Stitches!
Friday February 27th 2009, 9:17 pm
Filed under: Family,Friends

Two and a half hours.  Stitches West.  Disneyland for knitters, totally filling the large Santa Clara Convention Center near here.  I’m exhausted.  (I know, we all knew that was going to happen.) But I’m so glad we went!

Daffodils from KelliFirst, before we left, though, another box arrived on the doorstep: they were so tightly closed up that Sam’s first reaction when we opened the box, was, what are these?  I told her, just give them a few hours.   They’ll open up very fast.  They’re daffodils.

They have already begun to and to perfume our family room.  Two dozen flowers in a hefty vase from Kelli, a friend of mine at Purlescence, the friend who already gave me her old camera.  Goodness! That LYS (that’s Local Yarn Store in knitter’s lingo, Don) attracts very giving people.

I debated what to wear this morning, and decided blue with Chris J’s socks to match would be just the thing. I hadn’t seen her in ages, and one could only hope.  Which is how, it turned out, I got to show off to Chris J how happy my feet were and to watch her face light up, which she’d totally earned.

Sam and I of course kept running into lots of people I knew, and very occasionally one or two she did, like Karen Brayton-McFall of the old Rug and Yarn Hut.  People stopping us and they and I throwing our arms around each other.  Over and over and over.  I was mentally thinking in the direction of some of the hospital personnel of two and a half weeks ago or more, you see why I couldn’t miss this?!  You see why I had to go?!  Some of the friends there I only get to see once a year, at Stitches.  I might admit that well, there were a few times I was really glad this person or that was wearing a name tag.

You might forget a person’s name. But you never forget how they make you feel. I felt well loved, and they I’m sure did too.

Rosemary\'s pin, Mary\'s shawlRosemary Hill of designsbyromi.com came up to me and tucked her heart shawl pin into my shawl and gave me a hug.  I wondered out loud why she wasn’t wearing Muir (which I happen to particularly like); she was wearing jewelry she’d knitted,  wire earrings (free patterns at the links) and a necklace, which makes sense, given the recent release of her book on the subject.

Gracie Larsen of the Lacy Knitters Guild asked me to come sign books and we agreed on 2:00 pm Saturday.

Sam used that as a carrot to get me to let go and give in to being tired and go home, on the grounds that I’d miss out totally on tomorrow if I overdid it today.  “You’re more tired than you think you are.”  Wise woman there.  She was right; I knew as soon as I stopped moving I would be ready to crash.  And so we came home.

And a good time was had by all.


23 Comments so far
Leave a comment

I am so happy that you made it to Stitches! The daffodils are beautiful.

Comment by TripletMom 02.27.09 @ 9:29 pm

Glad you hat such a good time.

Alison, I don’t know what prompted me, but I went back and looked up your blog in late November about when you spotted me at Trader Joe’s. (For the benefit of those of you who enjoy my humor, I’m the guy she saw,whose wife had just recently died.) What I had not seen previously were the comments made, and how apt they were. Joansie’s remark that you brought sunshine into my life. Yes you have. Jocelyn’s comment that “the two of you needed to meet”. I guess so. And Michelle’s “I hope Don reads this”. Well, finally I did.

Ok, humor for the day:

There’s the story of the woman who was born in a small mid-western town. She lived there all her life; went to the same church all her life. As she grew older,she was not always able to make it to church, so the minister would come to visit her from time to time. And then came a time when she was really up in years, and when the minister came to visit, he said to her, “You know, you are at that stage of life when you should start thinking about the Hereafter. “Oh, I do, Reverend — I do! I walk into a room, and I think to myself — — — what am I here after?”

Comment by Don Meyer 02.27.09 @ 9:44 pm

I can’t believe I missed you. You should have seen people’s eyes light up when I told them you would be there. I will just have to find a way to drive over there to see you.

