Sarah and I had a great time at Stitches!  Our classes were great, our teachers were great, the other knitters were great, the Market was great…

If I had any brain left after all the excitement and stimulation and intensity, I would be a lot more eloquent about the whole thing.  I think about all I can manage is bullet points (I had to walk down to the kitchen to ask George what it’s called when you just have a list with dots in front of each thing – yeah, bullet points… shows how tired my brain is!).

Classes:  Learned Double-Knitting (Sarah and I are throwing around some creative uses for this one – like tubes for animal legs and weird tentacles on garments), Knitting Backwards (a lot less tricksy than I thought it would be – a sensible stitch manipulation that is going to come in handy!), Lace Design (hoo boy!  the brain got a work-out on that one – but now that we know what to look for in lace patterns and how to work with them, the sky’s the limit), and Intentional Patterning with Hand-Dyed Yarns (some goodly math is this one, but now that we know what to do, we can really play with these yarns)

Camaraderie:  Hanging out in the lobby bar and knitting, chatting with other knitters who are also knitting – terrific!  Met some great people (oops, there’s that word again!) and made a couple of new friends. 

Garments:  Every class, every elevator ride, every walk to The Market was a fashion show – loved seeing what everyone had made!  Sarah and I enjoyed wearing our newest pieces, including the Bella Bella Mantle, the Crocus and Seaside Q’mitls, and the Snow Leopard Cape (which we finished there — blocking it in the hotel room Friday night!).

The Market:  Did some serious yarn shopping!  Some hand-dyed yarns to play with, lace weight wool (with a different kind of texture) in neutrals, a Zoo Blend beastie yarn that has me particularly excited, oh, a few more treasures.  Just yarn. No shawl pins, no books, no knitting bags.  Just yarn.

Full days, very worthwhile.  

We flew home last night, knitting happily on the plane (with several other knitters!).  Tired and satiated.  And what did I do this afternoon – me with all my lovely new yarn and new skills and new inspirations?  I sorted our double-pointed needles.  At the moment, I am content to pet my yarn, sniff it a bit, and then go back to something blessedly simple.  A little recovery time.  Yes, it was that great.