What a full weekend we had! Thanks so much to everyone who supported our family business at Stitches West this year, we truly appreciate it. For those of you who live far away or didn’t make it, here is a peek at our booth. (I also shared that picture of our booth on Instagram.) Last year we found that it was difficult for very many people to fit into our booth at one time (with all our display racks and such in there), and (understandably) people would get tired of waiting for their turn to get in the booth and sometimes move on before they got a chance to come in. This year we decided to upgrade to a corner booth and we were so glad that we did. Everyone was able to see everything in our booth more easily (and it was easier to find our booth at the show too.)

Since we had a corner booth, we wanted to have two signs, one for each side of our booth that was open. Jeff made us two beautiful signs in red cedar wood, I love them so much. Last year I felt so overwhelmed by how huge Stitches West was, and I still felt that way this year, but to a somewhat lesser degree as I was able to find my way around more easily this time. Last year was our first time at Stitches and I remember feeling like a little fish in a big pond, this year it was nice to have more familiarity- more familiar faces and booths. We met new people and made new connections too, which of course was wonderful as well.

Speaking of that, two blog readers came to say hello at the show, which meant so much to me. (I’ve written here a few times before about feeling so surprised every time I meet people in-person who tell me they read my blog. Really? You mean I’m not just writing to myself here?) One sweet gal who came to our booth felt like a long lost friend and our kids became instant friends too. (To the kind lady who came up and introduced herself while I was walking around: I apologize that I wasn’t able to talk longer or connect with you more. My little guy was having a melty moment and it was just one of those times. I hope our paths will cross again and that we’ll be able to connect more next time. I’m grateful you came over and said hello!)

We had such a fun surprise happen this year… guess who our booth neighbors were?

(Forgive the blurry picture.) Imagine my surprise when Jeff and I were setting up our booth and I looked over and saw Susan at the booth across from us. I didn’t know that she was going to be at Stitches West, so I was completely surprised to see her there. And what a delightful surprise it was! We had been writing back and forth about button orders for her kits, and getting to meet her in person was a real treat. She is such a sweetheart and kept telling people about our buttons at the show, and sending them over to our booth. (Seriously, bless her heart! It means so much to our little business.) I enjoyed getting to meet Susan’s family and it was a joy to have them for our booth neighbors over the weekend. It was amazing that in that giant building our booths were next to each other!

I came home with some yarn from the company Susan runs with her son, called Barrett Wool Co. Their yarn is so lovely to touch and see in person. It’s wonderfully squishy (I can’t help but want to keep grabbing my skeins to squish) and I can’t wait to knit with them. I’ll be knitting with both the Wisconsin Woolen Spun and yarn from their Home Collection. (Growing up in the Midwest, I have a still have a special place in my heart for that area of the world.) By the way, those adorable teeny tiny sweaters pictured above are from Susan’s book Kindred Knits. I must knit some (along with some of her other patterns I fell in love with that I saw in her booth.)

Besides Susan and her family, we also had another wonderful booth neighbor this year- Alana Dakos, who was sharing a booth with them. (Bracken loved our booth neighbors too and wanted to keep visiting their booth the whole time!) When I saw her sign Never Not Knitting, I wondered why that sounded so familiar. Then I saw her books in her booth, found out she was the designer, and I realized where I recognized it from. I had admired some of her knitting books at a local yarn shop and had seen some of her patterns on Ravelry. It was a fun coincidence that several times when I admired people’s handknits at the show, they said it was an Alana Dakos design. She has so many lovely patterns and I came home with her book Baby Botanicals, having some upcoming gifts in mind. I’m excited to announce you can now find WoolyMossRoots buttons in Alana’s yarn shop in Atascadero, California. (I would love to visit her shop someday!)

What a great weekend at Stitches! I’m looking forward to showing you some of my favorite things I brought home, in upcoming posts, but for now I need to wrap this up and get ready for our next trip. We’re leaving again for yet another busy weekend. We are excited to be participating in the Rose City Yarn Crawl in Portland, Oregon for the first time. We will be at the Starlight Knitting Society on Saturday, March 3rd from 10-8 and Sunday, March 4th from 10-5. If you are in the area, please come by and say hello!