Fiber Arts Friday: Stitches West

It finally happened.  I went to Stitches West.

At the encouragement of a friend who lives nearby and often works at the show, I was able to fit it into my schedule.

I have family in the Bay Area, who I wanted to spend time with too, so I did not take any of the classes offered... but I did attend a couple of the evening programs and went to the market.

Having only been to Estes Park, Taos, and Interweave's Yarn Fest, all of which are comparatively small, so this event was a very different experience.

First a few things.... there are two paths to register.... one is to buy market tickets and the other is to register for evening programs or classes.... I have no idea why these are on two different systems.

There was no where I found on the website stating that attending the evening programs also granted access to the market... I bought the (non-refundable) market tickets first... then found out I didn't need to on the emailed receipt for the evening sessions.  :-/

I also found their website to be disorganized and difficult to navigate.

So aside from the fact that I paid for my visit twice, I did enjoy the event.

Franklin Habit was entertaining.

The Fashion Show was fun.

The Market was crowded.

There was a lot (!) of color.  According to my friend, this year was toned down.

I met StevenBe and The Shiba Guyz.

The parking at the Santa Clara Convention Center was easy and (surprisingly) free.

It was wonderful to see so many people sporting their handmade goods.

Since this was primarily a yarn market, there were a lot of kits and samples.  I certainly like being able to see what yarn looks like in a finished product so I enjoyed seeing the finished samples.

But in listening to the conversations happening around me, it became clear that a whole lot of people really like kits.

I liked what they did in this booth... on a few tables at the front, they had finished samples from the books shown and the yarn used together... so while these weren't set up in kits, they had all of the related items together.... my retail-loving Hubba would have been proud.  :-)

Knitters are industrious people.  We find small moments to make progress on our projects, including waiting in line for a Fashion show.  ;-)

The little bit of color I did buy was due to this piece.  I liked it at the Fashion Show and happened to speak with it's Designer the next day.  Tho the colors I chose were not quite as bright.

In spite of being almost overwhelmed by the amount of color on display at this show,

I did find a few things that had to come home with me.

I think there's a good chance I'll go back to Stitches West.

Happy Fiber Arts Friday!