Stitches 2010 - Continuing the Exercise

Well, THAT was a whirlwind of fun! I think my credit card caught fire at least twice. Oy.

AVFKW - 50/50 yak/silk in "Le Cirque"

You know how the other day I said I'm going to try to maintain stash equilibrium this year? I put a serious dent in that resolution this weekend, but based on last year's yardage totals, it's still easily do-able.

Pigeonroof Studios - Siren Too "Autumn Cherry"

Then again, the year is only two whole months old at the moment!

Stitches West 2010 started with Mom and I carefully marking our market floor maps so we could easily find the shops we wanted to visit. One of the challenges of Stitches is that the location of the entire thing is the same, but every year the booth numbers change, so one cannot rely on one's excellent sense of direction as a guide. But no matter - I did just fine on my own, thank you very much!

I hit Lisa Souza at the beginning. Her Hardtwist Merino Petite is one of my favorite yarns both to ogle and to knit with.

Lisa Souza Hardtwist Merino Petite - "Deep Sea"

Please don't be distracted by the fact that I haven't finished anything with her yarn; I am a process person! But of all the handdyers I have whose yarns I have used, I like the combination of the thinness and the spring factor in the HMP. I find them especially good for Cookie A's sock patterns. Because I like my socks to be snug, I have been experimenting with triming my stitch count back to 60 or even 56 stitches. But Cookie's patterns don't lend themselves well to adjustment in that way, so using the HMP and tiny-ass needles does the trick nicely.

Lisa Souza Hardtwist Merino Petite - "Printempo"

The above picture might look familiar. Ahem. (On another note, I'm looking at my pictures from last year and this, and last year is MUCH more interesting and better-lit. I need a new place to take pictures, but the light isn't super-cooperative in this house. Hmmm. Time to get creative!) I also decided to try out a new-to-me yarn base from Lisa mainly because the colorway looked better in it than in the HMP:

Timaru Sock Yarn - "Delft"

This is white yarn with flecks of Delft blue. The HPM base yarn is more off-white, so Timaru it was! I also picked up a couple (only two!) bumps of 50/50 merino/silk for spinning. I figured that 10 oz total of spinning fiber isn't completely unreasonable for someone who isn't spinning at all lately. Holla if you hear me!

Cynthia, Colleen and I all hit Tess's Designer Yarns at the same time and I walked away with this:

It's this really nice semi-solid SW merino that is destined for some kind of Hot-for-Teacher Sweater. I also bought a green version, but I misread the labels and instead of 3 skeins of 570 yards each for a CPH, I have 3 skeins of only 285 yards each. ARGH. I'll be calling the Maine store to see if I can arrange an exchange. But in the mean time, I have Creatively Dyed Yarn to console me!

Creatively Dyed Steele Sock Yarn - "Protea"Creatively Dyed Calypso Sock Yarn - "Roots"Creatively Dyed Calypso Sock Yarn - "South"Creatively Dyed Calypso Sock Yarn - "Dahomean"Creatively Dyed Calypso Sock Yarn - "Parade"

Oh yes. And lastly, here's a little Wool Candy for your enjoyment. I bought this along with the Pigeonroof Studios yarn at the Bobbin's Nest Afterparty, which was (as usual) super classy and a lot of fun.

Wool Candy Marzipan Sock - "Fresh Fig"Wool Candy Marzipan Sock - "Ice Cream"Wool Candy Marzipan Sock - "Cerise"Wool Candy Marzipan Sock - "Peaches"

I see many, many socks in my future. But that's fine because I'm still angling for a student teaching position up in Portland, where warm socks will be absolutely necessary most of the year, especially if I can realize my vision of being the teacher who wears cute skirts, knee-highs and kicky shoes. A girl can dream, right?