And now a word from our sponsor.

Not really; I have no sponsors. I am going to pimp some products right now, though.

Last year at Stitches West 2011, there was one item that everyone flocked to in the marketplace: the Stitch Light by Buffy Ann Designs. I bought one, of course, and made a friend in the process, owner Liz Schaeffer. Saw her again at Sock Summit last year, and just last week at Stitches West 2012. She’s so nice that I decided to write something about her stuff.

Yarn Cozy & Stitch Light

First off we have the Stitch Light, a nifty little gadget that hangs around your neck and focuses light from an LED light on your knitting or whatever you’re doing with your hands. It’s a nice little design, stays put on your chest and has a cute little pouch for storing stitch markers and the like. I got the purple one last year (matched my hair), but this year I got a new improved teal pouch for it (to match my hair!).

So handy!

New this year (I think!) is the Yarn Cozy. It’s a little sock for your yarn, to keep your ball or cake or skein from coming apart while you’re working with it. I think they look like little yarn panties, myself. They come 3 to a pack. And they do hold yarn together nicely; maybe I can quit using plastic baggies now.

Everyone loves cozy balls!

So, that’s it. Two little things that’ll make your fibery life just a little easier.

Note: In the interst of full disclosure, while I bought my Stitch Light last year, Liz did give me a package of Yarn Cozies and a new pouch and strap for my light at this year’s Stitches. See? I told you she’s nice!

Thing-a-Week #49

This week’s Thing is actually three things, the products of the classes I took at Stitches West.

At bottom right are the samples from the Embroider Your Knitting class on Friday. Up top is the bag from the Color and Weave Mini Tote Bag class, and all that fiber and the little tiny ball of yarn is from Spinning for Knitting.

My favorite, and the most proper completed Thing, is the tote bag. I haven’t been doing much with color patterns (or much besides scarves!), so it was nice to do something different.

This class used a basic 2×2 alternating color warp with three different weft patterns. The top of the bag is one pattern (2×2), the middle is another (4×4) and the bottom is yet another (1×1). It’s pretty neat to see the different effects you get by just varying the weft.

Overall, the classes were great and I learned a lot. Looking foward to next year!

Stitches West 2012

I had the best of intentions. Honest. I was going to post daily accounts of my time at Stitches West, like I did last year, but the days were so packed that I didn’t have the time. So, here’s a recap!

Stitches West began on Thursday. I went to the opening session by Betsy Hershberg, author of Betsy Beads. XRX, who runs the show, is promoting the book. I’d gone in not really interested in it, and by the end of the speech, I wanted to purchase the book (and did!). Funny how that works. Nice job, XRX.

After the session was lunch, where the teachers came around to our tables at five-minute intervals. It was a great chance to see what was being offered at Stitches. While there were classes Thursday afternoon, I didn’t sign up for any, choosing instead to hang out and wait for the market preview to open.

I did take three classes at Stitches.

My first was a three-hour class on Friday: Embroider Your Knitting with Anna Zilboorg. Amazing lady, beautiful work. I sincerely hope she comes out with a book on the techniques in the class.

My second class ran all of Saturday: Color and Weave Mini Tote Bag with Deborah Zarchow. I’d taken her introductory class last year, which led to all of those scarves I wove since then. I wanted to try something different, hence the bag. (I’ll show that off with my thing-a-week, next.)

Finally, I had a class on Sunday morning: Spinning for Knitting with Merikke Saarnit. I already spin, but this class was worthwhile to gain a better understanding of different fibers and techniques.

I purposely didn’t fill my schedule with classes. I’m fortunate to have fallen in with a group of great folk from Northern California and enjoyed spending time hanging out and knitting with them. I also met with relatives for dinner on Saturday and spent an afternoon with a high-school friend on Sunday before my flight home. Oh, and my roomie Sherry bestowed upon me a beautiful skein of yarn that she spun and a knit cowl. What great friends I have!

