Stitches

Day One -- We had a great time and now we are back home from Stitches East. We really enjoyed it. This was our first time going so we really did not know what to expect. We did Maryland Sheep and Wool (MSW) in May and enjoyed that too, that was our first time there also, but I think we enjoyed this a little more because Friday was just a great day and the market was pretty calm. We left home about 10:00 am and headed off to our favorite Whole Foods for some snacks for our trip. We arrived in Baltimore about 11:30 and checked into the Marriott which was less than a 1/2 a block from the Convention Center -- great location and the accommodations were very nice. They let us check in early, so we were able to park the car, put our bags into our room and head over to the Convention Center . We were pretty organized and tried to stay on course going row by row -- checking it all out.. It was quite overwhelming seeing so many awesome yarns and everything you could think of in the knitting market. I especially loved all the hand dyed unique yarns and wanted them all. I am glad we decided to do the two days because we were able to really appreciate it and not feel rushed. Check out some of the photos below. (1.) We ran into Laurindo's co-workers ( Betty and Elizabeth) when we first arrived, this was amazing because we had never met them, but he had given us a picture of them and they got one of us, so who would have thought we would see them when we first walked into the convention center -- that was just fate. (2.) Mama E gave us a great tour and took us over to Karida's booth were we met up with Veronik and Amy O. They both have new books out. Veronik / Knitting Classic Style and Amy O / Crochet Me.

This family is from NYC and were very nice. The mother made the beautiful pink beaded shawl which was showcased in the fashion show as the finale piece. They were selling the kits to make the scarf at Great Yarns. And the last picture is the yarn I wanted, but did not get... I forgot about it and didn't remember until I saw this picture in my camera.

Steve and Kathy Elkins from WEBS. They had some amazing sales and we spent a lot of time at their both.. And here is Jillsey showing off her new bag.

After hours and hours of shopping we really were ready to drop -- we decided it was time to wrap up day one and go for food. We went to Legal Seafood and Jillsey our shopping buddy for the day went with us.. Jillsey needed to avoid the traffic going back to VA so what better way to end the day than a relaxing dinner. Our waiter Brandon was great and he even tried his hand at knitting

Day Two -- We managed to get up pretty early and go out in time to see the Baltimore Marathon take off. The runners were many even though it was a bit chilly, there was a huge turnout. We were standing right by the Channel 11 news reporters. It was exciting! Laurindo's co-workers (Elizabeth) ran the 5K. We didn't get to see her actually start, but I hope next year that we can do this Marathon, if only to do the 5k would be great.

After watching the Marathoners take off we went back to the hotel for coffee and to get ready for our final hours at Stitches. We got over to the convention center around 12:30 pm. We had discussed where we wanted to go and we knew we still needed to complete rows 400/500. It was amazing that we didn't even touch that side on Friday. Well these rows happened to be where all the Cashmere was hiding... We managed to get through with adding a few more skeins to our stash.... We actually took no pictures on day 2 because we were completely focused on the task of getting the best yarns available.. Well we can say that our stash is very well stocked and I pray for SNOW soon -- so we can be snowed in and Knit and Knit and Knit.............