Geektastic Thursday: Stitches South

This post should really be called "A Weekend in Atlanta", because I did a lot more than just go to Stitches, but I don't know how much of my shenanigans you really want to hear about, so I'll stick to the yarnie variety.  I went to Atlanta to visit two of my good friends from grad school, Taryn and Erica, who I had not seen since my wedding, which I firmly believe should not really count.  So I saved up my days off and scored a four day weekend that just so happened to be the same weekend as Stitches South.  Taryn may not be a knitter (yet), but Erica is and so we set about a plan to hit up the convention center on Friday afternoon, when the stock would be relatively full but the crowd slightly less.

This is one of those times when I lament how few photos I took.  To be honest, a lot of booths had signage asking that you not take pictures of their wares and setup, but really we were just having so much fun I couldn't be bothered to remember.

Twin squishings of Cephalopod and Buffalo Gold

The only other shows I have to compare this to are the Carolina Fiber Fest, which I have missed the past two years, and SAFF.  To be honest I was expecting a lot more out of Stitches.  Don't get me wrong, there was a ton of stuff and the majority of vendors were awesome, but the number of booths was quite small in comparison to SAFF.  I don't know if this is because the show is confined to one building or if the inclusion of animals at SAFF made this one seem lacking, but there was quite a lot of variety without as much quantity as I expected.

For me a few highlights of the show included seeing a full booth of Dragonfly Fibers, holding a $250 skein from Buffalo Gold, being told the dyers at Cephalopod Yarns call the colorway I bought "Dexter" among themselves, watching a woman knit an afghan with giant needles, and getting to actually choose patterns from the selection at Erin.Lane.

I did get Lindsey of Erin.Lane to let me take a photo of Hank.  He speaks for the knitting things.

As I do most times I have some free yarn money, I wanted to buy from indie dyers, who for the most part were super friendly and enthusiastic about their wares.  I did find myself disappointed in some booths that I had been excited to look at because they brought almost exclusively fiber, rather than yarn.  I get that you need to cater to spinners, but it made me sad that some of the more local dyers made their selection so specialized that I was unable to support them.  But then I walked into the Miss Babs booth, lost my head, and had to give Taryn my credit card before I went back for more.

Sometimes squishing yarn is the only way to survive really bad really slow traffic

Overall, Stitches was a lot of fun.  I definitely only needed an afternoon to shop the market, but I'm sure if I took classes the experience would be a little different.

Oh.  And what trip to Atlanta would be complete without a trip to Eat. Sleep. Knit?  If you think that their selection is wonderful online, you should see it in person.  How I walked out with only one skein of Sweet Georgia I'll never know.