Saturday, November 04, 2006

Stitches East

At the last minute Olga's husband, Jason, got the day off and kindly offered to drive us to Baltimore to attend Stitches East. I hadn't been to Baltimore for at least a decade and had forgotten than it is only an hour drive away from DC. We didn't take classes, but spent four hours at the market. There were hundreds of vendors there and we were wild-eyed with excitement from the moment we walked in. Our first stop was Habu. I found and bought the thread-like slubby yarn in moss green and pink that I saw in their New York shop in May. (Click on each picture for a closer look.)


It was one of those yarns that made an indelible impression on me and that I regretted not buying. I have no idea what I'll make out of it. I also bought some novelty yarn for scarves


and catalog of yarn samples, which they will mail to me later. I bought these beautiful stone buttons from Cheryl Kumiski Glass Studio (no buttons on her website) that I envision on some Habu sweater.

I have no idea which sweater I'll make, but I know I would have regretted not buying these buttons for whatever sweater I ultimately choose. I'll have to choose carefully, because, frankly, most of their sweaters are better suited to small-boned, thin women, not broad-shouldered ones like me.

I was delighted to find these lighted needles that Wendy blogged about.


I plan to knit some deep purple Kidsilk Haze gloves with them. The dark color and "halo" of the yarn and its ultra-fine gauge make it hard for me to see it on the needles I had, so I thought illumination from the needles themselves might help. They were also cheaper than the ones on the Kpixie.com site.

Interweave Knits exhibited Eunny Jang's Venezia Pullover and the Kate Gilbert's Equestrian Blazer, patterns for which are in the current issue. They are much more beautiful than the pictures show. Eunny's sweater is generally not my style, but after seeing it I'm coming around. And the Equestrian Blazer is just simply elegant. The picture doesn't show the gentle tapering at the waist or how perfectly the collar falls. Hope it fits as well as it hangs on the hanger.

There were surprisingly few sales. Webs had a stall there and they were selling lots of yarn, but the prices - of Kureyon at least - were the same as the prices on their website. I bought some Trekking and Jojoland for socks from other vendors, but no STR from Blue Moon Fiber Arts - nothing moved me.

I found Debbie Bliss Alpaca Silk and Gedfira Gigante among those few sales. Don't know what I'll make of the Alpaca Silk, but I'll make a cardi like the one Olga was wearing out of the Gigante. (I was too wild-eyed to remember to take her picture!)




Woolstock Yarn Shop was selling it and other bags of yarn at 50 or 60% off! I wish I could have taken a picture of all the women madly sorting through the huge bin of sale yarn, but cameras were not allowed in the hall. Or, rather, we were not allowed to take pictures. Gigante looks kinda bleh here, but it knits up beautifully. And I love knitting with yarn that is variegated and varies from thick to thin. It made perfect sense to wear one of your handmades to an event like this. I wore my Pomatomi, but who could see them inside my shoes?!!? Interestingly, I saw few others wearing their knits. I saw a Diamond Fantasy shawl, a Clapotis, some domino square cardis, and one or two scarves. The rest of us must be making socks. Gotta re-think that, huh? Oh, I'm not going to quit making socks! I'm just sayin'... well, I'm just sayin'.

9 comments:

  1. I'm so jelly, I wanted to go to stitches east but had already made plans to go to NY when I found out about it. We don't get many yarn events like this in Maryland, right in my own back yard. Maybe I can convince the hubby that we should take to kids to the Baltimore aquarium and then i could sneak over to the vendors. After all we do have those year long family passes for the aquarium that we hardly use. I feel a plan coming together.

    By the way, didn't make it to any yarn shops while in NY. So no purple skein of yarn for someone.

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  2. OMG Ava, did you forget to take a pic of your purple laceweight yarn or that will work with habu-on-the-cone or paper yarn?
    I tell you, I laid my yarn in the living room and just watched and enjoyed it.Habu is sssooo worth it...now I wish I got some more!
    Here are my pics in the cardigan.
    http://olgajazzzy.blogspot.com/2006/08/cant-stop.html

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  3. What a fun trip! I love the buttons and the yarn that you got!

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  4. I am so excited for stitches west... in February! :)

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  5. Thanks so much for sharing what you found. I had wanted to go but it fell on the weekend as a major fundraising event the booster club I'm involved in held for a hockey team. You picked up some beautiful stuff. Have fun.

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  6. You got a lot of nice stuff there. I love the Debbie Bliss yarn...alpaca is so soft.

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  7. Wow, I love everything you got--the lighted needles look so cool in that pic! It sounds like you had an awesome time.

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  8. Thank you for visit my blog, your flow motion socks are lovely too, you have a very nice blog!

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  9. So mad I could not go with you guys so I could finally meet you. It seems that you got a lot of beautiful stuff. (which then makes me think "good think I did not go or I would have come back BROKE").

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