On Sexy Voice, Sudden Illness, Dramatic Recovery and Stitches

I just realized that title sounds like a listing of Santa's lesser-known reindeer...

What a weekend. And it's only Saturday!

Mine started Thursday. I left work early to go have lunch with Jasmin. We had some Pho, knit for a little while at Purlescence, then headed over for the Ravelry meet-up at Stitches West. The meet-up was fun, and it was a pretty big crowd considering a lot of people had indicated they couldn't make it. I got to say hi to Kristi who is back in town for the weekend. Jeni and I compared our nearly-matching hair colors, and I saw Teenuh and got to meet her friend the OCK who was wearing one completely gorgeous hand-painted shawl. Abigail and Anabel were there, along with a bunch of other local knitter friends: Lori, Nathania, Kathy, Seltsame, Spinnity, Bogie, Lisa, Cookie, Cynthia, Pam, Sandi, Chloe and oh, a whole bunch of others. Like Teenuh, I had a great time when I went last year but wow. This year? So much fun. I know so many people now! I realized recently that knitting not only gives me a lot of satisfaction on a creative level but it's also responsible for much of my social life since I moved here exactly 2 years ago. This area has so many talented, amazing knitters who happen to be wonderful people - or wonderful warm people who happen to be talented knitters. Whichever - it's great and I'm happy to know 'em all.

Anyway, after the Ravelry party, Jasmin, Cynthia and I checked out the Market Preview for a couple of hours. It was nothing like Saturday's crowd but there were a lot of people there. I picked up a few nice things.

I picked this up at the Habu booth to make Gisela. I still can't get over the fact that 3 ounces of this stuff will really make an entire sweater! And it's quite inexpensive. Bonus!






Though I'd recently shopped at Webs with Christmas cash, I stopped by their booth to check out one of their recent arrivals, Colrain lace-weight. This cone holds 1400 yards of Merino/Tencel - easily enough for 2 projects. They have the same blend in a worsted-weight - I have enough of that for a sweater in black (no photo because I didn't buy it at Stitches and well...black yarn, sucky photographer...need I say more?).






This is Quiviut. One ounce of soft, soft, soft. I have been assured that if I can spin cashmere, I can spin this. This is going to be some kind of little lacy scarfy thing for me.






The last booth I visited was Lisa Souza. I'd heard of her but never seen any of her work before. She does beautiful work! I picked up some roving. The one in front is Superwash Merino in Marsquake (I think that's what it said - the label was hand-written) and the stuff in the back is BFL in Wild Things.




I also picked up a skein of her Sock! yarn - though there's enough of it for a wrap - 560 yards, I think. At least enough for a wrap for a short girl, and that's me! The color way is Milk Chocolate. How could I pass that by?





I'd been feeling ok all evening. I had a slightly scratchy throat which gave me one deep, sexy voice, but otherwise I felt completely normal. On the way home though, I found myself turning up the heat in my car. By the time I got there, I couldn't stop shivering. I had a fever of 101. Yikes. I had no idea!

I'd planned to be at Stitches all day Friday but had to stay home. I was glad I'd done at least a little shopping the night before; I hadn't planned to, and if I'd missed Stitches entirely I'd have been more than just a tad miffed. Luckily, I felt fine this morning - except for some major laryngitis - so I headed over to help Margit in her Fiber Fiend booth. I got to be Stamp Chick which meant stamping the Ravelry Passports for anyone who came by the booth. After that I cruised the floor, filled up my own passport with stamps, and kept an eye out for friends. I saw Janine, who was helping out at Maia and Brooke's booth. They've recently opened Tactile, and they carry some beautiful naturally dyed yarns and roving. I also got to see Hannah, Alison and AmpuT. Yay!

And of course I picked up a few more things:
Fine shetland from Pigeon Roof Studios in the Royale colorway. I've been ogling her stuff on line for months - it's as pretty in person as it is on the web. I believe you can check it out at Article Pract.





This is 8 oz. of 70/30 Alpaca/Silk from Tactile. Soft and gorgeous.








This is pure bamboo from Fiber Fiend in Stormy Weather. I haven't spun bamboo. If it's anything like silk I'll be fine. If not, well, I'll have to figure it out.







I also picked up this nylon blingy stuff in Flame (I think) in the Fiber Fiend booth. It's meant to add sparkle when blended with something else. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it yet but I thought it was kind of fun.




I had hoped to stay the day but I started petering out around 2:30, so I headed home. Since then I've been resting and recovering from the fiber madness. Even though it goes through tomorrow, Stitches 2008 is over for me. I'm glad I got to it and it was fun, but I am beat!
Trouble is tired out too.