I'm baaaack...

(cue spooky music)

OK, I went to Stitches East again this year with the very lovely Trillian42. You may have seen her wearing her very fabulous, bright green crochet shawl. (Even Doris Chan complimented it.) I was one of the lucky people who actually got one of Mel's ravelry ribbons. Mel (and everyone else at the Webs booth) was super nice.

I took "The Art of Knitting Backwards" from Candace Eisner Strick. Candace is funny and a great teacher. As for knitting and purling backwards, it is pretty mind-blowing. As she mentioned, she originally worked out the methodology just to be able to move quickly through the edging for a shawl. When I think about how much easier it would have been to get through an edging without turning the work, well, I'm just glad I know now. I'll be able to use the method when I do the heel flap on my next set of socks. hee hee.

The second class was "Lapland Hand Garments" with Susanna Hansson. Susanna was great and brought some wonderful examples of the Rovaniemi mittens. Of course, I have no need for mittens but I was totally intrigued by a method that promised no tangles and no carrying yarn while working in the round. The method will be detailed in Piecework magazine in Jan. Which is just as well because I'm not sure I could really explain it. My only complaint was the 000 metal needles. ooph. It will be a while before I finish the pair.

I have taken pictures of my loot from the trip but I'm going to pace myself this year and let you glory in one yarn at a time. Let's suffice to say that there were some favorites this year, such as Habu and Neighborhood Fiber Co. I was able to be more restrained this year than last year...but there was still plenty that came home.

First, I did lots of knitting on the plane and finished the first of hubby's socks and immediately cast on for the second.



Even though the pattern is simple, it is not boring. I'm still enjoying it.

Next, here's some thick and thin yarn from Neighborhood Fibers. It is the Victorian Bulky yarn in ...not sure about the colorway. The tag doesn't say and I can't find the color on any of the sites. Karida, who is just wonderful, had a sample purse in this yarn and color that just kept calling to me. The pattern isn't on the site, but trust me it was super-cute.





My brother and his girlfriend are coming for a week. I'm more than a little stressed about it--my younger brother doesn't usually visit me, and they're bringing their dog. My brother is a man of few words so my real concern is whether or not I'll get along with his girlfriend and whether or not my crazy dogs will get along their dog. A week is quite a long time to be together if we all get on each other's nerves.

It could mean a whole lot of knitting time...we'll see.