Stitches Midwest 2010

If you've been around this blog for a while, you may recall that my Mom and I go to Stitches Midwest together every year. It's a combination girl's weekend/last hurrah before school starts. (Except I'm the only one who has to go back to work now that she's retired, lucky lady.) It is held in Schaumburg, IL at a very nice hotel and convention center. They have an impressive lobby with multiple seating areas, water falls, and fire places. It is so nice to sit down there and knit with a few dozen like minded people, in such a fancy setting. Almost makes you forget reality...
(Which for me was the check engine light coming on during my drive to work.)



Mom in the lobby.


Since I have a major backlog of knitting projects, and since I am trying to simplify and "destash" (ha!), I only bought a few things this year. And honestly, Mom bought most of it for me. I tried to pay for a few things but she wouldn't let me - thanks mom, I appreciate it so much!

I've learned not to buy yarn unless I have a specific project in mind. That's the yarn that never gets used; yarn that sits making me feel guilty until I destash it, so I always go prepared with a list of pattern options with yarn requirements.

I chose yarn for two vests and one sweater, and all of the yarn was purchased at WEBS. We were joking that instead of going to Stitches every year, we should just make the trek to WEBS since that's the main place we buy from.

The first yarn I picked was Noro Maiko, for a vest. This yarn is such an amazing emerald green. I'm not usually drawn to green but the depth of color in this yarn was just too much to pass up.

The second vest was actually not something I had picked in advance, but a sample that WEBS had displayed from the new Mission Falls book. I loved it, but decided it was something I would like to wear to work and a $80 hand wash cabled wool vest does not mesh well with my work environment. I looked around the booth and found this Remix yarn from Berroco. 100% recycled fibers (nylon, cotton, acrylic, silk, linen), machine washable, very soft, plus they had a sample of a child's cabled sweater knit up and I was impressed at how much the cabled popped.

As for the sweater yarn, well, it is not something I ever imagined I would own. Thanks to WEBS great discount and my wonderful mother who insisted I must have it, I am now the proud owner of a sweater's worth of Noro Cash Iorha.





Now I just need to learn to knit faster. Or perhaps find more hours in the day.