Stitches Midwest 2007

Oh, where do I begin.

Let me start off with...OH MY GOD, IT WAS COMPLETELY WICKED!!!!

Now that That's out of the way I can begin to tell you HOW COMPLETELY WICKED Stitches Midwest really is. Last year was my first year and I walked away stunned, exhausted, thrilled and seriously wanting more. Took a class last year so I knew I needed to again this year. I'm a self-taught knitter, so when I take a class I always walk away with more knowledge.

This year we beefed it up a bit with two classes, two days of market and a hotel room. We couldn't have planned it out any better....and we knew we were going to have a blast when Superman and Batman showed up.



Sorry if it's blurry, but you know those Hero types...always on the go;)

Market opened at 10am and boy we where there with bells on. I didn't want to miss a thing and I'll tell you, I got to see each and every booth! First purchase of the day was this:



It's a small independent company: Hand Painted Knitting Yarns and their first expo, that paints some fabulous superwash wool. The greens, oranges and burgundy really grabbed me...just had to have;) I do think just for marketing sake, they should consider naming their company something else..just saying.

We then got crazy at WEBS... talk about deals. There website is awesome and so is the booth. Got a great deal on Valley Yarns Colrain (Merino/Tencel blend) to make my Kepler Sweater. I wont even go into how much my partner in crime when away with, but I'll just say we had to dump at the hotel room.




This is the Kepler pattern:


Next was The Fold...okay, can I just say...I love you Toni!! Your the Superwoman of fiber!! I contacted Toni right before the event and I'm sure she was surrounded by lists of things to pack and I requested she pull out a Socks That Rock Lagoon colorway and save it for me. I've been coveting this yarn or over 7 months. I could just see her trailer ready packed to rim and she's digging to find that one skein just for me.



And I couldn't walk away without some roving. Blue Moon Fiber has Sheep 2 Shoe which is 8.5 oz of superwash merino top for spinning...yum!



Also at her booth I found some really cool new sock yarn just out. MacKintosh Yarns and get this...the colorway is Half Blood Prince. How awesome is that! They had some other memorable Harry Potter character names...just Wicked!



From there we hit the Shelridge Farms booth.



Picked up some sock yarn in the Pumpkin colorway...I'm thinking some cables would look lovely and then I can have matching cable sweater and socks;)

And all this was before my amazing class with Susanna Hansson, Off the Beaded Cuff. What a great teacher and what a way to introduce beads into your projects. I can't say enough good things about her. I love walking away saying to myself...I didn't know that and now I do. Wow.

Here is what the class had done by then end:



I continued to work on this through out the night...in the hotel room, at dinner, at the bar that night. And my Sunday this is what I had:



Ignore the first row of beads...missed one completely then forgot to stop adding them ...what fun!

SECOND DAY

First off...getting up at 6:30 is no fun. But Hell I had a class with Nancy Bush!!!! Her class was COMPLETELY and TOTALLY WICKED and I got over my fear of cutting...now what did I do with that sweater? just kidding;)

This is a sample of a steek set up for the adding of sleeves. Even though the class was only a lecture, she had so many samples of how the technique would work. She even let us snip a section of a steek off this sample:


Gorgeous isn't it. This is another example she had:

It's a baby cartigan with steeks...you can see the pattern of the sweater to the left and right. The middle section will get cut and flipped back. What a cool class, highly recommend this to knitters interested in sweater making.

Back to the Market we go.... will this post ever end you say? Oh, come on it's not that bad is it?

Picked up some lovely Quartette, which is a Merino and Cashmere sock yarn. Discounted to 6 bucks at the JoJoLand International booth.



And last but not least was the Aussi Sock yarn in Oak Moss colorway and Plum Rose colorway. Bought at the Have Ewe Any Wool booth.



What I time we had. Thanks Knitterary for being my Stitches buddy...it was awesome. Now it's Save, Save, Save for next year!!!