Da Knitting mecca....

Last Friday Shona (pictured - my knitting buddy), Ashwin and I went to Stiches West 2007 - Knitting Expo (see sign!) It was just amazing with so much yarn to fondle and the patterns - man, we just couldn't help but buy, buy, buy. This is one place to save some dollars for as there is so much under the one roof. It was laid out in the Santa Clara convention centre, so Shona suggested we catch the light rail, which didn't take long at all - our stop was Great America! The trip doesn't take that long when you pull your knitting out of your bag and do a few stitches on the way. When we arrived there was a line to get in which curved around the pot plant and back to the entrance - whew should have pre booked tix, think we know for next time (there's Shona in line looking very excited!) We scored this brochure listing the vendors and man there were so many how will we get to see them all... well we did manage to get through them all but the last few were a bit of a blur as Mr Ashwin had enough by then and was ready for bed. I was so excited as I got to see all the yarns that I had collected in my 'Fibres, Yarns & Fabrics' folio in real life (I did the folio as assessment for the Studio Textiles & Design course in Melbourne) and no, I don't have some strange fibre addiction!! We found some great wooden balls to do some shibori felting - which I am looking forward to but first I have to make the fabric for the scarf which is mohair - aaaaah I am scared as it is a really fine yarn!! Well that is another knit project that I have to conquer in time... for now I have a shawl in a beautiful wool from Chile and a hoodie for Ashwin in the project bag. Oh speaking of bags when we bought our mohair from these girls at Knitterley (who were wearing some very cool aprons) they gave us a great take away bag for our knitting projects. We ended up getting the same bird pattern as it was the coolest of the 3 designs they had on offer. We had picked up so much booty and were hanging it on the pram - it became quite heavy and with Ashwin as a counterbalance it was dangerous... so in the last pic I am using all my energy lifting the pram as it has just fallen over from being too top heavy and Ashwin is not too thrilled about being awoken from his slumber.