February's Happenins

 Are you comfy? Get ready to read a photo-loaded post!

I. BROTHER'S LA HANAU

 So you know I have a younger brother who's 2.5 years younger than I am. I have always thought of him as my baby brother until he became a dad. When I see pictures of him with Marie and Miranda, I see him as my didi who morphed into a man when he became a dad.

For his gift, I cooked him dinner with help from my mum. I had asked Jon what did he want and threw out suggestions. He chose surf and turf.

A. The Surf

My mum had these cute wine glass charms made of Koa wood and from the Islands. I got to have the hula girl:

Besides great wine, I made HGTV's Creamy Lump Crab and Corn Dip. This was much better than the other crab dip I had made for Christmas Eve.

B. The Turf

1. Chef Dave Lieberman's Memphis Ribs

2. Kirin's (a popular Chinese restaurant in the outer Richmond) Chicken Salad picked up by my dad.

&

3. My mum's good ol' homemade lasagna.

Of course this little one was held and fawned over all evening and night:

Would you believe she gained 2 lbs in one month?

C. Dessert

Princess Chocolate Cupcake came up with what to say on the cake. Her uncle tends to say "Guy" after a word when referring to something, LOL.

I'm very lucky to have a brother like Jon. He's really good to me and his nieces besides patient as he's mellow and I'm the hot-headed one. Love you bro.

Okay, enough sappiness. Ready to switch to fiberliciousness?!

II. STITCHES WEST

My honey was my commute buddy and the sun was out: 

I got to Santa Clara Convention Center around 8 a.m. and after checking in, I started trying to take a shot of myself in front of the STITCHES sign, LOL:

My class was Latvian Fingerless Mitts with Beth Brown-Reinsel who had brought many examples:

I learned how to purl via English method as it's easier to purl that way when making the Latvian twist or braid.

STITCHES extended the lunchbreak this year so attendees could browse the marketplace longer. I had a rendevous with my man for lunch after his meeting:

We just hit Specialty's for something healthy. My hardworking E had another meeting to get to at 1.

What did that mean for ^^ me? Why a long stroll through the marketplace:

This was my strategy on tackling the mind-boggling eyecandy in the marketplace: Start from the 100 aisle and work my way to the 1400 aisle. I noted down on my iPhone vendors I wanted to go back to as I had a budget and wasn't sure what I was in the mood for as I had already bought a lot last year.

This shawl caught my eye as it was totally gorgeous. The yarn is from an Australian company. I thought these two vendors did such an awesome job in their set ups.

I got to chat with the owner of Jimmy Beans Wool, Laura Zander. Check out this great, what she calls sappy video of her story.

I also got to meet Pam of Halos for Hope! She is so sweet and wonderful in person. I told her how the teacher and her family loved and were so overwhelmed with her sending the hats to me to pass along.

After much deliberation, I decided to spend on these:

I have heard about Miss Babs yarn and decided to pay close attention to her stand this year. These skeins each have 560 yds! And guess what? They're only $38 each. These skeins are more lavender grey in person, BTW. 

As you know, I plan to make a few garments this year and was intending to make a V-neck sweater with Madelinetosh. Madelinetosh is 200 yds. for about $20. I would need about six skeins of it.  As much as I love Madelinetosh, I think I got a better bargain with Miss Babs.

I got so entranced by the marketplace that I came back to class a lil' late - eek!

The woman who was sitting next to me took out her notions case. She said she found this pill case at the 99 cents store. Cool idea, yeah?

I usually strand/Fair Isle with two hands and stretch out the fabric so my floats have enough give. Floats for my nonknitting readers are those lines of yarn you see in the upper right corner. Beth showed us how to hold two yarns Continental and English wise. I practiced Continental.

I also learned how to knit inside out when stranding so I don't have to worry about my floats getting too tight. We also learned about yarn dominance. You're supposed to pay attention to which color yarn is being carried under as to the one that goes over. Look at those mitts in the bottom corner. You'll see the effects.

And at the end of class, our group laid out what was done of our projects:

I asked Beth for a pic with me:

So that was my day at the conference. It was really fantastic.

I'm not sure if I'll skip Interweave and STITCHES West for a year. That was my original plan but my mum, who is retired and gettin' into fiber crafting, is all curious about the marketplace so maybe we'll wait until next February and go together! What do you say, Mum?