This Little Knitter Went to Stitches

I'm home! It was so much fun and I still haven't taken it all in yet. There was a great deal to see and to learn. A presentation on the new book that XRX will have available this November, Victorian Lace, has me on the edge of my seat. I cannot wait for this to hit bookshelves and yarn stores. I'm still absorbing the knowledge I gained from my technical classes with Jean Frost, Lily Chin, and Sally Mellville. I'm really not sure where to even start with all that I walked away with from their classes.

I took classes every day of the conference and learned a lot. For example, I now knot that I am not nor will I be a spinner. I made a perfect bulky thick n' thin yarn during my drop spindle class. However, I am content to buy my yarn from now on. I'd rather be knitting than spinning. My technical classes have given me a great deal of confidence to design a sweater from scratch instead of following ones in magazines. Although, I've got so many ideas that I think it will take a few days to let the noise settle down and allow me to start.

More importantly I got to meet Marji and Kim. They are even better in person than in blog. Which is saying a lot because they blog well. Warm, generous, funny, smart ... I could go on and on. I didn't stop laughing for most of the weekend. They made a good time great! Again, this is a wonderful benefit of blogging. I'm sure Marji will post some pictures when she has a moment to do so. I'd post mine, but I thought I'd save you the headache caused by squinting at the blurriness.

They also have a good sense in when to enable and when to stop me from disaster (like when I momentarily forgot that I am not nor will I be a spinner and thus didn't need several ounces of roving). Very handy friends to have around in a market full of wool, silk, roving, buttons, lace, and the like.

I think I was very restrained compared to some of the suitcases I saw leaving the market area. For patterns, I came home with several lace shawl and jacket patterns, the book A Gathering of Lace that I have been wanting to get my hands on, and Knitting with Hand Dyed Yarns that was a gift from the organizers of the conference. The fiber from top left is 20 cashmere/80 silk laceweight, koigu PPPM (click here for closeup), Schaefer Andrea silk (click here), and 3000+ yards of laceweight merino wool. I definitely enhanced my lace stash.

I am still unpacking and sorting everything into it's new home. It's good to be back, but I'm looking forward to doing it again next year!