Stitches East

well. I worked the Discontinued Brand Name Yarn booth yesterday at Stitches (at the Baltimore Convention Center) and I had a blast. I proudly wore my "CGOA" pin on my Kimba shirt. The first part of the day I sat with Cheryl Potter of Cherry Tree yarns (http://www.cherryyarn.com/), author of "Skein For Skein". There were models for many of her designs - the "Ring of Supersox" was great. Yes, it was knitted, but it could be translated into a chrochet pattern. It was really cool to see garments made from the beautiful sock yarn of Cherry Tree Yarn. I talked about the call for designs and the "Sox" contest to the people coming into the show. I gave away small skeins of super wash merino and it was great. The second part of the day I restocked shelves and broke down boxes and that was great, too. I met so many nice people and had such fun talking to them. I got to look around the convention and see what the other vendors had for sale. I especially had fun picking my yarn out for payment. Oh, Sockotta:)
Lots of stuff for knitters and also a fair amount for crocheters. And of course, yarn doesn't care what you use it for. I was intrigued by a needle felted wool animal demonstration, but I managed to convince myself not to buy a kit. It was hard, but I already have too many hobbies (obsessions?).
So if you get a chance, go to the Stitches convention this weekend. It was a great birthday gift for me. And yes, I did get paid for the work, but the convention would still be great even if I hadn't gotten paid for it. I would have paid to go and spent more money, so it worked for me.

Stitches East

Stitches East will be at the Baltimore Convention Center this weekend. I had argued with myself that I was not going to go, I had more than enough yarn, no time, on and on. Of course, I lost;)

I will be working at the Discontinued Yarn booth on Friday:). Of course I have a day job, but I am off Friday so I'll work for yarn that day. So if you see a woman with long red hair working in that booth, it's probably me.
I couldn't afford to work for yarn all the time - after all, kittens (and big cats) need to be fed along with bills just like everybody else has. But for 1 day, I think I will enjoy it. Plus it's all _mine_, no sharing it with the bill collectors;)

So if you see me there, please say hi....

Scrips & scraps for October

Last weekend I visted the "Stitches" convention in downtown Baltimore. It was geared mostly towards knitting (hey, the ad says "Knitting Universe" on it). But there were lots of crochet items.
For instance, yarn. Yarn doesn't care if you knit or crochet or weave - and it especially doesn't care if it sits in a shopping bag waiting for me to figure out what to do with it. I bought a a _lot_ (okay, too much) cool yarn, but the one that intrigues me the most is the "Jelly" yarn.
You probably know that "Jelly" yarn isn't yarn in the classical sense. It's sort of like plastic lacing, but cooler looking. They had glow-in-the-dark yarn. Of course, I had to buy it. Obviously, I'm not going to make a scarf out of it, but what to do, what to do? I also bought the gold "Jelly" yarn. I don't have a clue what to do with that, either. I'm sure I'll figure out something;) They do have patterns on line and "Adorn" also has a pattern for a "doughnut bracelet". The website showcases the free patterns for knit as well as crochet.
http://www.3dimillus.com/

I happened to see Lily Chin at one of the booths. She was crocheting (amazingly fast) with a pale pink fingering yarn. It looked (to me) as if she was working on a giant granny square, but I didn't see the whole project. A lady with a camera phone tried to get a picture and we laughed. Mis Chin said it would "just be a blur". I would guess M's Chin was teaching a class at the convention. I didn't sign up for any classes because almost all of them were for knitting. M's Chin said what she really needed was a yarn puller. I laughed and said my younger son would have loved that job. There were lots of books at the booth and one knitter was asking M's Chin about learning how to crochet. M's Chin pointed out her book "Couture Crochet"* and offered to sign it. I was wishing I had brought my copy along so she could sign it. And I felt a little too cheap to buy a book I already had just to get it signed. So I didn't.

I found a huge crochet hook(SizeU) at Bagsmith. Yes, they have absolutely gorgeous kits for purses and great yarns, but the lady knitting with what appeared to be broomsticks caught my eye.
(http://www.bagsmith.com/site/index.asp)
She said the knitting needles were a great stash buster and to prove it, she had maybe 7 different types of yarn on her needles. It looked great. Than she show me the size U. Of course, I don't _need_ another hook. I mean, I have a lot of hooks but I didn't have a size U hook. But now I do;) So as I use up my stash, I can buy _more_, right? I got to keep the economy from cooling off;)
I stopped at the Yarn Barn of Kansas booth. (http://www.yarnbarn-ks.com/)
They had a yarn "playpen" with lots of bags of yarns at a very good price. I spotted the yarn I wanted, but the price I was originally quoted was a little too high (for me). I wandered off and looked at some other yarn but found myself drawn back to the yarn playpen. Some enterprising young woman grabbed up the yarn I wanted - for shame. But she got a price of almost half of what I was quoted. Of course, I bought some, too.
Now you may wonder what my darling husband thinks of all this. After all, he attended the "Stitches" market with and obviously I wasn't able to hide the yarn**. Well, Craig _encouraged_ me to buy the yarn and was digging for more yarn for me to buy. I know that sounds crazy, but there you are. He is _definitely_ a _keeper;)

So now you know I spent all my money (well, almost all of it) at "Stitches". Hopefully if you're expecting a gift from me, you're willing to accept yarn or something I make with the yarn. If not, well, there's always a pound cake for you;) Anyway, if you get the chance to attend one of these markets and you can afford it, definitely go....
Next year, it's here on my birthday....I better start plotting now.

* You can look up M's Chin's book on the Amazon button I have on this blog (shameless self promotion).

** I don't hide the yarn anyway, there's no place to hide it. But sometimes I end up hiding from myself, which isn't good.

No, I don't get any kickback from any of these folks (unless you use the Amazon link - I am an Amazon Associate). I would take kickbacks, but nobody offers them to me.