Stitches day one
Saturday February 22nd 2014, 12:11 am
Filed under: Knit

Pictures after a little sleep.

Richard took a bit of time off work and got me to and from Stitches so I wouldn’t have to wrestle the chair. He’s my hero.

Reading Facebook posts later, it was amazing to me how many booths I’d entirely missed seeing and I am very glad I get to go back tomorrow. As Mel and Kris put it, This place is HUGE! (And Mel added, And there’s so. much. YARN! and I laughed.) I got to re-meet their son Ben, no longer the little kid from way back when but a gifted artist himself.

I got a few of their pieces, including replacing a honey pot my nephew broke (poor guy. He was upset, I wasn’t. Things happen.)  Some new bowls came home, too, and two mugs Nina had ordered. Beautiful, beautiful work.

I found the Buffalo Wool people to show them the cowl I’d made from their $10 don’t-buy-this-you’ll-be-sorry skein-rejects Halloween sale; I had been dying to know. So I asked Ron, Can you tell me which of your yarns this is? Because it doesn’t seem to be listed on your site.

He instantly knew: Moon. (I just looked it up on Ravelry: 25% bison down, 75% tencel.) It had been made for them at a mill on Prince Edward Island till the place shut down four years ago, and since then they’d moved all their milling to the US but that particular yarn hadn’t been made since then.

The mill on Prince Edward Island is gone?!

I told him that when my folks had retired and packed up their house after about 40 years there, Mom had come across a box in the basement and had wondered, Where on earth did this come from?

Oh I knew. I remembered it. I’d used some of it as a teenager. The mill at Prince Edward Island. Natural, light yellow, light orange, darker orange–I’d granny-squared a hat and scarf from it in junior high. (They were too scratchy to wear unless it was really really cold, but when it is, the scratchiness actually helps keep you warm. I learned something new.)

Huh.  Looking down at the cowl in my hands, so I had knitted PEI yarn again without even knowing it, and one would definitely be okay with this against your neck. That’s really cool!

Someone came in halfway into the conversation, and turns out she’s the one who’d dyed my skein. She too knew exactly what it was and when–and she was quick to tell me it’s not hard to overdye if you don’t like that shade of limegreen; I grinned and told her my website is named spindyeknit.

Ahhh… Okay!

But I dunno that I ever would. It has a history now and character. I’m quite delighted.

Someone said hi and with my face blindness that makes it difficult to recognize people I seldom see, I had not a clue and was very sorry that I disappointed her. She told me her name and my brain was pleading for context; she got away from me before I could make up for my lapse, and if she reads this, my apologies, and thank you very much for stopping to say hi.

Things quieted down in the late afternoon and I found myself in The Sassy Sheep booth with just the two women running it. I didn’t recognize them, and after 20-odd years of Stitches I do recognize the regulars; they told me that this was their first time here.

I said something to the effect of, it’s quite something, isn’t it? They exclaimed in unison, “Yes!”

It’s our Disney World.

We swapped stories, connecting knitting experiences to places and times in our lives, when suddenly a skein of yarn was being stuffed in my basket from behind: Twinkle, a merino/silk/sparkly stellina blend in the deep, deep greens and turquoises and deep blues and glittering ice of Glacier Bay as the dyer told me of what an incredible experience it had been to get to go there and see that place:  she urged me, “Go. Play!”

Oh wow! Oh you bet. Thank you!

I took the copy of my book back out of my basket that she’d been admiring earlier and, pulling out a pen, asked her her name.

(Both of them gave me their cards and I will edit their names into the post tomorrow–it’s in the basket and the basket is in the car for the night and I am pulling a blank. It’s been a great but long day.)

Oh and. I was looking for Karida Collins of The Neighborhood Fiber Co, whose colorways are named after areas back home, and went for her silk in particular: it is exactly the weight I want, it is exactly the softness I want. The colors are glorious, and it is exactly perfect.

So I was puzzling: this or that or that one? I really like this one, although do I need another bluegreen–although it is different from…

And as I mulled it over I happened to turn the tag on that bluegreen over.

Sold! Oh honey, that was so coming home with me.

The name of the colorway? Families of ours, are you reading this? Rock Creek Park. Richard grew up a short walk down the hill to Rock Creek Park. I have to knit this. I can only hope to make it as perfect as Karida did.


5 Comments so far
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I’m glad that you got your scooter working and that you had a great day. The scooter is a nuisance, but it saves you having to bring along a Sherpa to carry all of your gear for you. (Sherpas are probably partial to quiviat, and that’s expensive.)

Comment by LauraN 02.22.14 @ 7:09 am

Yay! I’m so thrilled that you got to just charge around Stitches, and not waste time charging up. And I’m taking notes for which vendors not to miss.

Comment by DebbieR 02.22.14 @ 9:18 am

Lovely of Karida to bring of little of here way over there. I have every confidence you’ll do her beautiful yarn justice.

Comment by RobinM 02.22.14 @ 3:30 pm

Alison, glad ya de it there. I went In the afternoon, keeping my eye out for you, but no luck. It is like Disneyland!

Comment by Renee 02.22.14 @ 6:52 pm

I bought a stunning yarn bowl from Mel and Kris … and later wondered if they were the people you mentioned in an earlier post. Next time I’ll mention you (-:

It was fun to see you twice(!) at Stitches.

Comment by Anne 02.24.14 @ 12:40 pm



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