So, even though this is late, I thought I'd talk about my trip to Stitches West.

I went with my friend Sarah, and we met up with some other friends, Erica, Adam, and Deb at the event. I didn't have any big projects in mind, so I knew I wouldn't be buying a lot. (Only using a very limited amount of cash helped, too.) The featured booth was, of course the XRX/Knitter's Magazine booth. Since they are the main sponsor of the event, that wasn't surprising. The booth featured samples from Victorian Lace Today, the new book from XRX, which I have. The author, Jane Sowerby was there, signing books at all the booths. I saw her everywhere! I approached her and told her I really liked her book. She was nice enough to me, but another woman was trying to show off her hand-made stitch markers and Jane was having none of it. "... when you knit lace, with fine yarn, you don't want it to get caught on these ... I use just a loop of yarn ..." The other woman was getting upset, so I just scooted away.

Both Sarah and I have an interest in lace knitting and socks. I found some beautiful lace silk/yak at Skaska Designs, by Galina Khmeleva, author of Gossamer Webs. The silk/yak is a pewter-taupe color, and one of my favorite things I saw.

I also kept being drawn to purple everything. I got a big skein of a very fine lace weight wool in a dark purple, to satisfy the strange purple fascination.

Sarah was on the lookout for a specific vendor, Just Our Yarn, that sold beautiful hand-dyed lace-weight cashmere. We found them, and they had a Swallowtail Shawl knit up in the exact yarn we were seeking. We got the cashmere (bright orange for Sarah, wine-red for me), and luckily, Sarah happened to have picked up the Fall 2006 issue of Interweave Knits in which that pattern appeared, so we can both make it.

And of course, I got some sock yarn. I don't usually go too far out color-wise for socks, but I couldn't resist pretty pink and brown merino fingering yarn from Artyarns.

Finally, I had to have the newest in the Addi-Turbo line--the new lace needles. So cool. I got a 24" size 4. I don't know whether they will make me faster, but the tips are pretty sharp, but the needles themselves are not slick at all. I will have to report when I actually start using them, perhaps when I start my Swallowtail Shawl.