go, go, go, STOP

WHAT a weekend—exciting as summer TNNA was this year, i don’t think beckie, romi, or myself could be more relieved to be off of our feet this morning.

we started off the weekend fairly relaxed—we got a leisurely start on friday afternoon to columbus and arrived right at cocktail hour. we settled our things in our room and headed for the convention center to check in and deliver a few items to the show floor, then went in search of knitterly camaraderie.

the hotel lobby was filling with clutches of designers, shop owners, and yarn reps, so we settled into a nook to wait for kristi and paul from shalimar yarns, who we were meeting for dinner (we ate at knead; it was terrific).

the evening was delicious—good food, good friends, and good beer all on one table—what’s not to love? columbus really is a great venue for the show, with all of its yummy restaurants and cheery night spots.
as we were leaving the restaurant, we were met by torrents (literally) of rain, so we opted to scurry across the street to the nearest knitting social hour in the hyatt lobby.

most everyone we know and love was there—a few yarnies, lots of designers, authors, and publishing people. some of those who had booths in the show spent the evening putting the final touches on their presentations. and just look at beckie there, hangin’ with her homies like it’s any old night.

mary-heather and sarah crocheted triangles for the bunting that decorated the ravelry booth

while alisha sewed up the final details on the polar bear that graced her booth (yes, he WAS the hit of the evening; what makes you ask??)

also in attendance among the knitterati (and this is by far not a comprehensive list): the lovely carol feller, fresh from ireland, who we got to meet for the first time, ruth (AKA wooly wormhead) (they came a LONG way for this event!), norah gaughan, the ever lovely laura nelkin, anne kuo lukito, pamela wynne, kristi porter, miriam felton, and, well, enough to make your head spin.

right romi??

i continued the work on my oval lace scarf, which i’d added a good amount to in the car and over cocktails earlier on. it’s getting there . . . by the end of the weekend, it was more than halfway to completion, maybe even three-fourths—yay.

we tried not to stay up to late (to no avail; we’re all apparently hopeless night owls) and we did want to see the bear finished, after all. but we did manage to get back to our room to catch a few winks before dawn.

the next day was saturday and time to get down to business. i got up early and hit the gym to get the circulation going and work out a semi-organized plan for navigating the show floor (which is the size of a football field, at least). not that it does me an awful lot of good once i get in there, but it doesn’t hurt to put some thought into it.

one thing about TNNA is that photography is not allowed on the show floor, particularly photography of the goods and booth designs. we did get a couple of nice photos though of friends, that we couldn’t resist

i was excited to run into hannah fettig in the fibre company booth—i like her work and we have our wonderful tech editor tana in common as well, so we hear about each other a little bit through her. we talked shop for a bit while looking at the beautiful yarns, including a new merino/alpaca/silk offering called acadia.

we walked the isles for hours that day, looking at new yarns, meeting old and new friends, and doing a bit of shopping as well. one of our first stops was a visit to shibui knits, where we had an appointment to view their gorgeous collection and meet the staff. shibui is associated as well with knit purl yarn shop in portland, OR, where knitspot patterns are sold, so this meeting was “double joy” for us. the yarns we saw were breathtaking, indeed; we are looking forward to testing them and dreaming of what to knit . . .

the the buffalo gold booth, i had a chance to talk again with the miskins about their luxurious yarns and the possibility of working together on a project. they sent me home with some samples to work with; more on that in another post (i’m excited!).

we swung by the kollage yarn booth to visit our friend erica and drop off that little iris shawlette i showed you the other day; just in case they wanted it for the booth over the weekend. while we were there, we looked at their new offerings—the wildly popular riveting, now in worsted weight and new colors of sock-a-licious.

lunch time saw us heading for north market, where we bypassed jeni’s (i KNOW!) in favor of indian food, promising ourselves we’d indulge in ice cream after dinner for sure.

the place was packed but we snagged a table and boy, did it feel good to sit down. the day goes by so fast at the show; we spent some of our lunch planning out the rest of our afternoon so as to make the most of the time we had left to visit vendors.

once back on the floor, we met with pear tree yarn to talk about their gorgeous australian merino and alpaca beauties in fingering and DK weights, soon to be available in U.S. stores (yarn parade tomorrow; stay tuned for photos).

afterward, we wandered some more, stopping off to visit alisha goes around, where we were treated to more samples and a viewing of the finished polar bear.

our day ended in the lorna’s laces booth, where beth showed us their new website and the cute video they made recently to promote their yarns—you should go see it.

they pretty much had to kick us out of the place by 6 pm, but it was time for us to try to get off our feet anyway. we headed to an after-show meeting and then on to dinner at lemongrass for asian fusion.

