Stitches

I went with my sisters and daughter on our yearly jaunt to Stitches. This year I did not find a big ticket item to spend my carefully saved stash of money on, but just bought a few patterns. I always love a stop at the White Lies Designs booth because they are great patterns and sometimes look a little different made up and on display in her booth than they do in the photo so are interesting to study, but mostly I just love JMc-M and her designs. This year I bought Colette and Letitia and managed not to buy a pattern I already own, which I have been known to do once or twice.















I really like the Green River Tunic pattern that I bought at the Webs booth and plan to make it up for myself for summer wear. Everyone in my group was taken with the Aran Hat pattern, so we all chipped in to buy it. It is a pillbox sort of hat and looked very attractive on the lady in the booth.

I will say, though, that the parking was a nightmare since the guys steering the traffic around did not have cellphones so they did not know when a portion of the lot was full or not and a lot of aimlessly driven cars were milling around and drivers were getting irritated and mouthing off to the attendants (we will not discuss my own behavior). But finally a parking space was found. I don't know why they closed the entire top story of parking to everyone but the handicapped, because there were just not that many handicapped parking there and it remained half empty while we all searched for parking. Next year I will get there much earlier if possible.

It took us hours and hours to walk around and see everything in the market, and by mid afternoon we were very tired. After Stitches we went to Kinokuniya and I bought a magazine, and then I drove the M's home again through rush hour traffic which was not as bad as it could have been despite the occasional screams of fear from my passengers. I did get them home in one piece however, so all is well. On the way to my own house, I got to thinking about those huge rolls of butcher paper at the restaurant supply store that I have never been able to afford, so, since I had most of my Stitches money left over, I drove over there and bought one. 36 inches wide and 1350 feet long! Lovely butcher paper, I will trace a lot of patterns onto it and it will last for years and years. The roll is tall and very heavy, so I had to wedge it into a corner so it would not fall and crush me someday.

We are having a week of sunshine so I plan to walk everyday and to work on setting in the second sleeve on the Ranch Red cardigan.