Pictures of Stitches West 2010.  Tada……

Sadly, these pictures are the only proof that I was at Stitches West 2010.  But I promise you, I was REALLY PHYSICALLY there!!

Last week was a crazy week for me.  I had a business trip to California which ‘so happened’ to coincide with the weekend of Stitches in Santa Clara.  So, as usual, I started out in San Francisco, where I met up with John (KnitOneSipTwo) first and then mozied my way into the East Bay for work.

The next day though was a nightmare.  I got to work on Monday and immediately headed down south in the morning.  I started getting really sick and had to go back to the hotel to rest – fever and all.  I literally slept from Monday morning till Wednesday.  Worked my sick self for the rest of the week and then headed to Santa Clara for the weekend.

Dunno what hit me, but I did have a little energy left for Stitches.  I mean, I was well enough to go (well enough as in, drag me from my death bed, I wasn’t going to MISS IT!).  But my energy level was kinda low.  So sadly to say, Stitches was kind of a blur for me.

The things I remember from Stitches.

1. Kyle and John made me carry a LOOM to the car. (?!?!?!?)
2. I ended up with the above pictures in my bag.
3. I ended up WITH a bag.  (!?!?!?) but it was cute, it had little sheep on it. 
4. I met my editor and his assistant in person, Rick Mondragon and Kristi Miller.  And Kristi was so kind to let me check into my flight using her computer there!  They were both dolls.  So sweet and such nice people.  We talked a little business, a little publishing, a little about life and that sort of stuff.
5. Some Yarn Shop in Rhode Island called Unwind recognize me from my blog – That was amazing.  I was speechless.  Didn’t know what to say then, turned around and puked out of excitement – and also probably because of the bug I had in my system.
6. I got all tech savvy and bought a piece of software that enabled you to transfer charts to words and words to chart!  I hadn’t had the time to install it yet, but I can’t wait to try it.
7. Got interviewed by Fiber Beat.  I just babbled about something that didn’t make sense.  uggh!
8. Then after the period from 10 am to 6:30 pm, we headed home from San Francisco.  Phew.

So, that was my grand introduction to the first Stitches event I ever attended.  (PS: the above mentioned details are probably not as dramatic as they sound, but you know me, I’m a big drama queen)

All in all, it was a great weekend.  Started out rough, but ended nicely.

And I think that the biggest accomplishment personally, was that I Knitted in Public….. on the plane.  Getting over my phobia.  And that is another story.

So, at the Men’s Fall Knitting Retreat, someone who is a friend of a friend of some other friend who doesn’t knit who has a friend who does knit, his friend, told my friend who told another friend who told me…… about this wonderful lady named Lucy Neatby. (Ok, the whole friend of a friend thing is a joke. )

It was more like Michael Wade told me…… about these wonderful series of DVD’s produced by Lucy Neatby that are super awesome. Apparently she is a super technical knitter, that produced these series of DVD’s that were high quality with very clear instructions.

So, as you all know by now, I am super technical myself, or at least that how I view my knitting. So I caved and bought 10 of her DVD’s. That’s 10 out of 16 DVD’s that she has. I just wasn’t into Double Knitting or Intarsia Knitting….. yet.

So, Lucy is based out of Canada and getting her DVD’s would certainly take a while to get to Texas. And as you all also know, I have been playing around with the Tubular Cast On and I REALLY REALLY REALLY wanted to see how Lucy does it. (BTW, I plan to use it on a secret project that I’m planning right now.)

Anyways, if you haven’t heard of this wonderful site by Bob and Nancy, www.knittersbookshelf.com, go visit them. They are the most wonderful people that I have ever shopped with online. Let’s put it this way, I ordered my DVD’s on Tuesday and I got them on Friday, at my doorstep.

Please get any of your knitting books or publications or needs from their website if you want a fast, reliable, super nice site. I certainly rate them A+++++ Thank you Nancy.

Anyways….. I am watching the DVD’s now and the certainly are truly awesome.

Ok, I have a wedding that I need to be in right now, so, till next week.

Hey all, I thought I would get more excitement about the yarn shops in Berkeley. And as I promised the stash acquisition.

2 skeins of ShibuiKnits Socks

10 balls of Elsbeth Lavold Hempathy. I’m not sure what I can make with this? Would 10 balls be enough for a sweater? Maybe a cabled vest. Hmmmm……. suggestions?

Miss BW’s 3rd Treasury

and 4th

Which almost about forces me to learn how to design. I have a theory. There are 2 kinds of people, talented and hardworking. All those people designing everywhere are talented. All I am is hardworking. But I think I might give it a try since I have more to post about stuff bought in San Francisco!!!!

More to come.

I did it, I finally did it. Never would I have thought that I would get a set of interchangeable needles after my first Boye set, eeccck, but look what came in today.

Gosh, when it rain, it pours!!!!!

All of a sudden, I’m getting an influx of projects to knit. Don’t get me wrong, that’s a great thing! These are all test knits, sample knits and model knits and that’s what I like to do. Cuz as you all already know about me, how often do I knit something or anything for myself? Almost NEVER!

So, I got to really get busy. For some reason, ALL the deadlines are the first week of December. Jeez!!!

