Stitches West: So much yarn and fiber = so much fun

Skeins and skeins of colorful yarn / The scene outside the Yarnover Truck,
a mobile yarn boutique, on Saturday morning at Stitches West. 

Last Saturday, my wife Jodi and I attended the 2017 Stitches West yarn and fiber exhibition in Santa Clara, Calif., where we connected with many of our fiber friends. When you're the husband of a knitter, like I've been going on nearly 20 years, you set aside the last weekend in February for the fiber arts – and embrace the creative experience.

Ball So Hard /
Neighborhood Fiber Company's slogan.

I've been Jodi's regular companion – and I'm proud to be her yarn enabler, too – at this annual gathering for more years than I can remember. Together, we've seen it grow into one of the West Coast's premiere fiber arts events.

Although husbands and boyfriends makeup a very small percentage of the ever-growing yarn and fiber crowd at Stitches West, I attend willingly and feel uninhibited, totally at ease. If you've ever been tempted by the fiber arts, whether it be knitting, crocheting or spinning, the Stitches West marketplace is the place to go see. After all, there's so much yarn and fiber, which can only mean one thing: So much fun.

Upon entering the Marketplace Hall, which we did when the doors opened at 10 a.m. on Saturday, knitters and their enablers are easily tempted by row upon row of booths filled with colorful and luscious yarn and gorgeous fiber that's not only attractive to look at, it's also lovely to touch, too. It's the place to plan the perfect sweater, find fiber friends, and gain new perspectives – even take an engaging class.

Miss Babs Hand-Dyed Yarns & Fibers /
Inspired by nature.

Our first stop of the day inside the Marketplace Hall was at Miss Babs Hand-Dyed Yarns & Fibers, whose booth is always an inspiration for lovely designs and colorful fibers. Miss Babs is Babs Ausherman, a hard-working, insightful fiber artist and online retailer of hand-dyed yarn and fiber and patterns based in Mountain City, Tenn. I've learned that she was raised in a family of creative types and entrepreneurs – and she believes that a good day's work is good for the soul.

I've had the pleasure to visit and talk with Miss Babs each of the past several years when she comes to California. I appreciate her sharp wit, artistic and creative flair, and her thoughtfulness. From her, I've learned that color ideas come from everywhere – especially when they're inspired by nature.

A Verb For Keeping Warm /
Beautifully decorated and inviting for knitters.

From there, it was on to see our dear friends Kristine Vejar and Adrienne Rodriguez, whose naturally-dyed A Verb For Keeping Warm yarn and fiber have made their bricks-and-mortar shop a haven for knitters and fiber artists close to home in Oakland. Their booth each year is always beautifully decorated and inviting. As always, whenever we drop by the AVFKW booth, it's abuzz with newly designed and naturally dyed yarn and fiber, and plenty of knitters perusing the yarn and fiber as well as patterns and project bags.

We also paid a nice visit to Neighborhood Fiber Co., based in Baltimore, whose uniquely hand-dyed yarn is inspired by urban landscapes.

After a leisurely lunch with a couple of fiber friends, it was time to renew our friendship with Robin Senour, a glasswork artist from Berkeley, whose witty Sacred Laughter artwork and philosophy ("Bring more art into your life") we admire and adore. On Saturday, we bought out tenth piece of Sacred Laughter, a badger from Senour's "Wind and the Willows" fairy tale collection. Over the years, we've made many friends among the yarn and fiber vendors and artisans at Stitches West – and it's always nice to be recognized like an old friend by them.

After one last pass through the aisles, where we renewed our acquaintance with Kira Dulaney of Kira K Designs – she shared with me the great news that she had just completed creating her 100th pattern in 10 years – and we also met the good folks from The Knitting Tree, L.A., it was time to make full circle by returning to Miss Babs to purchase some skeins of lovely and colorful yarn and say goodbye until next year.

Looking back, as my appreciation of the fiber arts continues to grow, I will always enjoy making time to explore the creative process and to find out what inspires these remarkable fiber artists.

Love thou the rose, yet leave it on its stem

"Love thou the rose, yet leave it on its stem."
~ Edward Robert Bulwer Lytton, 19th century English poet and statesman, from A Night in Italy.

A rose is a rose is a rose ...

Being a caretaker and photographer of nine rose bushes that shine brilliantly in our backyard garden, my appreciation for roses has grown exponentially over the past 13 years we have resided in the foothills above Oakland in the San Francisco Bay Area. Roses have become an everyday part of my life.

In photographing our roses and sharing them with my friends via my Facebook page, I have gained a new appreciation for their colorful beauty and their fragrance, too. It's always about how lovely a rose smells when left on its stem.

As it happened, earlier this month while on holiday in Portland, Oregon, we spent one morning visiting the International Rose Test Garden in the City of Roses. Founded in 1917, it is the oldest official, continuously operated public rose test garden in the United States.

While the primary purpose of the International Rose Test Garden is to serve as a testing ground for new rose varieties, in the beginning, hybridists sent roses from around the world to the Portland garden for testing and to keep them safe from the destruction of the bombing that was taking place in Europe during World War I.

On the day of our visit, the sun shone brightly in the Portland sky overhead. The vista looking out from the hills where the International Rose Test Garden and its companion gardens reside was very inviting to us. Walking through the various gardens gave us an up-close view of many different hybrids of roses and a chance to study their color, form, foliage and fragrance. And, simply to admire all of the beautiful nature surrounding us.

A beautiful summer day at the Portland Rose Gardens.

Operated by the Parks and Recreation Department, Portland's Rose Gardens are open in the spring, summer and fall seasons and closed in winter from December 23 to March 12. Admission is free and photographing of the hundreds of beautiful roses is highly encouraged.

Photographs by Michael Dickens, copyright 2012. All rights reserved.