Stitches West 2015

Stitches West was this past weekend and apparently, this year was "Year of the Project Bags" because I bought a bunch....like I don't have enough or they're going out of style or something. I don't know. That's not to say I didn't buy anything else because, duh...but lots of project bags.

I went shopping on both Friday and Saturday, Stormageddon and Little Man in tow both days. They were both rockstars. Little Man was so wonderful on Friday that I took him to the Lego Store on our way home. But, that's not what we're here to talk about...

The Haul. That's what we're here to talk about....The Haul (and yes, it qualifies for being capitalized in my world)...

I've been pondering getting a new Lazy Kate for awhile now and I finally pulled the plug. I've got a Katie-A-Go-Go from Nancy's Knit Knacks and we're just not friends. I want to like it but I've just not done very well with it. So, pending that I can find all the parts, I'll probably sell it. The only thing I may be missing is the straw...but they're drinking straws and can be easily replaced. So, new LK for me from Purlescence Yarns in Sunnyvale. I was looking for a Majacraft Universal Tensioned LK but I asked their in-house spinning guru and she uses this one with her Majacraft so we'll see how it goes.

A bottle of the eucalyptus scented Eucalan. I bought two bottles last year and I've used up the first bottle. So, while I have the second bottle, it's always advantageous to have a second bottle on hand, just in case. I believe I picked this up at the Webs booth.

I also picked up some US #1 Knitter's Pride Nova Platina circular needles in the Webs booth to try out for socks. In retrospect, I should have gotten 32" cables or longer but I can work with the 24" ones if I need to...and obviously that's going to happen. I thought about trying the Cubix ones but I didn't like the square DPNs I had so I was pretty sure I wouldn't like the square circulars either. I could have been wrong, though.

I also picked up some Addi Turbo circulars (US #2, in this case) for knitting slightly thicker socks (think Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks That Rock in Heavyweight). So, there's that.

To be fair, this button isn't actually mine. It's Little Man's. See, Carrie (IrishGirlieKnits) was doing a Meet & Greet at the Anzula booth and Little Man was being shy...so she tried to bribe him with the button. It kind of worked. But he let me have the button later. Silly boy. Also, I adore Carrie :)

These are definitely for Little Man. These are little finger puppets we picked up at Ranch of the Oaks. One is a rhino and the other is a hippo. He's been wearing them around the house and it's adorable.

This is a pattern for a knitted (and slightly felted) octopus that Little Man fell in love with. So....I'm going to need to find some appropriate yarn. She did mention that the french knots for the suckers are pretty brutal (almost 100 per tentacle)...so I have a feeling that will take me awhile. We'll see. But, it was adorable and I saw it last year and almost got the pattern...and now I have.

These were the only stitch markers I bought the entire two days. And they're Doctor Who inspired (the red one is to represent Amy Pond). I can't remember which booth I picked these up in but I also bought this from the same booth:

Yes, that is an Adipose bag. Little Man fell in love with it and, quite frankly, so did I. It was the only one they had so, of course, it had to come home with me.

Because Husband purchased a new interchangeable set from Knit Picks for Christmas, I needed a new case to put those in...and in comes Erin Lane Bags. I've got several from her, including the interchangeable case for my other set of Knit Picks interchangeables. So I have one for my regular set of KP interchangeables and this new one is for the rosewood interchangeables.

I also picked up this Big Bang Theory bag from Erin Lane. It was the only one I saw on Friday and I snatched it up quick. On Saturday, I saw a larger one but I'm good with just the one :)

The above four all came from Slipped Stitch Studios. I may or may not have a thing for Doctor Who......and Little Man may or may not also have a thing for Doctor Who (and he was helping me shop).

And lastly...the yarn.....

I picked up these three in the Webs booth. I envision a couple stripy hats or maybe a stripy hat and a solid hat or two or......I just see hats :)

Three skeins I picked up from Miss Babs. The green is probably going to grow up to be another version of my Traveling Vines Socks and the grey (yes, it's grey, not purple...damn lighting) will also grow up to be socks of some sort (pattern undetermined but probably one of my own). The Yowza on the left may grow up to be a family of hats for...well...the family :) Or maybe a scarf of some sort. I need to see how it knits up first before I make a decision.

A skein of Zaftig from Verdant Gryphon (worsted weight). This will grow up to be a hat for mememememe!

These came from the Yarnover Truck and were specially dyed for Stitches West. They're Downton Abbey inspired and called (if you can't read it): It's All Fun And Games Until Someone Sleeps With Someone Beneath Their Station. I bought two but I may ship one off to a friend back home...I'm undecided right now.

These last two came from StevenBe. They were dyed by Three Irish Girls for StevenBe. The top one is Doctor Who inspired and is called Exploding Tardis. The bottom one is from their comic book series and is called Captain Rogers. They had one called Smash in a sock yarn that I seriously considered but in the end, it stayed there. I see at least one hat for Little Man out of Captain Rogers...and maybe one for me with Exploding Tardis.


Aside from all the yarny goodness and project bags and such, there were the people...so many people. And food, of course. The Girl Scouts were in charge of the coat check and were selling cookies so a box of cookies came home with us. I saw a couple of familiar faces, which is odd because I feel like I know all of ten people in the entire Bay Area...I know I know more than that but it just seems like so few. Oh well.

Anyway, I hope you're all having a lovely day :)