friday eye candy

I have long been a fan of Cephalopod Yarns, and I was super excited to see they had a booth at Stitches West (yes - I'm running a little behind on showing you goodies from Stitches, but bear with me)!

I was super excited to meet the incredibly sweet Sarah, the Cephalopod dye maven extraordinaire, and fondle her yarny goodness. There were so many incredible colors to choose from (I am such a sucker for great color!), but I confined myself to reason and left with three Bugga! lovelies and great plans.

Oh! how I love these colors.

So beautiful in the sun, but unfortunately my camera captured them a little lighter than in real life.

Here they are looking like themselves: Widow Dragonfly, Strawberry Crab and Ghost Moth. Exquisite.

catching up a little

It's been some time since I dropped by, I know. And I am wondering when I will get it through my head that this is a crazy time every year! One of these days it will stick.

There's so much to tell: so much to share. I will start, though, by thanking everyone who came by my booth at Stitches West. Again this year, I shared with A Verb for Keeping Warm, and it's always wonderful to hang out with Kristine, Michelle and Aday (and we won prettiest booth again, thanks to Kristine's genius!). It was "interesting" to do a show with an injury:

and I remember thinking at the time that it was a totally insane idea and wondering what on Earth possessed me. Now that I'm home from Stitches and I've gotten some extra sleep, it seems like it was no big deal. I have a short memory. It's why I have two kids instead of one. ;)

Today I just want to share the pictures of everyone at dinner on Friday evening. People from my Ravelry forum came - from as far as Canada, Maryland, Mississippi, and Florida - to meet in person after talking so long online and forming bonds and friendships. (I'm not naming names because I know some people like privacy!)

The forum moderators (they are the BEST) organized an amazing event, complete with door prizes.

Here's a picture of a group of us with Gothic Tams on, along with pictures of those who love that pattern and the forum, but couldn't be there.

We ate at Pedro's, and - like last year - I had the Molé. Yum!

Friends from across country.

And from out of the country.

Knitters really are special. :)

Stitches West: Part 2

Moving a little behind schedule here, but wait until you see what I got at Stitches West! You will immediately forgive me. I hope. This is what happens when they let me out! I did this in less than an hour. And I wasn't going to take any yarn home with me. Heh.

First up, Kristine and I were next to KCL Woods' booth, and I could not resist going over there to drool. This incredible spindle immediately caught my eye.

Isn't it stunning?

Made of Bird's Eye Maple and inlaid with shell fossil.

And look at the spalting!

I can't keep from admiring it and fondling it.

I know it spins beautifully, but it's such a lovely work of art!

I've been staring and staring. Ken and his wife are such nice people and he does such amazing work! It was a pleasure being next to them and their cheeriness.

A little closer to home, I picked up some yummy Verb for Keeping Warm yarns.

This great duo is Magic Bean and Jade, both in the Metamorphosis base, 70% merino and 30% silk. They go together perfectly, don't they? I love Kristine's greens. :)

I wish these two colors photographed well. It's actually a dusky green (Jade again!) on top and a greenish-tan (Tide Pools) on the bottom. Both in Kristine's Slick base. And they are super yummy. This one is a dk weight and I am looking forward to designing a heavier two color wrap!

Then there's my favorite Verb color (aside from Magic Bean, of course): Glenda. This one is in the Shimmering (100% tussah silk) base, and I can't wait until you see what I have planned for it!

Moving on, I have some delicious Anzula yarn. Sabrina's Squishy base in Mauve and Shitake. It's that great 80% merino, 10% cashmere, 10% nylon base that I love every moment of knitting up.

Then on to Zen Yarn Garden's Serenity Silk Single in Goth Pink. I love the name! 75% merino, 15% cashmere, 10% silk, and 490 yards of lovely lovely lovely!

I so wish that I could do this next one justice. It has lovely purplish undertones and is just the right shade of taupe. It will be another heavier wrap, as this is a worsted weight. I've never used Tess' Designer Yarns before, but I've always been struck by their booth at Stitches. I am thinking of putting together a collection of neutrals. Those who have met me in person know how much I love color and also how neutral my clothes are! I am a black and grey kinda gal. And taupe. Taupe is absolutely perfect with black.

Speaking of neutrality...this is the "Brindle" colorway from Little Red Bicycle. Didi dyed up some beauties! This one is in Tandem Sock and it is a gorgeous deep brindled brown.

And then there's Lisa Souza. She is a Master (Mistress?) of color. Every time I pull out one of her yarns, Mr. Romi says, "wow. She really knows what she's doing." And he is so right! This one is a cashmere/silk. 400 yards of heaven in the Cameroon colorway. It is stunning. Really just stunning.

And I am always drawn to Lisa's greens. This is marked Vert de Gris, but I don't see it on her site under the Polwarth/Silk blend, or anywhere! (Isn't it cool how there is more breed specific yarn happening these days?)

From the Royale Hare comes a yummy Toffee in Karen's new Carneros base (that delicious merino/cashmere/nylon blend I was talking about earlier.) Soooo pretty!

And "Forest Green" in the same base. It's really a lovely almost beach glass color. It makes me think of water rather than forests, but I love it just the same.

And then we're on to more neutrality. I have never used Creatively Dyed yarns but wowza, what have I been missing?! I love the two I picked out. First is a fabulous grey with undertones of steel blue and purple.

I love it deeply. It's called Ireland. I'm thinking because it's foggy there? It does look rather like a lovely deep foggy and thunder-stormy grey.

