Stitches (part 2...)

Friday morning, I woke up at 5:45 because my feet were FREEZING - air matress, basement, you get the picture. I LOVE air matresses though so it was worth it!  Anyways, I couldn't fall back to sleep because I was way too excited for Stitches, so I pulled out my book.  Around 6 Teri came down and found me, and we went to wait for the lazy bums to wake up so we could go already!

Teri made cinnamon rolls for breakfast and at 9 we were ready to go.  Corey helped drive us all to the Light Rail station - another reason why we love him!  On the train we all pulled out our knitting - except Teri forgot hers - and got to work.  We met a bunch of other knitters going to Stitches, and Jennifer even taught an impromptu sock/magic loop lesson to our car.

Once at Stitches we split up into 2 parties.  Jen and Tess had to hit 3 Irish Girls right away, and Sarah wanted Jordana Paige right away.  She dragged the rest of us along ;)  On the way Sarah spotted some $3 skeins of dyeable sock yarn so we made a tiny detour, but then straight to JP!  Sarah talked Jen into a bag like hers, me into buying a messenger bag (the red and khaki color, not pink!)... and later Teri even got a bag.  Sarah had never met Jordana IRL before, but she'd founded the JP group on Ravelry and helped her out a lot... so Jordana gave her a bag as a gift.  Which was really sweet.  They were all mushy and stuff, so Jenifuh and I spent the rest of the weekend teasing Sarah... but it was really cute :)

Next we met up with Tess and Jen at 3IG - really the Yarn Love booth.  It's complicated.  Anyways, Tess and Jen got a crazy amount of yarn there and talked us all into buying some - like that was hard ;)  I got some "Delicate Aquamarine" sock yarn and talked Tess into more yarn for a Calorimetry - the Carson colorway, in worsted weight.

Delicate Aquamarine from Ravelry

Next Jenifuh and I went to the Cocoknits/Three Black Sheep booth and bought the Malabrigo Loafers pattern and Lamb's Pride Bulky to knit it up.


We breaked for lunch, and went upstairs to find Carma and crew. Meeting Carma was fun, she wasn't like I expected from her online persona - she defied my New Yorker expectations, in a very good way.  Centy, on the other hand, was pretty much exactly like she is online (=awesome! ROAR Gryffindor indeed :).  Centy brought a friend from S&B, Heather.  I don't think I'd chatted with L to the F before, and I am very glad that changed this weekend.

Carma brought lunch for everyone from her Cafe, and O.M.G. it was amazing.  There were these Sesame Noodles that were really, really yummy, and we are STILL waiting to see a recipe for ;)  Then I had an Apples Alexander - Apples, Honey, some kinda cheese on a toasted roll.  It's like apple strudel in a roll instead of annoyingly flaky pastry - SO GOOD.  And then there were cookies too.  The Pink Dalmations have a well-deserved reputation for amazingness.  I tried a piece of Erika's macaroon and even though it was coconut, which I usually hate, even that was delicious.

After lunch we hit Webs (I got some Berroco Cuzco and Jasper and an Addi needle), and then a lot of other booths.  At 4 Jenifuh decided she'd had enough, and went back to Teri's with me.  Corey picked us up at the Light Rail (see what I mean? he's the best!), and we hung out at Teri's.  I talked Jen into a corned beef sandwhich for dinner, and then Corey and Jen attempted to teach me to suck less at Pool in Teri's basement.  We tried a normal game, and then "Three Ball".  Progress was made, but I still suck - just less.

needles

So I might be weird (okay I know I'm weird), but my favorite favorite favorite DPNs are the plastic Lion Brand DPNS.

• They are relatively cheap
• The plastic is the perfect combination of smooth for slip and non-metal for grip 
• They are color co-ordinated.

The latter is a BIG part of why I love them.  All their size 5's are red.  When I'm looking for 5's, I stick my hand into the vase-like thingy that holds my DPNs between projects, and I pull out 5 red sticks.  No needle sizer required! I love not needing tools and stuff for knitting :)

Anyways, they aren't sold locally so on a lark I searched ebay. And found an auction the most confusing description EVER, but it looked like 7 sets were in the Lot.  So I bid and ended up as the winning (read: only) bidder, and thus spent $28 for:

TWELVE sets of Lion Brand DPNs! The rest was cake :-)

Stitches! (part 1...)

You know how most of the time, when you spend tons of time planning and preparing for and waiting for an event, it's usually a big disappointment in the end? Or at least it doesn't live up to expectations? Yeah, so Stitches was the exact opposite of that.

Two (of the three) owners of my LYS were driving down to Baltimore Thursday morning with a friend of theirs, and offered me a ride. Lots of knitting-related conversation :) I already knew I really liked my LYS ladies, but over 4 hrs I got to know them much better. I finished a Turn a Square hat (Brooklyn Tweed's pattern) en route.

We got in to B'more in 4 hours, and 30 minutes on the Light Rail later I was at BWI to meet Teri, Shewhoknits, and Svendel for the first time IRL. Svendel I recognized right away from some photos she showed us of her HS reunion. Teri and Jen were different than I imagined they'd be in person, but I knew exactly who they were when the car pulled up, 'cuz they were smiling really, really big like I was. Teri managed to smush my caravan of bags (only 4! lol) into her car and away we went!

Fyi, Teri's house is gorgeous. Plus, her husband built it, himself. And you thought the swift was impressive, right? (more on that in a bit).  We met the oldest Prince on his way out the door, and then Teri left Corey to entertain us while she went to collect Jen and her previously-unknown friend (Tess/Ginny).  We tried corrupting him, but Corey is just too awesome.  He frikkin unpacked the groceries, without being asked.

For dinner we went to Texas Roadhouse.  Dude, we need to get places like that to come to NY.

(L-R: Jenifir, me, Tess, Jenifuh, Sarah and Teri)
Then it was back to Teri's to knit (a LOT), watch the Office ("That's what she said, that's what she said, that's what she said!" - Pam), and 30 Rock ("That's not Oprah")

I think that was pretty much it for Thursday. Stay tuned for part 2, when we finally make it to Stitches and meet up with the rest of the Stitches Witches...