Stitches West

It seems as though we spent most of last week either getting to the San Jose/Santa Clara area of California or attending Stitches West. We had a wonderful time, had an opportunity to visit with our son and his wife and enjoy much warmer temperatures than we experience in South Dakota in the winter. I also had a chance to attend Market at Stitches West as well as some wonderful classes.

I intended to purchase much more than the four skeins you see above, and planned on shipping my shopping home via UPS. Frankly, I was so overwhelmed by the selection, I couldn't decide. Fortunately, I did have a list the opening night of market and snatched up a couple skeins of Mini Mochi (in the center) and Socks That Rock (on the bottom). I say fortunately, because had I waited until Friday, I would have been out of luck. There was a booth near the front exit with the skeins at the top. I walked by them, I don't know how many times, and they kept calling to me, so I purchased those as well. As far as colors go, those two are my favorites.

Also, I went to three very different classes, from three very different instructors: Pattern Drafting with Edie Eckman, Even Cooler Socks with Lucy Neatby and Stashology with Chris Blysma. All were superb and well worth the price of admission. With every class I left with new information.

I have a difficult time traveling without a project and this time was no different. I worked on a pair of toe-up, two-at-a-time socks, made with Limes & Violet sock yarn. The pattern is called Pillars of Fire and is really for one sock at a time (both the yarn and pattern can be purchased at the Loopy Ewe). One of the socks is being modelled by my new foot. This sock, like many of my other projects in 2009 fulfills a number of challenges on Ravelry, including: The Knitting purls Toe Up Knit-A-Long, the Limenviolet 2009 Sock Marathon (320 yards for socks/1815 yards total for Marathon or a little over a mile) and the 2009 Great Sock Off Marathon.

Also, when I travel I read a lot, particularly on the plane. This past week I finished off three for the 52 Books in 52 Weeks Challenge:

Book 11: The Cat Who Blew the Whistle, by Lilian Jackson Braun - another entry in the "Cat Who" series. this one involved the disappearance of the owner or a credit union and party train.

Book 12: Unraveled Sleeve, by Monica Ferris. This is one of the series that involves the owner of a needlework shop in Excelsior, Minnesota, who is a reluctant detective. This time she's on the North Shore of Lake Superior and solves the mystery of the demise of a mystery instructor at a needlework retreat.

Book 13: The Cat Who Lived High, by Lilian Jackson Braun - this was the last of the series I needed to read. It's taken a lot of years as I started with the first on when I was in grade school. In this one, Qwill and the cats go back to the city in hopes of saving an architectural gem.