Stitches West, or, two hours of yarn madness

Ok, everyone who knows me knows that I live about 1/2 hour from Santa Clara, the home of Stitches West. So, did I go? Well of course I went. Wild horses and all... My Mom and Dad were visiting, as well as my brother in law (who is a FedEx pilot and just happened to have a 24 hour layover during which he happened to be staying in the VERY TOWN where, unbeknownst to him, I live- my sister had to fill him in on that info) , but I managed to squeak in a 2 hour visit to the market. Remember the Ren and Stimpy where Ren gets space madness? That is what the Stitches Market is like- yarn madness.

Seeing as how I had limited time and had to maximize my yarn purchasing options, I got there early. The sales floor was not open yet, so I had to wait on line with about 250 other shoppers, all of whom were practically foaming at the mouth... just like me. Eventually (after loads of worrying that we were in the wrong line, that we would have to wait for everyone in fornt of us without tickets to buy them, and that all of the good stuff would already be gone) we got in to do our shopping. In the end, my practical side (who knew that I had a practical side?!) won over- I did not buy too much. Plus I was totally freaked out by all of the yarn and simply could not make any kind of buying decision what so ever. But here is what I did manage to make a decision on...

My first purchase- I ran all over the place looking for the Foxy Knits booth, because they have a huge selection of... Kiogu! KPPPM, nine skeins of it, to be exact- I wanted more (ok, I wanted them all, but you know how it is- if I spent all of my earnings on Koigu, what would I buy girly shoes with? Plus there is that mortgage thing...) but nine was all that they had in the colorway that I liked best. That should be enough for a cute little fitted cardigan with three quarter length sleeves- just the thing for spring- as IF I could knit that fast! You can't really tell from my not-so-mad photography skillz, but the colors are dark magenta, orange, brown and purple. For me, Koigu is the kind of yarn that is worth every penny you spend on it- it is super cool looking when it is knit up, plus it is fun to knit with because the colors keep changing. It is also worth paying extra to buy it if you can see it in person- it is dyed in small batches and each dye lot can very quite a bit, so the photo you see on the internet may represent a dye lot number, while the yarn that a retailer has in stock when you order, although it is the same dye lot- it might look pretty different. But I digress- Koigu rocks. It really really does.

My next purchase- funky retro looking ribbon printed with knitting instructional pictures. How cool is that? I have no idea what I will do with it (which means that I will hoard it for about three years, waiting patiently for the perfect use for it, and then use it to wrap some gift or something just so that I don't have it lying around anymore), but I wanted it anyway. If I had a yarn store I would want to use it to tie on to all of my shopping bags- how cute would that be?

After that I saw this- I had to have it. I happened to be buying some needles (no pic of those, sorry- you all know what Addi turbos look like!) and while I was paying I saw this woman in the booth pick up a project, stick it in a bag like this, and put it under the table. What you cannot tell about this bag from my photo (not-so-mad photo skills again) is what a fantastic shade of dark turquoise it is, and that it is made from shantung silk. So I was like "What was that? Do you sell those?!" Turns out that they were for sale, prominently displayed smooshed in a large plastic bag under a table that was covered by a table cloth... I know, you are wondering how I could have missed them originally. So anyway, I bought it, even though I had NO idea who the heck Tilli Tomas is- I loved it THAT much. And when I got home I looked up Tilli Tomas on the internet. How could I not have guessed? They make yarn, of course.

Finally, my last purchase of the day- some socks that rock yarn. I have been hearing about socks that rock for a while, so when I saw the Blue Moon Fiber Arts booth, I stopped for a look! They had loads of fantastic colors, thereby creating a "decision making issue," but I finally managed to suck it up and pick a colorway. Guess what it is going to be? Yep, another Clapotis. And I swear, I have been knitting on the one that I already started- I will post pictures tomorrow to prove it!