The rest of my time was spent at the marketplace, which was pretty awesome, as usual. Nearly 200 vendors, thousands and thousands of yarns and books and other goodies. It’s a wonderland. I didn’t get that much, considering how much there was to buy.

That’s pretty much it. It’s all a blur, and I didn’t get much sleep, but it was great. Definitely want to go again next year!

Stitches West 2012: Prologue

I’m in Santa Clara for another Stitches West! It doesn’t start till tomorrow; I like to get here the day before so I’m not rushing around on the first day.

Last year, I posted some complaints about my trip down. In a surprising reversal, everything went smoothly this year. I am amazingly unannoyed. Here’s why:

• I was not subjected to a full-body scan by airport security.
• I heard all of the boarding announcements and boarded in a timely manner.
• The one-year-old baby next to me on the plane was well-behaved and slept most of the way.
• The TSA did not search my bag.

There’s really only one annoyance that continues from last year:

• The sinks at the hotel are still stupid.

But that’s ok. Also, this is my view:

It’s 75 degrees right now. Oh my.

Dawwww

My post titles are devolving. I expect my next one will be a series of grunts.

If you remember from day 4 of Stitches West, I went to a needle felting class and made part of a sheep. This week, I finished the rest!

Daww.

Daawwww.

Daaaaaaaaaaaaaawwwwwwwwwwwwwww.

If you need me, I’ll be this puddle of goo in the corner.

Yum!

At Stitches West, I bought some fiber from Tracey at the Interlacements booth. She told me that I had to spin it up or she’d stalk me.

Fearing a Tracey-stalking, I did so. I turned this (8 ounces of handpainted wool roving):

Into this (390 yards of light worsted-ish yarn):

Neat trick, huh?

Stitches West 2011: Epilogue

Well, I’m home. The flight home was totally uneventful. No annoyances whatsoever.

Today, I took a better picture of my market haul:

(The Bugga is the gray one in the middle, and the Codex is the magenta one below it.)

And some nice ones of that weaving project I’m so enamored with.

I haven’t washed it yet, so I expect it’ll still smooth out a little bit.

That’s it! I’m feeling a little less tired now, too. I guess I’m recuperating!

Stitches West 2011: Day 4

Well, that’s it. It’s over. It was a jam-packed, exhausting time.

This morning I had a Farmyard Friends: Needle Felted Animals class with Sharon Costello. I made a sheep. Well, most of a sheep, since we ran out of time to finish.

Aren’t the samples cute?

After class, it was back to the market for last minute stuff and the grand prize drawing. Nothing really grabbed me except a couple of dizzes and buttons, and I didn’t win anything. What a drag.

Sherry was kind enough to drop me at the airport for my flight home, so here I sit, waiting for my flight.

I’m completely worn out, but I had a wonderful time. Thanks to all my great Northern California friends, you made me feel a part of the family. See you next year!

Stitches West 2011: Day 3

O noes! Stitches is almost over!

Today was the last full day at the conference. Much fun has been had. Much learning has been learnt. I had a full-day weaving class. Yes, weaving. And surprise, surprise, I think I like it. My decent into madness began with knitting, crept into crochet, sojourned in spinning, flirted with felting, fled to fiber prep, and now is wending its way into weaving. Save yourselves! I’m done for!

Anyway, the class was Learn Rigid Heddle Weaving and Use Up Your Stash with Deborah Jarchow. Everyone in the class had a rigid heddle loom to work with: some had Ashfords and some had Glimakras. I had a Glimakra. Unfortunately I was so into it that I forgot to take a picture while the class was in session. You’ll just have to imagine these looms out of their boxes with beautiful weavings of all different colors and textures coming off them.

We made scarves. Well, we tried to. I didn’t have enough time to finish the whole thing, so I ended up with some sort of short table runner.

The warp (lengthwise) yarns came mostly from my stash, including some handspun I wasn’t going to use for anything. For the weft (crosswise yarn), I ended up going to the market and picking up some Cascade 220 sport in rich chocolate brown. I really wish I could’ve finished the scarf!