Comment by Laura 02.27.09 @ 10:43 pm

Thankyou for sharing the fun.I couldn’t go this time I had already taken 3 weeks off from work to recover from surgery and the flue maybe next year I can go:)Hugs Darcy

Comment by Darcy 02.28.09 @ 12:26 am

I’m so glad you were able to go to Stitches West. Is there a Stitches East, I wonder?

The warmth and love of friends is so healing and comforting.

I’m amazed at how much you are able to do. Keep up the great progress.

I always look for Don’s jokes and finally today, after his comment, I am able to make the connection as to how he is part of your life :>)
Happy Saturday, Alison!

Comment by Joansie 02.28.09 @ 2:20 am

I love that you were determined to attend Stitches throughout your illness! Glad you had a great time. The shawl pin is gorgeous! Would you mind sharing the details of that shawl?

Have another great day!

Comment by Carol 02.28.09 @ 5:36 am

Yay! Look at you out and about! I love it. I’m glad you had a good time.

Comment by Momo Fali 02.28.09 @ 6:36 am

Oh, how wonderful! You were right — you always know what you need to make you feel better, emotionally and physically. I was picturing your many fiber friends coming up to you and welcoming you. What a wonderful sight that must have been!

Oh, and thanks for reminding me of Muir — it’s one of my favorite patterns!

Comment by Pegi 02.28.09 @ 6:44 am

What a happy day!

Comment by Mady 02.28.09 @ 7:34 am

So glad you were able to enjoy being out and about!

Comment by Eileen 02.28.09 @ 7:54 am

Thanks for posting Romi’s earring patterns! They’re beautiful and I can’t wait to give them a go!

Comment by LynnM 02.28.09 @ 7:57 am

I’m so glad you were able to be there!

I have one of those heart pins in silver (I also have a sheepie); she does beautiful work.

Comment by Alison 02.28.09 @ 8:13 am

How I wish I could travel to Stitches West. There was a time when DH attended a computer conference every February in Santa Clara, and I had high hopes of tagging along. By the time I could, he had retired and no more Santa Clara trips. Thanks for sharing your day with those of us who couldn’t go.

Comment by Barbara-Kay 02.28.09 @ 10:31 am

I’m so glad you got to go and enjoyed yourself. I’m sorry I missed you!

Comment by Michelle 02.28.09 @ 11:27 am

As I tell my friends, it’s important to have a life worth living. So glad you are getting out to do what you love and to see your dear friends…

Bev

Comment by Bev 02.28.09 @ 11:47 am

so pleased you went and had a great time!

Comment by Vicki 02.28.09 @ 1:23 pm

I am so glad that you got to go and had a wonderful time, I have never met Rosemary but I could see her doing that easily, she is a sweetheart!

Comment by grace 02.28.09 @ 3:19 pm

I’m so glad you had a good time. Enjoy your book signing. Listen to your daughter. She has a wise mother. :):):)

Nancy

Comment by Nancy 02.28.09 @ 7:17 pm

Happy, Happy. Happy to be at Stitches and happy to be among those who DID meet up with you!

Comment by Ruth 02.28.09 @ 8:29 pm

Sam’s a smart woman – you’ll enjoy tomorrow that much more! So glad you got out and about.

Comment by Sandra 02.28.09 @ 8:35 pm

Thanks for sharing Stitches West with the rest of us. Your comment about it being “Disneyland for knitters” was very apt! Stitches Midwest was the same and, with all those vendors and all those choices, even folks with limited funds could come away with at least one special item. And the camaraderie of fiber folks has to be experienced to be believed. Good times!!

Comment by Shirley 03.01.09 @ 6:48 am

Yayy!!! I am so glad you made it — twice!!

Comment by karin 03.01.09 @ 2:10 pm

YAY Stitches! x 2!
Rosemary sounds like such a sweetheart! I keep meaning to make the Bijouterie earrings (I bought the materials)

Comment by Alicia 03.04.09 @ 8:20 am



Leave a comment
Line and paragraph breaks automatic, e-mail address never displayed, HTML allowed: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>

(required)

(required)