Stitches (and Market) Take Aways

I'm mostly happy about the event. Fortunately for me, the booths were familiar and also the layout. Infact, I was amazed to find Webs, Yarn Barn of Kansas, and Twisted Sisters in the exact same spots as last time. I spotted Wagtails of Australia as well.

I didn't spend on much yarn coz I don't have any projects lined up currently. What I did was touch and feel the yarns I've seen online to make mental notes of them. That'll serve handy, won't it? I specifically liked Louet sock yarn (100% animal fiber), Lorna Laces(80-20 animal fiber-synthetic), and Cascade 220 worsted weight (100% animal fiber). Valley Yarns has a good selection as well.

I noticed more cotton this time than in the last year's two conventions - Stitches and Oakland. There also was more silk and bamboo. I also chanced upon a 'beginners' spinning wheel - the Ashford Kiwi - selling for about 300 dollars. Hmm.. curious. Seems affordable. The rowing looked beee-autiful. Almost enough to get me started on spinning. Almost!

I also studied the patterns of independent designers and found some very interesting ones. There was a cardigan with panels knit in the diagonal. A row of domino knitting was designed into this on the front panel. Looks very pretty. There was another top with a fine cable design with small footprint and a big number of repeats. The top was knit in mohair and looked dainty. I saw texturing (stitch patterns and cabling) used in ways that work with the structure of the garment and add to it. I saw designs that were built on short rows and ones that knit sideways. In all, an inspiring expedition.

Here's what the cat brought home from Stitches:
- Mama Bear yarn winder and swift from The Oregon Wood Worker. The two came together for a special of 83 dollars. This was a much deliberated choice and only when I was convinced of its value did I invest in it.

I have researched swifts for over a year now. In my opinion, the umbrella swift is not the most efficient. The center of gravity is high up from the base and this makes it prone to instability while perching it on the table edge or fitting the hank on it. Also, I've never quite understood why you need a vice-mechanism in a place where a floor/table stand would work perfectly well.

The other option was a Beka swift. I like it much better than the umbrella design but it still is a vertically projecting swift as opposed to the Mama Bear which has a very small vertical footprint.

The Mama Bear was put to the test last night and it delivered as promised. It sits low on the surface, does not require a tightly stretched out hank, and easily dismantles into a bundle of sticks! Sweet.

- a couple of balls of yarn from Webs in worsted weight 100% merino to make socks out of. It's an experiment as I have little patience for sock-weight yarn with #2 needles. I'm hoping these will make soft squishy socks that knit quickly. I'm open for disappointment. The colour is a beautiful dreamy blue.

- Twisted Flower sock pattern written by Cookie A. from the Bay Area Knit Co-op booth. Also purchased 2 skeins of Louet Gems Pearl for the project. This is not truly my buy coz it'll be sent out to a friend of a friend's as it was bought on her behalf. I am tempted though to buy this also for myself. It is a yummy design.

- Books: Mosaic Knitting (Barbara W.), Scandinavian Knitting (Sheila Mc Gregor) and a handbook on cables.

- Class: Gwen Bortner - "Flat to Circular and Back Again".
I realized I didn't need this class, but too late! The students had to select a flat-knitting stitch pattern that we wished to convert to circular. I scoured the entire Stitchionary for a pattern I'd need help with but surprise-surprise, I could handle all the conversions with ease (save for two at most), even before taking the class.

I tested out several swatches before settling on one that I thought I'd need some help with. The WS of the pattern had a 'dec 4' that read like this: k2tog tbl, k3tog, slip k3tog stitch over k2tog stitch.

Try reversing that. Not the easiest but I hoped to learn some tricks with it - and wouldn't that be the whole point of this exercise? The verdict however, was that some stitch patterns like this, are best left alone. That was sorely disappointing - although she did have a point. The rest of the session held very little information that I wasn't already familiar with through my self-learning.

One useful technique I returned home with was knitting a circular swatch the easy way. And like I said, I have only myself to blame for enrolling into a class that wouldn't add much to my knit-knowledge.

Would I take more classes? Perhaps join camp? Or go on knitting cruises? Probably not. Reason being, I would stand out in the group and not be able to gel. My background - that of being a professional engineer - is very different from most people's at these sessions. I am fearless, mathematics is a friend to me and knitting technicalities are the easiest of problems to solve considering stuff I do for a living. Given this, I'll be taken to be 'wierd' at best. Also, I need a snappy pace to the lectures which, you must understand, is simply not possible at these classes. So although I value the experience for it's sake, I will prefer to self-learn.

No, I didn't win any prizes. Dang! For that, I'll return next year to Stitches. And to checkout the latest in yarns, patterns and books. No more classes for me.