Here’s what I gotta do:
Ironwork Socks – Kelp Knits

Whitby Socks – Conjoined Sisters (this is supposed to be hush hush, so I can’t talk anymore about this project)

Crew Camo – Lorna’s Laces
{no picture}

Finishing Job – Bette
{no picture}

I’m excited. Very excited. I will post pictures and updates as ALLOWED by my “bosses”.

Also, been a really bad boy too…….

But for now, toodles!

It’s the end of the 1st week of 2006. How is my mantra working out? To review:

I am going to live my life one day at a time. If things get rough, I’’ll think about things one moment at a time. Every moment and every day, I will strive to do the next right thing. Every day and every moment, I shall try really hard to relieve myself from the bondage of self. I will turn it over. Take things as they come and extend myself to another…..

Honestly, it’s been hit and miss. As simple as it may sound, I find it difficult to maintain the discipline required. I’ve not been on time for work but I find myself making it through the day. I’ve been making meetings and meeting with my sponsor and therapist but I haven’t been doing my daily readings and journaling. I’ve had my moments of irritability where sometimes I sit and brew in it and sometimes I remember to correct my thinking. There were several times where I had to stop knitting obsessively and go do something with another human being.

So, I give myself partial credit and remove my foot from my throat….. just a little. Practice makes perfect. I will continue to strive for a better week. Living in the now.

Anyways………

To help me take better pictures, I bought myself a tripod. It’s just a little mini table tripod. I don’t know why I didn’t think about it earlier, but it used to take me shot after shot after shot to get a clear and crisp indoor picture. I am just not steady enough (must still be detoxing) for long exposure shots. Then I asked Drew how he was able to take such lovely close-up shots and he said he used a tripod.

Remember the Iro? Well, all that yarn is sitting here and it’s begging to become something. Besides, I really hate to go out and buy yarn when I have all this yarn to work with. I guess I am trying to be a disciplined knitter. So this weekend, I went out and bought 2 Noro books by Jane Ellison to get some ideas on what to make. (Man, that tripod is really handy and isn’t there like a noro.com or something…..?)

Being the indecisive person that I am, I’m probably going to need ya’lls help on which pattern to choose from. Ok, it’s Sunday night, off to do a little more knitting and retire to wake up fresh to enjoy the rest of next week.

Wow, it feels like forever since my last post where I sounded like a crazy drama queen all freaking out about the MWK sweater. That’s what I’ve been working on the past couple of days; obsessing, researching, knitting, ripping and reknitting. Fortunately, today, the sky is NOT falling anymore. I’ve managed to sew the shoulder seams together and the collar finally looks good. But who knows, I might just freak out about something else tomorrow. I just really want Annie to “want” me to knit for her again.

Besides knitting, I went on a crazy shopping spree last week. I finally broke down and bought myself a digital camera. I got tired of borrowing the camera from work every time I wanted to post something. I figured if I were to continue my blogging career, I need my own camera that I can use at any time. (Now, I better see more comments!!)

I got the Canon PowerShot SD400 Digital Elph. All you photography buffs out there…. did I make a good choice? This was totally an impulse buy. No research, nothing! I had some business in North Houston where there was a Fry’s Electronics and decided to stop in. Fry’s is supposed to be the Walmart of electronics, wide variety with good prices.

This was basically how I picked the camera: 1. 5 megapixel is in the middle between 1 and 7 megapixels. 2. Anything more than a 3x optical zoom would cost too much. 3. Canon is a good “camera” brand. This must be one of the most impulsive things that I’ve ever done. I really couldn’t take a picture of the camera itself so here’s the box and the instruction guide.

Then, as if spending $300 wasn’t enough, I decided to visit my friend Mikey at Sephora. Guess what happened there? I made up my mind that my complexion is too blotchy, I’m getting old and that I REALLY need to start taking care of my skin. My most expensive purchase was the $90 Face Firming Activator by N. V. Perricone M.D.. That shit better work!!! As you can see, I’m already using the camera to take pictures of the other elixirs that I got….. or need?

Oh, but the day wasn’t over yet. Why not to stop by Half Price Books on my way back into town? They usually don’t have many knitting books, but they had these two, Socks, socks, socks by Elaine Rowley for $5 and Sweater Design in Plain English by Maggie Righetti for $9. I hope they are worth that.

Phew…. so at the end of the day, I end up with:

Don’t know if I should be pissed off at myself or not? But hey, it’s been a long time since I had done any shopping. Oh well.

Have you every bought something only because you had a coupon?

Well, Michael’s Craft Store occasionally has 40% discount coupons in the Sunday paper and I happen to come across two of them this weekend. Since I don’t really care for craft store yarn (I’m such a yarn snob!!), the limited selection of books there would be the other alternative. Sally Melville’s The Knit Stitch and The Purl Stitch were among them.

I’m not even sure if I need these two books, but I purchased them tonight anyway. Being the indecisive retard I am, I spent all day obsessing if I needed the books. After all, I already have Vogue Knitting, The Big Book of Knitting and The Knitters Book of Finishing Techniques, do I really need another book on “how to knit”?

Oh well, I’m not going to think about it anymore. Besides, right after going to Michaels, I bought a carton of cigarettes which cost more than the books after discount. I’ll go now and update my wish list.