Stitches East, I will be back next year!!

I left my house at 9AM on friday morning and made the trip over to Baltimore. By some miracle, 270, the beltway, AND 95 were all pretty clear the entire way!! I got up to the convention center, and drove around looking for parking. Finally, I was able to get a spot in a private lot at the cost of $20. I walked over to the Convention Center, and followed the signs. I had my printed out ticket that I had gotten online, so I could have as much time as possible for shopping (since I had to leave Baltimore by 12:15 at the latest, to get home in time to get Celia from daycare, and hit the road up to Buffalo, NY for the weekend. I hit the market, and was just amazed at how low key it was! There were definitely people, but not nearly as many as I've seen at the fiber festivals. Most booths had people in them, but they weren't so crazy. I didn't have to reach or squeeze in, or anything to get what I wanted, it was all right there.

The places I HAD to stop were:

Webs
Brooks Farm
Tess' Designer Yarns
Rosie's Yarn Cellar
Dancing Leaf Farms
Cloverhill
Blue Moon Fiber Arts (who I didn't know was going to be there!)
Here is a pic of nearly all of my purchases. A few are for my SP, and I don't want to give anything away, so I left them out of the picture!

Here are closeups of a few:
Brooks Farm Fourplay

STR!! Lightweight!!

More from Brooks Farm! And all on sale! Gotta love the "orphan" skeins! I even got 2 of the light blue ones!

Tess' sock yarn, which are in some favorite colors!


Let's just say I spent way more than I had planned, and I realized that while it's possible to see a lot of Stitches East in 2 hours, I won't do it again that way. It was too easy to just buy things without thinking about it, and didn't have time to process what I had already spent by the time I went to the next booth. I have already promised my hubby that I will not be buying yarn for a long time, unless there is no way around it (or if it's a gift...but I think I have gotten all the gifts I need to get now!). I managed to leave the convention center around 12:05, with 10 minutes to spare, and got home in plenty of time to get Celia and hit the road! The rest of the weekend was good, got to see some friends and family. The family part led to the spontaneous decision to join them on a trip to Las Vegas in january. Now that I won't be spending money on yarn for the next few months (til Maryland S&W), I get to save my money for the hotel and maybe some Roulette? Poker? Slots? Blackjack? Hmm....the choices!!