As you may have read on other blogs, Stitches Midwest was in Chicago this weekend. So for the third Saturday morning this summer, I picked up iced coffees & my knit pals, Jen & Kristy, and headed out for some fiber fun.

When we arrived at Stitches last year I think “overwhelmed” was a very accurate word to describe our collective reaction to everything. This year, all three of us were much more prepared to make our way through the offerings. Since the Fiber and Folk Art Fair last month, we each had spent some time coming up with supply lists so that our shopping had purpose. After three hours in the marketplace we all were pleased with our purchases.

Among my purchases – some leather bag handles from Homestead Heirlooms. The brown handles are for my stash bag that has been “in progress” for way too long. It is finally felting today & should be put into use soon. The pink handles are for my next felted tote project – which includes the brown and pink wool I picked up at the Webs booth.

A stop into the Color In Stitches booth yielded quite a stash of buttons. The best find was a semi-hidden basket of vintage buttons – there were all sorts of fun shapes, colors, sizes & the prices were some of the best I’ve seen for vintage things. I don’t have projects in mind for them but they will definitely serve as inspiration.

Last month I picked up some Limited Edition 3 yarn from Brooks Farm that is becoming a Montego Bay scarf. It is a beautiful yarn that ebbs and flows from thicker to thinner weight. This weekend I picked up 2 additional skeins in a beautiful blue – I plan to turn this into Nereides.

My biggest purchase was also one that I never thought I’d make – yarn for a sweater for me. I picked up a beautiful Berreco Ultra Alpaca in Blueberry Mix at Webs. Stay tuned for details as I venture into my first sweater project this fall.

The last purchase of the day was at Black Water Abbey. I was immediately drawn to this Butter color. Last year I purchased the Seafoam color which has stayed in my stash – so I’m thinking of a project to incorporate both yarns. And these buttons were too cute to pass up. At the Black Water Abbey booth it was also fun to reconnect with Judy, my Vacation Knit Swap pal from last summer.

While wandering the aisle we stopped by to say hi to Jack & Kim at the Sit & Knit/Cast On, Bets Off booth where Jack was busy signing copies of the mystery the entire time we were chatting with them.

This year Stitches was sharing the convention center with a Wizard World convention – which yielded some extreme people watching opportunities. As we left the Marketplace, (classic) Batman & Robin got on the escalator in front of us. Jen’s husband Greg is a huge Batman fan – so it was only fitting to quickly get this picture with my cell phone.

As we headed back to the car – still giggling from the Batman picture which we emailed to Greg from the parking deck – we all were pleased with our purchases and joked that we were indeed Seasoned Stitchers with how we tackled the marketplace this year with purpose.

The day ended at Jen’s with Thai food, a movie, and of course knitting. I refrained from casting on any of the new purchases – rather I spent most of the evening working on a project with yarn from last year’s Stitches stash.