Stitches West II

These pictures were taken without a flash, so there was plenty of light in the massively huge convention hall. I found a new book by Marion Foale, and the designs were so nice that I remembered that I have her original book from about 25 years ago. She designs classic garments with lots of textural interest. Look at this beautiful jacket which is included in the book (Ali MacGraw was about 4 feet to the right of this jacket so you can imagine her sitting there, if you wish):

When did a skein of sock yarn begin to cost $25?? I had to content myself with taking pictures of the gorgeous colors. I realized that I have to buy a better rolling carrier for the lunch and purchases, so, since the husband needs one for carrying office files to meetings, we will have to go shopping for one. The one I usually use is a little awkward and tends to trip up other people.

Naturally, it started to pour rain as soon as we left the convention center, so we had a rainy drive home.

Stitches 2011

It had snowed the night before, and there was snow on the foothills on the way to San Jose. We had already purchased our tickets online, but the rest of the knitting world has also learned to do this, so the line was already long by the time we joined it, but it is always fun to talk to knitters and watch the fashion parade of handknits. My daughter was wearing one of her beautiful small shawls and people would come up to admire it. One lady reached out to touch the shawl and explained to us that that is 'the knitter's handshake'.

As usual, we attended the market for two days. It starts to get really crowded around lunchtime, and I detest being crushed in crowds of oblivious women, even if they are wearing pretty sweaters. We get there early to snag a parking place and wait in line for the doors to open. We have developed our technique to avoid the crowd for most of the morning, and we leave when it gets bad. We had lots of fun, and there was even a celebrity sighting, since Ali MacGraw was there signing books for some charity or other involving animals.
I took a picture through the doorway before they allowed us to enter the marketplace. It is a huge venue with many, many booths from all over the country. It is yarn shop heaven, is what it is.

They had relaxed the rules about picture taking, so I'll show some more pictures of the yarn and garments tomorrow.

On To The Future

My posts have been very skimpy the last while, because I was helping take care of a relative whose health was failing. The inevitable has happened, and I now find myself with time to do all the things I have been missing. I know that I am more of a product person than a process person, and I find finishing up projects helps a lot in sad times by giving my spirits a lift. I have several sweaters started with the ribbings ready to go on the machine, so I am making an effort to straighten up the sewing/craft room so that I can use the machine again.

Spring comes early in California, and the almond trees are blooming. Just yesterday I saw yellow daffodils in someone's front yard. Of course, a storm is moving in today, but the brief glimpse of warm weather gave us time to go for a ride in the country where I took the photo above. My goals this week are to get at least one sweater section on the machine, and to find that walkabout seed catalog so I can get my order in.

Christmas Shopping Blitz

I was getting a little nervous about time passing swiftly as we rush towards Christmas, because I have done nothing to get ready. The spouse suggested a quick trip Friday night to The Container Store to look over their stocking-stuffer specials. We left the house at 6:48, drove to the next town, did our shopping, and drove back into our driveway at 7:20. This is a record, even for us. There was little to no traffic during the dinner hour but even I was surprised at our speed. Now that both families have a name draw and a $10 limit, Christmas is not nearly the hassle it used to be.

My daughter is doing the Christmas baking, and I did a lot of the family present buying online, so I think I am about done with the shopping. I have a lot of house cleaning to do, though. I just wish the weather would brighten up, but I should be grateful we are not up to our necks in snow like a lot of the country. We are just whining about a little drizzle and overcast.

Black Friday

This post isn't about knitting at all, but this week has been full of scary adventures, and I am now hoping for some nice boring days. I never do the shopping thing on the day after Thanksgiving because I have worked in department stores on that day, and hoped to avoid being in any store on that day for the rest of my entire life. However, I saw on the Joann sale circular that the flannel was on sale today for $1.29/yd, and who can resist that?? One of my daughters had an accident last night and had to go to the emergency room (she is fine now), so I decided I needed to do something fun for a change as an antidote to drama. I was in the line at the Joann a few minutes before six this morning. When the people surged into the store, I headed right for the flannels and grabbed nine different prints. Then I went right to the cutting table, got my number ticket, and lo, I was number 1! The mob was already forming around the cutting table, so I was feeling really triumphant to be at the head of the line. In addition to the flannels, which are destined to be made into pajamas for the daughters and myself, I got a couple of apron patterns, a flexible ruler, and a free pair of scissors they were handing out at the door.

When I was waiting in line before the store opened, I got to talking to a nice lady ahead of me in line, and she told me that she had already been to several stores. I guess some were opening at 4 am. She had been to the orange home supply store where mobs of people were buying the 99 cent poinsettias. She told me that some people had carts full of the potted poinsettia plants. I don't think I would get up at 4 am to buy poinsettias.

Back To The Weave-It

Knitting is handy when you need a carry-along project for those times in life when you do a lot of waiting around. I have been spending lots of time with an ailing relative lately, sitting in doctor's offices or waiting around the house, so I have several sock projects in a tote bag along with some paperback books. That way I will never be horribly bored which is something I totally hate. I have also picked up the Weave-It again because I can make squares while I am watching TV. The colored squares will eventually be a scarf, and are made with sock yarn. I decided to experiment with a slightly heavier yarn, so I tried out Baby Soft from Lion Brand. I'm trying to decide how to sew them together.
This is how they look when they have single crochet all around, then sewn together like afghan squares. The downside of this method is that there are extra ends to sew in, and it takes a lot longer. I'm also not sure I like the contrast of the lightweight fabric and the heavier crochet.
I'm loving the sock yarn squares, though. The yarn cycles through different colors, so you never know what color the square is going to be until you are done with it.

Knitting Again

I can almost feel the knitting mojo coming back. I have been sewing for months and months with no real desire to knit much, but now that the weather is finally cooling off I am looking at the knitting machine with interest again. In the meantime, I did finish another pair of socks for A.


This yarn is Berroco Sox in Color 1477. The photo shows the colors almost exactly as they are, and I did manage to match the socks to each other pretty well. I used a size 2 needle and 64 stitches for a plain sock, but if I were to start over again, I would use a size 1 and 72 stitches for a firmer sock fabric.

I had put aside the aqua sweater I was making because I was too busy sewing, but now I am gathering up the various pieces and thinking about hanging them on the machine and finishing that sweater. I had knit the body and sleeve borders in a lace pattern.

My birthday was this month, and my daughter, M, is knitting me a shawlette in the most beautiful orangey/yellow yarn, so I am looking forward to using that this winter.