I wound the yarn for my new weaving project, Mermaid's Tale [Ravelry]. I warped the loom with the gradient yarn bundle i bought at A Hundred Ravens and supplemented it with some leftover yardage of La Jolla yarn (by Baah!) in Brazilian Emerald.  As soon as I wind the bobbins with the weft yarn, I'm ready to start weaving.

No photos yet of the weaving project...maybe Wednesday!
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