past few days and more Stitches thoughts
Leah and I were talking about our day at Stitches. Decided that, for us, Stitches compares to sheep and wool festivals like grocery shopping at Sam's Club compares to buying veggies at the farmers' market. In other words, there's still good quality and good deals to be found, but it left us feeling a little empty, not refreshed and excited, like we are after a sheep and wool festival.
Also, we like our fiber festivals to be FESTIVE and, in our opinion, Stitches wasn't. I don't know if it was the convention center atmosphere or the rainy day or the ban on taking pictures (except of the Big Sock) or the people Stitches attracts, but the sense of it being a big happy celebration of wooly goodness was absent. Glad Stitches was so close to home this time so we could easily check it out, but we made the decision that the smaller festivals are a better fit for us.
posted by livnletlrn at 6:00 AM
4 Comments:
Drooling over that pizza oven and its contents.
Wow about the fox and catching it in a photo.
Tell me more about this photo ban.
One thing I wished I did more last year at NY Sheep & Wool was take more photos of the yarns in the skein for inspiration.
I am so disappointed I didn't go to NY Sheep & Wool just for the inspiration part. I was planning to use my new DSLR camera to take better photos than last year's with the point & shoot.
I'd feel robbed if I couldn't take photos. Wonder what the logic was.
I try hard not to be intrusive with my camera and often take photos with the flash shut off even though some shots don't come out as good in the end due to blur.
You have no idea how much I want some of that pizza!
Stitches was different. Bad - not as much fiber/spinning items as with sheep & wool fairs. No pictures was a big poo poo for me. We zipped in and out of there in a few hours. Probably as many vendors there as a sheep & wool, if not more - but we got down to business and left.
Good - weather was not a factor. There is a huge assortment of classes (which we didn't take because we didn't know we were going till the last minute). Lots of project ideas.
I left Stitches feeling inspired to knit. I leave the Sheep/Wool Fairs inspired to spin. Guess its a good thing most of the fiber fairs come before Stitches!
I wish we had met up at Stitches, in the one oasis of warmth and meaning that surrounded the World's Largest Sock.
Your farmers' market analogy was very good. I couldn't quite articulate the difference in my blog, but I think you captured it perfectly.
I've only been to a couple wool fests (CA Sheep & Fiber Fest and OFFF in OR) and several Stitches West events. I'd agree -- much warmer feeling at the fiber fests. Am looking forward to OFFF again in 2010, especially now that I've started spinning.
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