Stitches East!

I spent a lovely day Friday with my sister at Stitches East in Baltimore. I wish I could have stayed longer, but my wallet is thanking me for having a defined time to leave!
I had gone with a list and found everything on my list except for one item: Sock Blockers. I will put them on my "to buy" list and I'm sure one of these days I will find them.
As for what I bought:
--Two Shawl Pins, one a pretty jeweled and wood one from Great Yarns in Everett, WA (which happens to have the most beautiful items at the show every year), and one pretty silver corkscrew design from Brooks Farm Fiber


--Speaking of Brooks Farm, I bought two gorgeous hanks of Duet to make the Clapotis



--The Four Seasons Afghan Pattern and four skeins of Manos to start it off, at Rosie's Yarn Cellar



--A great deal on 10 balls of Noro for $69 to make Knitty's Tilt; I then went online and found two more balls in the same dyelot so I'll have enough for the sweater


--Also at Woolstock, a great sweater/shawl blocking kit, called the Fiber Fantasy Blocker Kit, which will come in handy now that I am busy making shawls.

It was so much fun to spend this day with my sister; she is just getting into knitting, and I was so pleased that she found beautiful yarn from Dancing Leaf Farm to make a cardigan. It turns out Dancing Leaf is close to where my sister lives, so she can even go there to get help if she needs it.

The one thing about getting such a large amount of loot at Stitches is that it does prevent me from patronizing LYS's, but it's just such a fun experience, seeing everyone wearing their gorgeous handknit items and being in such a wonderful community of knitters. Besides, some of the items (like the Brooks Farm yarn) just isn't available in LYS's.

Right now I am in the midst of making three of the Felted Bowls from One Skein. They will be my hand-knit holiday gifts for officemates this year, perhaps filled with some pretty hard candies.