Once again I went to the Sticks and String annual knitting retreat held in Des Moines, Iowa this year. It was lovely as ever, with a wonderful marketplace and lots of friendly knitters to get to know! These are some photos from the market place! I only got a couple of things there (I was actually really quite restrained!).
There was also a fantastic goodie bag with the theme of “Let’s Accessorize!”. Included in it was something that I have always wanted to get but have never really been able to justify buying. A yardage counter!
There was also a pack of post-its, a lovely mug, a roll of highlighter tape, a little tin of stitch markers, a skein of sportweight alpaca yarn from C&M Acres, an “I love Knitting” pin from Purdy Things, a little pair of scissors, a mini skein of sock yarn from The Painted Tiger, a knitting tool, some needle keepers, a tube of Udderly Smooth cream, a hand sewn bag to keep it all in from Darnit! Sew What?, and a nice sized project bag from Lion Brand yarn.
It is still actually going on today, but alas, winter storm Luna decided to come and ice on my parade. I got up this morning and went to let the dogs out and took a few experimental steps off our porch and nearly bit it straight away. So, no driving to Des Moines for me today! Does anybody know when they started naming every single storm that comes through?? I mean, I can remember a time when we just called them storms and didn’t give them Christian names. I understand the naming of hurricanes, but blizzards? Ice storms? Really????
Sarah Jane Humke 
Here in Germany every “big” storm has a name or better said every high area (met.) and every low (meteo). So, what did you get? I