Stitches East!
Monday October 22nd 2007, 11:15 am
Filed under: "Wrapped in Comfort",Life

Weatherly Mize’s shawl pinWeatherly Mize’s shawl pin. Goes with every color.

Kate and Deb, who laughed with me for ages at Stitches East, with the YSO occasionally dropping in the conversation when she had a moment because it was just too much fun not to. We were having a good time. Kate and Deb’s lace socksThey surprised me with these gorgeous socks, which they’d made together. Kate and Deb

Amy, with her black baby alpaca shawl Amyin the yarn from Karin in Albany.

Robin, who used to live in sight of my street here, before I came here, and then moved close enough to the neighborhood I grew up in that when I named the street she asked which house.

Robin

Afton described a dinner after the first night of Stitches, where eight women were discussing the menu with the waitress. One told her, “No dairy” (which I can thoroughly relate to–I have a daughter who gets violently ill if she eats anything that so much as touched anything made from milk.) The waitress didn’t get it, and asked what No Dairy meant. Instantly, all eight women at that table spontaneously declared in unison, “MOOOoooooooOO.” I wish I’d been there! Afton surprised me with this wool tam. I confess I have Mary Rowe’s “Knitted Tams” book and never gotten past the dream stage with it; Afton totally scooped me, and I love blues and greens together.Afton at Stitches Afton’s tam

Colorjoy LynnH in her one-off Peace shawl, with the yoke done a little differently from how it is in the book; I like to doodle in my knitting. Granted, LynnH is the last person you’d expect to see wearing something so plain, but since I didn’t know what color would be best, I decided she would have great fun painting it, and she said she would indeed. Colorjoy LynnHLynn, I’m listening to Brian’s Music Box Rag album as I type. Once I learn the pieces I can kazoo along with your husband. (Kazoo made by Lynn.)from Colorjoy LynnH

Lisa Souza adjusting a Bigfoot shawl from “Wrapped inLisa Souza Comfort” in her Jellybeanz colorway at her booth at Stitches East, and my haul of Lisa yarn.haul of Lisa Souza yarn from Stitches East 07

Sheila ErnstSheila Ernst and her friend (Lisa’s, too) Jackie in the background. Sheila makes the most incredible handblown glass shawl pins, glass buttons, glass knitting needles, you name it. The picture doesn’t begin to do it justice, but it goes so well with my airplane knitting–which is the yarn Laura in Alameda dyed and surprised me with at TKGA. I’m almost done knitting it up, and I can’t wait to wear them together.

Sheila’s handblown glass shawl pin

I was quite thoroughly spoiled by my friends on this trip in far more ways than these pictures could convey, and I am so glad I got to go!

(Edited to add: WordPress is balking, and some pictures are being hidden beneath others.)


10 Comments so far
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Oh, I was waiting for this! Your pictures, yarns, etc. are beautiful. I almost feel as if I were there too – I would have joined in with the communal “MOOOoooooooOO!,” in fact I did join in as I read the blog! (Some of my co-workers are staring, but I don’t care.) So glad to hear you had a wonderful time!

Pam

Comment by Pam Sykes 10.22.07 @ 11:45 am

Looks like you had a great time. I love the yarn and the Tam but I especially love the shawl pins. I’m glad you got to go.

Comment by vicki 10.22.07 @ 2:10 pm

Oh that tam is beautiful! I love the shawl pin too!

Comment by Lisa 10.22.07 @ 6:29 pm

The tam is beautiful, and I love the colors. They are the perfect combination for it.

Comment by marti 10.22.07 @ 10:57 pm

The black shawl is so beautiful. I am SOOOO glad you ended up with that yarn!
I am also very happy you went and had a great time and got home safe and sound.

Comment by Karin 10.23.07 @ 6:05 am

I would have “mooooed” right along with everyone, being of the non-dairy orientation myself. That must have been hilarious! As a side note: I bought myself some lovely lace weight yarn at Rhinebeck this weekend, and am planning on getting your book to celebrate. Hooray, my first big lace project!

Comment by sparkle j 10.23.07 @ 11:06 am

Wow, the yarn in the bottom pic is scrumptious… holy goodness!

Looks like you had so much fun. Maybe next year for me!

Comment by Amanda 10.23.07 @ 4:39 pm

Hey Alison,

I don’t know if you’ve discovered this already or not, but a lot of products are marked “kosher” with a variety of symbols (K, circle K, circle U, etc.) Often they also have the words “dairy, “pareve”, or (on rare occasions!) “meat” next to the symbol. If it’s marked “pareve” or “meat” there will not only be absolutely NO dairy in the product, but it also will not have been prepared on any equipment that touched dairy in any way. This is certified by a person called a “mashgiach” who checks the facilities and awards the kosher symbol (called a “hecksher”). So it is safe for your daughter to eat.

Pareve means that it’s neither dairy nor meat–grains, vegetables,fruit, fish, and eggs are all pareve. That’s what your daughter should look for.

I can relate to your story. We don’t eat pork or shellfish, even though we don’t keep kosher. We lived in Hawaii for a couple of years, and something called “plate lunch” is popular there. It consists of two scoops of rice, macaraoni salad, and some sort of barbequed meat–chicken, fish, beef, or pork (a million calories–but only half a million if shared!). Often when we ordered it we’d ask what the meat was and the response we got was “meat”. Locals there just don’t distinguish between types of meat!

I’ve told day care providers that my children don’t eat shellfish or pork and both kids were fed ham sandwiches when the other kids got tunafish because what the daycare providers heard was “no fish or pork” and they don’t think through to realize that ham IS pork and tunafish is not shellfish. Sheesh!

Comment by Janknitz 10.25.07 @ 5:40 pm

Thank you very much for that information. The kids I think already knew that, but I had forgotten about it, and I needed that as I get ready to restock the freezer: the seriously allergic one is coming home at Thanksgiving as well as Christmas this year. So that is extremely helpful, and I will pass the word on just to make sure they know. Thank you!

Comment by AlisonH 10.25.07 @ 9:25 pm

Just got your book! I have some lacewt yarn on order. I am just finishing my first lace shawl using fingering wt and getting ready to get started with lacewt. When the yarn gets here I will go thru the pics again and see which catches my fancy with the yarn

Comment by LisaD 10.31.07 @ 8:39 pm



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