we did have to wait a bit for a table but we figured it was the perfect amount of time to partake of a refreshing margarita or whatever, so we hung out in the bar, rather than try to get seated at another place.

and it was well worth the wait—the food was terrific. look at these pretty almond sushi stars and sautéed green beans

laura had the tuna tartare and i think she was impressed—at least, the plate was awfully pretty

(columbus really does have some of the best food; we all agree that it’s a great place for our convention . . . )

we totally planned to hit jeni’s on the way back to the hotel, but then we saw the line snaked around the block and agreed that standing on it would just be torture after the day we’d had.

so we landed in the hyatt lobby once again for another night of reveling with colleagues; i was lucky enough to sit next to clara parkes for a good while and catch up with all the news that is the news. i’m looking forward to spending more time with her in july at knit nation. AND i’ll be teaching at her very popular fall retreat when it convenes for its tenth anniversary in november.

the next morning it was up and at ’em for me and beckie so we could get over to the convention center to set up for our trunk show, held first thing in the ravelry booth.

our trunk show was just one of a series to help promote the new ravelry in-store sales program, in which we are participating. through this program shops who don’t currently carry our patterns can traffic them to customers. the program also supports shops that do carry the patterns by providing supplemental access to ones they don’t currently have in stock.

we got there before mary-heather and sarah, so we opened the suitcase and got started hanging the samples and arranging our things for display. fortunately, there was just enough room for everything we brought and the booth looked full but cute, dressed up in lace and sweaters (with a few small accessories). by the time they arrived, it was actually presentable for picture taking (almost).

this was a wonderful opportunity for us and an exciting one as well; it has always felt like it would be a reach for us to exhibit at TNNA in our own booth, but i’m beginning to see how we might do it in the future (especially if the show stays in columbus, so close to home).

working with beckie this weekend was like having a second set of my own hands—we are very well synced and she can work a room (or a booth) with the best of them.

anyway, we were excited to be visited by several shops and individual customers (like monica here; thanks for stopping monica). we met several shop owners who already carry knitspot patterns and who stopped by to see the samples in person and give us great feedback about using and selling the patterns.

doing the trunk show was a really great experience and we are very grateful to have been chosen to take part—thank you ravelry for another wonderful opportunity.

the trunk show was followed by more wandering of the aisles to talk to yarn companies and look at everything that’s new. we still had business to take care of so back to work it was for us.

everyone needs to eat though, right?? and finally it was time for us to break for lunch—we were determined to make it a jeni’s lunch.

this sorry bit was all that remained when i finally remembered to take a picture for the blog—i’m actually sorry about that, because it was really pretty when it was all there. we supplemented our ice cream with a belgian waffle form the booth next door (hey, if you’re going to indulge, you don’t want to do it halfway).

and if you happen to be near a jeni’s any time soon, ask for the rhubarb, lime, and cardamom ice cream—just sayin’.

the rest of the afternoon passed in a flash with visits with roxanne of zen yarn garden, who i got to meet in person for the first time and iris schreier of artyarns (who has some of the most gorgeous yarns i’ve ever touched), and the visionary authors booth (you’ll recognize some favorites there), among others.

before we knew it, we were once again being pushed out the doors—we had closed the show and i never even got to the unicorn booth to deb robson’s signing of her new fleece and fiber sourcebook (dang, i’m really mad i missed out on that; i wanted to be able to share it with you). there was just too much going on at this show, i’m telling you . . .

next thing we knew, we were back in the car, heading for home, brains reeling from the weekend’s events. i tried to knit some more on my scarf but had to quit after knitting a repeat of the pattern; i could hardly keep my eyes open.

but i couldn’t sleep either, of course . . .

when we pulled up at home, david was mowing the grass and getting everything tidied up outside for the coming week. we unloaded all our stuff and swag, dropped it in the hallway and got into comfortable clothes almost before the door was shut behind us, haha.

david made us a nice pasta meal and we spent the rest of the evening chatting randomly about the show and our respective businesses. it soon became apparent though, that we were babbling and should head for bed.

it was awesome to sleep in my own bed once again, i can tell you that. i got up early and picked some strawberries for breakfast, then got started on my blog post. rosemary slept in a bit and when she appeared, we had a nice breakfast, then headed up to my workroom to look at my stash.

we passed a nice couple of hours that way until it was time to drive her to the airport—i’m so glad she came to visit; i hope we can do it again soon.

so that’s it—lots of fun, but lots of work, too. tomorrow, we get to see the ayrn parade—stay tuned. and now, i need to answer a phone call, which means that once again i have to leave you without proofreading, but please forgive; i’ll try to stop back later to correct typos, i promise . . .