Once more, one of the premier crafting events on the West Coast is here! Yippee! Although I've lived in this area for the past 4 years, I've only made it to one Stitches West convention, the one held last year. I took one class with Gwen Bortner on using short row shaping in knitwear design, and then had some fun meeting Kristin Omdahl, Michelle Miller (Fickleknitter Designs) and Roxanne Yeun of Zen Yarn Garden. I also picked up some yarny goodness from a few booths at the market and even bumped into a college classmate. I haven't made any plans to attend this year, but that doesn't mean I won't go! My dear neighbor Claudine gave me a $2 off voucher for admission to the Stitches West market, so I'll probably go just to "admire" all the yarny and yarn-related goodness (admire is used very loosely here and can also mean buy...heheheh). I've also made a lunch date with my friend that I bumped into last year, so that should be fun. She informed me that Lion Brand yarn will have their yarn at 20% off. I'll be checking that booth out for sure.
Another booth that I'll definitely stop by will be Roxanne's (of Zen Yarn Garden). Her yarn is just gorgeous! It makes me so happy to see it, touch it, pet it and dream about what I'm going to make with it. Here is the loot I got from her booth last year.
I hope to meet Michelle and Kristin again. Another booth I want to visit is that of Alana Dakos of Never Not Knitting. She has some of the most gorgeous patterns out there, and her new collection, Botanical Knits, is just stunning!! She'll be sharing Booth 1147 with Becoming Art yarn line and shop, so you KNOW I'll be "admiring" that yarn too.
Another crafter, Kimberly of Kimberly's Craftini, has compiled a pretty extensive list of booths to visit and people to see in this post. I think I'll print the list and take it along to my market booth crawl.
If you don't hear from me for a while, I might be lost at the 2013 Stitches West market. :)