Saturday, February 23, 2008

The camera does not lie!

Working at Stitches for a day is exhilarating. Mind you, setting up a booth, working at Stitches for four days, and then tearing down a booth would be a nightmare, but I'm very fortunate that I have the opportunity of doing only the best part.

First thing, Deborah discovered some way cute handpainted shoes in the booth catty-corner to us, so we went over one at a time and bought some:

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I was wearing my Diagonal Striped Kimono (the pattern is available for download off to the right!) and I got many compliments on it, many more than last year. Of course, it stretched as the day wore on, often flapping past the ends of my tiny, Tyrannosaurus arms, so sometimes the compliments were, "Oh, I love your .... shawl?" But I took them in the generous spirit in which they were intended. (I've since washed the kimono, which actually belongs to my mom now, and I'll send it back in mint condition.) I sold a (hard) copy of the pattern, and pointed another person to this site, before I realized that we had it at the booth to sell. I described myself as a baby designer all day, so these were more of my baby steps.

I did actually go back and buy the Camel Spin. It was a close thing; if it weren't for the camel component, I probably could have let it lie. It's very nice, though. I love that silk smell:

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Most of the day I spent stamping ravelry passports. I don't know how much extra business the passports generated for Yarndogs (often I felt as though I was handing out Hershey bars to trick-or-treaters) but I'm sure the event was a success for Jess and Casey. The passports are beautifully done, and thoughtfully designed so that you get to keep the booklet and just turn in your contact information when it's done. Casey said they spent a fortune on them, and I believe it.

passport

We had Kristine from Curious Creek and Linda from Zukii Designs in our booth, and it makes such a difference to have the person behind the product there to talk to customers. We also had all of the Mission Falls 1824 Wool and Cotton, and two yarns from SWTC. The booth looks great, although you'll have to take my word for it, or go to Stitches and see it, because I didn't bring my camera.

I saw lots of friends and people I admire. I told Jennifer Hansen that she's my hero, and got a silly photo of my being amazed at the wonderfulness of her booth:



I talked about ravelry to Ann Rubin. I briefly saw my own sister-in-law.

And then, after standing for eight hours, I went to the fashion show to see Quietude make its appearance. It was very nice to be able to sit down. Kristine was sitting next to me, and we agreed that it was exciting, butterfly-inducing, to wait to see the product of our hard work come out on stage. Like at Cirque du Soleil, flash photography is forbidden at the Stitches West fashion show, due to the danger it poses to the models up on the high wire, so here's my blurry iPhone photo of Queitude, known here at the Baby Doll Top:

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Not quite as bad as a UFO photo; you can even see that the top is orange. Anyway, it was well-received. Rick Mondragon said "Isn't that nice?" At least it wasn't put on upside down, like Corsica was at first.

And then a surprisingly good hotel banquet meal, and off to bed!

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