If anybody here doesn’t already know, Stitches West is next weekend at the Santa Clara Convention Center. If you have ever had any desire to hold a skein of yarn in your hands in your life, and you can in any way make it there, go! Inhale the wool fumes! The colors, the creativity, the sheer size and enthusiasm of the crowd of fiber lovers. Heady stuff. (Not to mention parking is free; what have you got to lose?) Come check out that silky new yarn made out of sugarcane fibers! (I kid you not.)
It used to be held in Oakland but it completely outgrew the place, and the last year there, the organizers learned that they needed to go to online ticketing after there was a two and a half hour line just to pay the entrance fee to get in the door. We are not few. I didn’t mind; I could sit in my wheelchair–necessary for long days out–and knit and chat.
There are classes, there’s the market, but what I love best of all is getting to see people I never get a chance to see at any other time. It’s all about the friendships, and they grow from year to year.
Speaking of which. I flashed that picture of Cashmere America fiber at the interwebs the other day, hoping the lady that ran that booth might google and see it and come say hi. Then I googled her co-op and found that Cashmere America had gone out of business–no wonder I hadn’t seen her nor her booth the last few years. I miss her. If she reads this over there in Texas, I hereby wave hi a little louder. You are part of our community, and you are missed.