Stitches West 2010

Stitches West was mind boggling and inspiring. From the opening presentation to my last purchase of Malabrio Lace, it was just what I needed. I realized, believe it or not, that I have been yarn deprived since Unraveled closed. I loved ordering yarn, opening the new boxes of yarn and most of all stocking the yarns on the shelves. Tactel and color therapy and I got payed for it!!

Thursday's Opening Presentation was with Jane Slicer Smith (Swing Swagger Drape) and Anna Walden of Twisted Sisters.

I was very taken with Jane's talk and her patterns. She uses a lot of color, love that, and the drape and fit of her sweaters is very impressive. The photographer for XRX was wearing her sweaters throughout the weekend and they all where wonderful. My favorites are:

Greta Swagger was my favorite. The shape of this cardigan and perfectly placed cables is just beautiful.

Jane was wearing this one done in different shades of green and longer. Beautiful!!

Metro A-Line. I saw a couple of people wearing this one and it looked really good on everyone.

Anna taked mostly about her garments. Her things are not my taste but her construction is very ingenious. I wish she had talked about dying fibers and colors since that is what I really know her for.

Thank goodness the Market opened Thursday evening for those registered for classes. This was about the only time you could walk around and see everything without the crowds.

My goal was to find MadalineTosh yarn and Qiviuet. I was sucessful and glad I made MadalineTosh first on this list for it flew off the shelves. My first color choice was already picked over but I got a sweaters worth of Duchess, black and purple. Beautiful!!

And 2 skeins of the Moss.

My second stop was for Qiviut. This is like gold. One tiny little skein of about 200 yards can run $70+. It is the soft undercoat of the MuskOx. There is not that much undercoat (see the link) and they collect what falls off. But it is the softest yarn ever. They have some of the skeins mixed with silk and/or merino. The blends lower the price point a lot and it is still really soft. I got one skien of the Royal blend

and one of the softest Suri Merino I have ever felt. These yarns made the cashmere feel course.

The classes I signed up for where all about shapping without really seeing the shaping. Especially around armholes and necklines. No more "stair step" shaping around here! They where very good and I learned a lot of little tricks that will make me look really good as a teacher. After all, that was the whole reason for trekking up here in the first place.

And you thought it was the yarn!

Here are some of my other aquisitions:

Malabrigo Lace to make a really cool scarf pattern that is due in the mail any day now.

Redfish is an amazing hand dyer. She has about 50 shades of the rainbow. Her booth was a wonder of color. She also had socks knitted from her lace weight bamboo yarn. The most delicate socks ever knitted on "000" (yes there are needles that small). I bought some for those socks, now I just have to unearth my "000" needles.

Feltz Inc had wonderful felted kits. Her bags a really well done. I got this kit for this wavy felted bag. It was so cool. She includes all the hardware and sewing directions for the lining which I really appreciate.

Next up was the Habu Booth. It was great to see all of these yarns and lots of samples knit up in it. This is a Japanese company based in New York. Their yarns are constructed of many very interesting things such as paper and stainless steal along with the usual fiber suspect blended in amazing ways.

They had the Aeolian Shawl from Knitty.com knit in bamboo lace.

It was so stunning I had to get some.

Just for fun. The felted flowers are part of the roving.
Scarf? Little bag??

Ruffling yarn (trendsetter Cha Cha) along with Merino 8

for another cute little scarf only in black and gray. The ruffles made with the cha cha yarn is really cute by itself too.

Last but not least there was a presentation by Anna Ziboorg. She is a retired MIT professor that now lives in the Mountains, on a vineyard, by herself and knits. Has she found heaven??

Her book "Magnificent Mittens" has been updated with socks. She figured out how to turn the same mitten patterns into socks. The one problem with stranded knitting is it doesn't stretch very well and makes it hard to get the socks over your heel. Replacing the sole with regular stockinet was the answer and she found a very elegant way to add the sole and heel to the stranded piece. She was just a delight and I am really glad I got to meet her.

So you guessed it. I have to try that too.

Now the only question is.....

How long is it going to take me to knit up my stash from Stitches 2010??
Any one care to place a wager?

New Books!!

I LOVE FALL. I love everything about fall. The colors, the smells, the sounds, the food, the list goes on and on. Of course knitting takes on a whole new dimension in the fall. The wools and alpacas come out to play and the new fall knitting books hit the shelves. I have been waiting for these two books to come out and I was not disappointed.

First up is Susan B. Anderson's Itty-Bitty Toys:
These are some of the cutest toys ever. Here are a few of my favorite projects.

I am going to make these for me to use!

Need I say anything???

These ducks are on Wheels. How brilliant is that!!

Princess and the Pea

She has about 4 or 5 "topsy-turvy" dolls. Turn one inside to get the other one. I have not looked to see what the process for knitting these little guys are but I love love love them.

I have already got this little guy on the needles.

Kristin Nicholas is one of my favorite color knitters. She has a wonderful blog about her knitting and her life on the farm. She has been blogging about the patterns in her new book with lots of pictures.

My favorite part of the book is the beginning. She talks a lot about using color and the how to do so. There is talk about swatching for color (another reason to knit up those little squares).

Lots of instruction on fair-isle, steeking, making up your own patterns, the magic of embellishing and duplicate stitching.
She talks about where she gets her inspiration, which surprise surprise is all around her.
These are my favorite pics in the front of the book before you even get to the outstanding patterns.

This is just the inside cover!

I want a stack of knitting like this sitting on a chair in my living room. Could you pass that and not smile? I sure couldn't!

You're smiling aren't you??

This is one of my favorite things in the book and I am going to make me at least one. Call it a design board, inspiration wall, Walk by and smile space?? Call it anything you want but what fun is this??

This covered ottoman has inspired me to cover my poor beat-up ottoman and possibly the chair that goes with it. I will do the ottoman first so that if I am over this idea at the end of that project I will not be without a chair.

I am thinking this pattern from Mason-Dixon "Outside the Lines" could be nice.
I would knit it with a much smaller gauge yarn so the pattern won't be as big. Haven't really checked to see if it will work but could be prudy!

There are more books to be talked about and a few magazines. What have you been inspired by?

I Must Be Psychic or Just Psyched

I must have felt the vibes of this book, on it's way to me in the mail yesterday when I was talking about color. Today I got my copy of "Kristin Knits" from Kristin herself, before any of the bookstores have it! The only person that could possibly have it before me would be L. Some how she has the earliest inside scoop to all books and patterns.

I am so excited about the book. It is Nothing but Wonderful Color!!

Over the top, lot's of work involved,
many colors all in one piece kind of color.
It just makes me happy looking at it.

I know this is over the top for some of you out there and will not be your cup of tea. But I have to own up to the fact that I love color and I have to have more of it in my life right now. Even the walls of my house may not be safe!

This book has so many great pictrues, ideas and inspirations it will be awhile before I can make a decision of what to do first. Thank goodness I have the fingerless gloves I talked about yesterday to give me some focus.

Oh no, wait........there are thoughts about designing my own fair isle patterns...................Just playing with swatches and swatches of color!!

No Bunny Killa is gunna stop me now!