The Market

Step into our knitters' wonderland of more than 200 booths at the Santa Clara Convention Center. Last year in Oakland we thought we had a respectable number of vendors with 100! The show floor here wraps around the entrance to fit everyone in. There are two food courts on the Market floor, and another expansive area for Learn to Knit, demos, and the free Style Show at 12:00 noon on Saturday.

We even surprised the convention center, who wasn't counting on such a showing of knitters willing to leverage their way into all those hot commodities. We're talking serious shoppers!

Seventeen hundred pre-sold online tickets were not were not enough to eliminate our lines. The ticket sales line still reached around the convention center's outer perimeter. Those who held online ticket print-outs were limited only by the speed of light, well, laser light anyway. I heard many happy comments from those I scanned past the entrance gate.

I did shop again this year, but it was strictly StitchesMarket.com reasearch. You know, I have to do it. It's my job. I was on the lookout for buttons, straight needles, and... flavored balsamic vineger? (Boy that stuff was good!) You truly never know what you may find on the Market Floor at Stitches!

Along with the unexpected were several old friend booths. Habu was back, and Knitting Software Inc., The Mannings Supply Center, Ellen's 1/2 Pint Farm, and a returning vendor turned StitchesMarket.com vendor Pacific Meadows Alpacas. We're always happy to see Moving Mud buttons and of course, Knitter's Magazine and XRX Books. Save your Stitches Market Floor booklet, you will want to check back later, I guarantee it!

Someone made the comment that a chocolatier would probably make a killing, and I think they're right. But then I think many vendors had record breaking sales at this Stitches Market. Our Market is one of the few places where people really come to buy. Knitters are buying for themselves and gifts, they have come looking for what they knew they couldn't live without, and finding what they didn't know makes life worth living.

Stitches is like that. Always traditional and inviting, but also filled with things to push your expectations of comfort knitting.