Smashwin The Destroyer & His Trail Of Eggy Destruction

Today was the knitting day of days in the Valley-o. Stitches West came to town & appeared at the Santa Clara Convention Center. Here is the proof.


So, what's an obsessive knitter type to do but gather up her knitting posse, head out there & line up!

Notice a stunning lack of handknitted goods being worn!

And, man, am I glad that A) I went at all, because this was the knitting version of a XXX shop for a pervert, & B) That I had a friend visiting from out of town for the rest of the weekend, or I would have been out there spending more money than credit cards should allow.

Unfortunately there are no pics from inside the event as photography was not allowed. I'm not really sure why & I'm not sure if this was a recent decision as I'm sure I've seen photos from previous years. Either way - it would have just been hundreds (nay, thousands!) of pics of yarn... so consider yourself lucky.

The fiscal damage was minimal for all of our group. I spent less than $100 on entry, lunch, a handful of patterns, bag of shibori balls (makes you think of the XXX reference, hey?) & a skein of Alchemy Haiku. And a nice little surprise of a free hold-all in a brown fabric covered with bright little birds! It all sounds so wonderful. I wonder why I didn't take any pictures of my haul?


Luckily there was a reasonable selection of lunch items to purchase - because with all the excitement & not sleeping properly the night before, I forgot to take the essentials with me.

Smashwin was overjoyed with his ever so yummy boiled egg lunch. He loved it so much he thought he'd share it with all the other knitters sitting beside us, some (previously) maroon upholstered chairs & a fair portion of the floor. Even a Destroyer needs refueling before looking at (or eating, rumaging, sucking on, displacing) yarn. I'm wondering if there is any way this boy could possibly avoid ending up a knitter?

Look carefully at the amount of booty we have managed to cram onto the back of that stroller.
Any more & it may have developed a gravitational pull of its own.

Really 6 hours was enough. I'm sure if you've been to one of these things you have worked out a plan to navigate the hundreds of stalls & thousands of balls of yarn (not to mention the thousands of dollars you would have saved up before the event & the team of Scandinavian yarn lifters you would have trained to constantly move your stream of goods to your vehicle for you). But I really wasn't that organised & I had no plans & no support team. I was like a Fiat 500 attempting to race in a Grand Prix. A sad amateur in the face of hardened knitting veterans. And with my attention darting to a new thing every 15 seconds, I was exhausted. Soooooo exhausted.

I am going into training for next year. Saving money already, developing arm strength for carrying & barging, & possibly, quite possibly will end up owning more than one of those grandmotherly wire trolley baskets. Bring on Stitches 2008!