After class, I went to the market for a short while, then went to dinner at Pedro’s with friends. It was delicious. The tamale had the best masa.

Back at the hotel, my roomie and I chilled a little bit and took pictures of our marketplace haul. (I didn’t get good pics of the Bugga, so I’ll just have to get proper pictures when I get home!)

After that, we headed down for yet another PJ party. We showed off our market purchases and I showed off my scarf. I’m so proud.

We all pretty much crashed after that. I didn’t even post this till the next day.

Stitches West 2011: Day 2

Woke up, got out of bed, dragged a comb across my head…

…and then I went to class. Only one class today, Creative Knitting: Crazy Quilt Style with Myra Wood. It was very interesting, about how to plan and knit crazy quilt knitted pieces. Myra’s a great teacher, and the class materials, especially the handout showing how many increases is needed for any given angle, were very helpful.

After class, I hit the market. Didn’t buy much, just some Bugga and Codex at Sanguine Gryphon. It was super crowded. The rain didn’t deter the crowds at all.

Now, I did run across this little gem of an item at one of the booths. It’s called a Stitch Light, an LED pendant light that hangs on your neck and lights up your knitting. Very cool. I decided to get one, but am waiting on someone to get back about whether they want one or not. Ahem.

Shortly after that, my friend Erin was gracious enough to drive my butt (and the rest of me) over to the Bobbin’s Nest in Santa Clara, where one of my favorite dyers, Three Irish Girls, had a trunk show. As if the marketplace didn’t have enough yarn.

The rest of the afternoon consisted of food, more marketplace, and some wonderful knitting time with the Nite Owls. Then came the Stitches Pajama Party!

I do have one thing to say about this PJ party. The coordinator of tonight’s event explained how the party started at Stitches, and she seems to have bent the facts to make it sound like it was her idea. Not a chance. For the record, the Nite Owls had a PJ party on the hotel mezzanine at Stitches West 2010, before this woman was even representing XRX. The party was organized by my friend Cole, but the Stitches staff thought it was a great idea and made it an official party. After this coordinator/community person came on board, she started making it sound like it was all her doing, presumably starting with Stitches South 2010. Shame on you, girl. Maybe you should read up a little on the history of the event, as documented on your own blog:

I can’t say I was actually invited, but I did get to witness the first ever STITCHES pajama party, dubbed Night Owl Knitting by Cole (or coleyknits on Ravelry, the one with the sock monkey), the parent of this brain child. Tipped off that these knitters in their comfort zone would be visited by sponsors bearing gifts, I showed up, camera in hand.

Susan (cocohugs), crashed the party from her nearby Hilton home, showed me her first-time Magic Loop socks-in-progress, and explained that almost everyone came from 2 (exceptionally devoted, if I might add) knitting groups: Llama Llama Knit in Novato, CA and Yarn Cottage, which is sadly no larger in business, but the knitting group party’s on!

Pack your pajamas and let’s make it a regular thing: STITCHES, Friday night, Night Owl Knitting Pajama Party, following the Fashion Show Dinner, location TBA! See you at South!

The list of gifts was long and generous. There were representatives from Cascade Yarns, Malabrigo, and Knitter’s Magazine present.

[Posted by Natalie, Feb 27, 2010]

Anyway, about tonight’s festivities: there were indeed prizes. There were questions like who came from farthest away, who’s been knitting longest, that sort of thing. They also had contests, like crazy PJs.

The Carmen Miranda look-alike won, of course. Though the coordinator and both judges had no clue and just called her “the fruit lady.” Kids today, I tell ya.

And I won a prize, too! The prize I won was for closest anniversary. Ours was on Feb 5th. When I told my husband that I won, he was pleased to have had a part in it. Until I told him what it was for: a $15 gift certificate to the Fine Needle and a neck-down sweater DVD. He suddenly lost all interest.

(Yes, I brought my charted chicken to Stitches West.)

So that’s it for today! Tommorow, I weave (as in make fabric. I’m not going anywhere!).