Stash Enhancement eXcursion (AKA Stitches West Haul)

So, this year I went into Stitches West with two purchases planned:

1. SOMETHING from Jennie the Potter.
2. A doffer pin, most likely from Clemes and Clemes,

A third possibility was ANOTHER shawl pin from Romi.

Thursday, I resisted the temptation to storm Jennie's booth (shared with Jill Draper Makes Stuff) during set-up and went a bit later.  Due to my (very minimal) self-restraint, I missed out on the uber-cool dinosaur mugs (Subway Knits got the last one!), but I did score a small gift that shall remain unpictured here, plus one of her "California Bear" mugs, special for this show.

Action shot!

I did, indeed, get a doffer pin AND a cleaning brush, and I am QUITE proud that I only poked myself with the pin three times, LOL.

As I should have expected, however, my "no yarn this year from Stitches" resolve ended up falling by the wayside.  I guess I was just overcome by the yarn fumes (yeah, yeah, that's the ticket!).

After many years of drooling over the A Verb For Keeping Warm booth, I fell down and bought some gorgeous madder-dyed (I'm a sucker for madder!) Annapurna in a color they call Bandana.

80% Merino, 10% Cashmere, 10% Nylon
385 yards, sport weight

The Yarnover Truck had, among many wonderful things, an exclusive Indigodragonfly "Downton Abbey" colorway called...wait for it..."It's All Fun And Games Until Someone Sleeps With Someone Below Their Station".  After following each other on Instagram for a while (and having received a lovely skein of her now-retired colorway "Release the Kraken:  Plumber's Butt" from "my Singapore son" Wilfred), it was great to meet Kim in person.  I visited the truck and the yarn several times while managing to resist, but when I saw that the yarn came in a fingering weight, I was done for.

80% Merino, 20% Nylon
390 yards, fingering weight

Thanks to my pal Laura (AKA The Joy of Cooking Fairy), I discovered Fresh From the Cauldron.  Oh. My. Gourds.  ALL THE GRADIENTS!  As you may have noticed, I'm a sucker for gorgeous yarns with clever names.  I asked if she had any colors inspired by Lady Macbeth or The Three Witches*, but the one(s) with names I liked didn't happen to be colorways I loved, so I that was a bummer.  I DID, however, succumb to her Superwash Graduated in the "Exsanguinate" colorway.

100% Superwash Merino
400 yards, light fingering weight

I also managed to do some long-distance enabling and picked up two skeins in the "Gemma" graduated for Doctor Gemma, who was suffering through a family vacation in Fiji at the time.  Go figure.

After a couple of days of indecision, on Saturday I took advantage of my vendor status and, at roughly 9:57am, I snagged at "yarn on a stick" gradient set "puppy" of YOTH Little Brother in yellows.  When I walked by the booth at 10:11am, the gradient display was EMPTY.

80% Merino, 10% Cashmere, 10% Nylon
870 yards total, fingering weight

In the spirit of friendship, I enabled Miss Kalendar into a gradient set of YOTH Big Sister in a different color range.  Aren't I SUCH a good friend, LOL?!

I came thiiiiis close to buying a small Erin Lane bag for Thing Two's upcoming birthday.  She loved the fabric, but admitted she wouldn't actually use it, so I refrained.  I did, however, help Jen find the pattern-keeper she was looking for, so I was still able to throw some business their way, even though it wasn't MY money.

* Golly, with Cooperative Press releasing Defarge Does Shakespeare ANY minute, I can't IMAGINE why I would have characters from Macbeth on my mind.  Gee.....

That's all she wrote for actual yarn PURCHASES from Stitches.  There were, however, some other yarn acquisitions for some upcoming collaborations.  Stay tuned for news.