Stitches West 2006, the experience

Last year I went to Stitches West with my mom. We went only to shop. It was fabulous, and we decided that we had to go again. This year we eagerly made plans to go. In order to get a more full experience I signed up for a class and we had originally planned to stay the night. Well staying there didn't work out which is just as well since my son's cold turned into an ear infection, but I did end up making Stitches a two day event nevertheless. Mom and I shopped on Saturday in the Market, and then I went back this morning to take my class on Intarsia with Sally Melville. First I must tell you about the Stitches Market. I think the Market is even bigger than it was last year. There must have been about 9 long rows of booths that took up a lion share of a huge room at the convention center. Lots of Bay Area LYS's were there as well as smaller, independent yarn retailers, designers, and some larger stores like WEBS. I spent most of my time combing the booths for new yarns that I couldn't get or even see at my LYS. I spent some time at the Blue Moon Fiber Arts booth, and picked up some lovely STR in the Yosemite colorway. Their stuff is fantastic! The colorways are even more brilliant in person than online. I also spent some time at Tess Designer Yarns, and yes Yahaira, I did pick up a skein of their sock yarn. Lovely stuff. I also found a really interesting yarn company called Just our Yarn. I bought a skein of yarn called Caravan that is a mix of wool and camel down in a gorgeous red colorway. Their yarns are beautiful and worth looking at. I also really enjoyed spending time, and money at Philosopher's Wool. I bought a kit called Color Your Own in the Night Sky colorway. It's a beautiful Fair Isle sweater kit with really pretty buttons. I guess I'm going to have to learn how to cut my own knitting to make her. Scary! I also visited a local artisan, Lisa Souza. Her colorways are gorgeous. I got a skein of lovely purple sock yarn for a really reasonable price too. I also picked up a ball of Lana Grossa Mega Boot Stretch that I'm interested in playing around with. The class I took with Sally Melville was also a lot of fun. Marianne, a LYS owner that I know was in the same class, so it was fun to learn something new with someone I know. I also met some very nice knitter's in the class. Sally signed my copy of ther color book too which I'm over the moon about. She's a really good teacher. She's patient and helpful, and I came away from the experience with some good tips and tricks to make intarsia not so intimidating. She brought many of the sweaters that are featured in the color book as well. I have to say that the final sweaters are beautiful. The pictures in the book don't show just how stunning the designs are. She also taught us a cool trick to help design our own sweaters using intarsia. I also got to meet two Bay Area knitbloggers, Sharlene and Lu. I enjoyed meeting them. They are both very sweet. I wish I could have met more knitbloggers, but the weekend was crazy! All in all, I enjoyed myself and got to learn the ins and outs of a knitting technique new to me. I highly recommend making the trip to a Stitches event if you're able. Remember to leave a comment or email me at the address in the previous post to enter my blogiversary contest! There have been some great songs to knit by suggestions so far!