And this one is called Turf. I was so drawn to this particular color that I could not put it down. And then after that, I kept picking up similar yarns in other booths! LOVE.

So there you have it: tons and tons of inspiration!

And speaking of inspiration, head on over and take a look at Kristine's lovely booth pics from Stitches! She did such an amazing job on the booth!

I've been knitting away on some secret project craziness since I returned from Stitches. A lot of it, actually. But I'll try to do something that I can show you. ;) This continues to be an "interesting" year. I'm working on rolling with it!

Report from Stitches West: Part 1

Stitches West was wonderful. Exhausting, but utterly wonderful. Until it was over, I didn't realize how much I was stressing about getting pins, earrings, pendants and patterns ready! Now that I'm relaxed, I've been sleeping. A lot. :)

Before we get started here, I have to warn you that this is a very very truncated and brief taste of all the fun at the show. I didn't get pics of a lot of stuff and a lot of people! Part of it was that I was super busy being in the moment, but admittedly, part of it is that I was utterly brainless and blithering.

This year, I shared a booth with A Verb for Keeping Warm, and Kristine had samples knit up of many of my shawl patterns. Here she is modeling Madroña. I love it in her hard twist heavy laceweight yarn. The color absolutely made her glow.

Several people commented that my photos of Madroña, Fiori di Sole and Lisianthus don't do the shawls justice. I agree. It has been super difficult to show them properly! You can see Fiori and Lisianthus on the dress forms in the middle of the booth. I loved the way it all looked. Kristine did an amazing job designing it! And - this is the coolest thing ever - we won best booth!

Look at that yummy yarn! I wanted one of each color. It was difficult keeping hands off.

At the bottom, you can see Kristine's mom, Michelle, and in the background in that gorgeous yellow Celaeno is :drumroll: JeanneM! My Ravelry moderator who flew out from Colorado to help me!

Here we are in a terrible iPhone photo. She is beyond awesome.

What can I possibly say about Jeanne that would do her justice? She is a kind, down to Earth, and just plain lovely person. I am so very lucky to call her friend! Those of you on my forum will have seen Jeanne's Ravatar - the one where she's sitting on the beach with a cooler on her head? She had the cooler, and I saw my opportunity. Heehee. Isn't she adorable?! I just love her to pieces.

Across from us was Little Red Bicycle. This is Didi. I didn't have enough brain power to catch a picture of Liz Abinante of Travelling Woman fame, who shared a booth with Didi. But I did get to meet her, and she's great!

Here's Jeanne getting out the cookies that Brandy sent. Brandy is a fellow moderator - am I lucky or what?! She sent two big boxes of yummy home made cookies! (That's Adrienne at the bottom of the picture there, enjoying a cookie. Ysolda had one too; everyone had one and loved them!).

YUM!

Here's Cookie eating a cookie. Heehee.

And speaking of wonderful moderators.... My lovely Finnish moderator Saara came out to Stitches West this year! I had met her mother in 2008 when she came to the Bay Area to visit her friend, and she had looked me up at Saara's request. Muir had captured Saara's imagination. Here's Saara's mother posing in the original.

And here is Saara being styled (by me)

for her own shoot! I was telling the story to everyone who would listen. :)

Saara brought some Finnish yarn in my favorite color.

I love both the yarn and the logo!

Holly brought scones, but they were so good that I went back to my room, put my feet up and ate them before I took pictures. By the time I thought about recording the moment, this is all I had left! Mmmmmmmmm.

This is Mel from my forum.

Here are Dana, Terri and Judy from my forum!

And Jeanne, Caroline, Terri and Judy here.

We had a big dinner Friday night (all sorts of fabulous people only met electronically on my forum but now with real faces and personalities to go with those names!), but did I take the phone out and take pictures of everyone? No. I shudder to think how utterly brainless I was! Please forgive me everyone to whom I must have said bizarre things! (Unfortunately, I do remember a few moments). Then did I take pictures on Saturday night when Sharon (another of my wonderful moderators), her husband, Saara, Jeanne and I had dinner? No. GAH! But I do have memories that will last and last.

I met so many people, and since I was using my iPhone to process credit cards (Square is Awe. Some.), I wasn't able - or even thinking about stopping - to take pictures of everyone who came. But I did get a lot of hugs in. And I got to meet a couple of of people I had known for years and years online (hi Madge and Mary!) and see Marie again, who I have also known forever and ever online and have met before at Stitches. And best of all, I gave them hugs, and received some pretty great ones in return. I didn't even think of getting the camera out.

Lots of fabulous people came by the booth, among them Ragga, who was in town from Iceland and teaching at Stitches. I am trying to talk her into having me teach on one of her tours. :)

Here are Janel Laidman and hizknits Stephen, who I had never actually met, though we had been in close proximity before, just missing each other many times.

The lovely Hilary Smith Callis came by and said hello. We took each other's pictures taking each other's pictures, as befits a couple of geeks. :)

And what can I say about Stefanie Japel, other than I wish I had met her years and years ago? Such a lovely and warm person!

And, of course, Rick's shoes. It's a tradition for me to take a picture, and when he sees me coming he shows me the latest pair. :) These were fabulously silver!

I will leave you with a picture of the Mongolian Barbeque chef at dinner. Mr. Romi and the kids came back through on their way home from an archery tournament and we all had dinner after the show was over. Delicious!

Tomorrow? Acquisitions!