Stiches East PART 1

Last weekend I went to Hartford CT for Stitches East. Min and her friend Rachel picked me up on their way from Philly. It was a traffic nightmare! We didn't arrive at our Hotel until 930ish. We should have been there by 8ish. This was after poor Min and Rachel got stuck in NJ traffic and got to my house an hour late!

Since none of us were taking any classes, Vicki who lives in CT and her daughter Renee from RI, picked us up on Sat morning and took us to Webs. Webs, I found out was in Massachusetts. (As those of you who have driven with me in the back seat of a vehicle can guess - I was sort of passing out for awhile, waking up for awhile etc etc) I was kind of disappointed in WEBS. Though it wasn't really their fault. They were a large yarn store, they had a somewhat unorganized warehouse behind the main shop. They had a bunch of salespeople willing to be helpful ( those of you that have shopped with me know I really would rather shop on my own than get help) and were friendly. I did buy a bunch of yarn, some sample size packs of SOAK for swaps, and HIGHLIGHTER TAPE!! YAY! Sounds good right? Why was I kind of let down?? I think it's because my expectations of WEBS was too high. Everywhere you look, in blogs, especially on Ravelry people make WEBS seem like the mecca of yarn stores. That you will be in a yarn coma when you leave - that knitting nirvana can be found through their doors. That you can find any commercial brand yarn represented there.

Well, it was a Large yarn store. It had some great prices. There was a volume discount. There was a warehouse in back with further discounts taken not eligible for the volume discount. There was no Crystal Palace, there was no Manos. There were limited colors of Malabrigo and Aruncania. There were a lot of cones. So it was a bit of a letdown.

We went to a Japanese place for lunch. That's when it registered that I was in MA. It seemed odd that so many people from MA would be in CT AND no one from CT would be there. Lunch was great and from there we went to WEBS bead store. Which, although I gave up on beading some time ago ( doesn't mesh well with longer nails) it was a very cool store. I bought a witches hat, skull, witch on broomstick and something else in pewter as well as a ceramic penguin to use as stitch markers.

We then drove for what seemed like hours in the pouring rain to another yarn store. When we were close it was determined that we did not have time for 2 LYS's so we turned and set sail for Vicki's LYS. It must be a big word of mouth business because it's in a basement and has the littlest sign on the road and is kind of hidden behind trees. ( everything in CT is hidden behind trees - either this or there is nothing in CT and I know people live there!) I DID find the perfect yarn to go with the Malabrigo I had purchased in Tennessee this past summer to make a Colonnade shawl. Of course the pattern needs 414 yds and between the two yarns I now have 624yds... so matching fingerless gloves?

Still pouring rain, we went to Victoria station for coffee/dessert. And yes it was forever away. The town was cute, and apparently had their pumpkin fest or something ( but no pumpkin cannon!) there were a lot of pumkin "people" around the town - kind of like scarecrows with pumpkin heads. Unfortunately I guess the coffee shop had been inundated all day, and it took over 20 minutes for all 5 of us to order and get our food. Min, Rachel and I , got slices of quiche to take back to the hotel for later. Rachel decided she wanted some wine, as this was her first weekend in a long time to relax with no exams in med school coming up. I cook with wine but really don't drink it - I'm going to have to go tasting with Grace and Tom to learn about wine to drink. So I bought a 6 pack of Smithwicks. I thought about a pumpkin ale or octoberfest, but after hours in the car in the rain I wanted something tried and true. I feel for Vicki and Renee, because even though I spent 1/2 the day in a coma, I was exhausted when we got back to our room and they had a 45 minute drive - in the rain - back to Vicki's house. I didn't take a single picture on Saturday, because it was really gray, dismal and raining and figured I'd get shots on Sunday.