why TNNA?

Posted on Posted in book reviews/events, yarn and dyeing

and that, in a nutshell, is your answer: knitting—and anything remotely related to it. there is loads of yarn at the show, in every conceivable form, as well as a vast buffet of side dishes to go with—designers, patterns, notions, classes, books—you name it. if it has anything remotely to do with knitting, it’s at the show.

and this being the fall exhibition, almost every company was showing at least one new product. naturally, we fell prey to the siren song of the yarns and came home laden with swag samples. in our defense, it was not and ordinary pigout—we were shopping for next year’s club. however, many vendors expressed a specific desire that we show their wares off to you.

so here goes . . .

for her debut show, our friend roxanne, of zen yarn garden had a treasure box of a booth, featuring her serenity line of yarns in several different weights and fiber content. above is her serentiy silk lace yarn in the beautifully burnished olive garden colorway

and here i have a skein of regular serenity lace in a new and as yet unnamed colorway which i just adore, mmm

of course, we’ve been drooling over her yarns for years now and knitting them into projects, so we already know how wonderfully squishy and rich they are (her squooshy sock is one of david’s favorites).

it was so good to see roxanne at the show and to visit with her a bit on sunday, yay.

romi took me to visit the artyarns booth as well, where iris schreier graciously showed us her most luxurious selection of yarns from silk to cashmere to mohair.

iris is going to send me some cashmere yarn, but she insisted i take a couple skeins of this silk pearl right away—her favorite, i think. above you see color H-11 and below is color 234.

how about that sheen; have you ever seen anything like it? she had some incredibly delicious garments made up in it, too. just looking at it makes me want to knit a nice t-shirt to get into, mmm.

at the pear tree yarn booth on saturday, we just about fell over each other trying to cop a feel of this luxurious australian alpaca/merino blend. and yes, it IS as buttery-soft as the label states, maybe even more so.

then there is the merino, whoa—look at that sheen; it looks like it has silk content but that’s the natural lustre of the merino itself. it’s a combination of unusually high quality australian merino fiber and the expert handling at the mill that does it. above, we see the fingering weight in a silvery lavender and below the 4-ply dk in blue.

can’t wait to take these for a test drive . . .

while we’re on the subject of natural colors, let me show you what the miskins at the buffalo gold booth sent me home with

this is their moon blend of tencel and bison, designed to offer both warmth and a sleek sheen. moon is also spun in a lighter weight version for lcier projects.

and then there is the lux—a decadent blend of bison/cashmere/silk/tencel just made for luxurious lace projects.

this particular batch will be knit up in the wasp and rose pattern, once it’s ready for karolyn to test. we had planned to knit both our samples in fiber isle kami, but unfortunately, that yarn will no longer be available. i was at a loss for what to do about the pattern publication, since i don’t like to put out a brand new pattern in a discontinued yarn. i talked to the miskins about possibly collaborating on the finish of this shawl and they were enthusiastic about providing support, for which i am really grateful.

all’s well that ends well, though i do feel terrible that fibre isle is no longer producing yarn for the time being; i very much missed visiting with my friend sylvie at this show . . .

as you can see from the opening photo, alisha goes around was once again in the house for the trade show and as with the last one, she sent each designer or writer away with gifts of yarn. i love the pinky-rose red of this charm of hummingbirds lace—an ethereal blend of alpaca/silk/cashmere that will make your heart flutter.

speaking of fluttering, this tittering of magpies lace caught my fancy in a bog way because of the fresh, fresh blue tones. i even like—and this is highly unusual for me—the ever-so-subtle glints of silver that are threaded throughout the skein. just a touch, mind you; just enough to catch the light here and there with a wink (and i’m just seeing now that those two colors next to each other?? really fun, right?).

alisha’s bevy of swans yarns are among my very favorite blends—50/50 merino/silk with shine to beat the band AND it comes in both fingering and DK weight. what’s not to love? these make gorgeous accessories and sweaters, especially the fingering weight.

but my very favorite skein of all? has to be this one—are you ready?

omg when i saw that one i thought i’d died and went to heaven—as if the drop dead incredible blend of BFL and silk weren’t enough, there is rich, rich gold with goldy-green highlights to keep the luxury going. swoon. it makes me a little crazy, like when i eat too much chocolate, if you know what i mean.

and i knew i was on the right track with this one when, during a chat with clara parkes, she pulled the matching skein out of her own bag.
now—how to wrest that one from her greedy little hands so i can have two . . .

29 thoughts on “why TNNA?

  1. Oh those are so beautiful!!!!!!! Thanks for showing these wonderful yarns – – I now have yarn envy!!!

  2. Omg! Such gorgeous yarns for the fall season! Can’t wait to see what they become.

  3. I’m with you, Anne. The gold is to die for! My kinda colour. Thanks for the lovely pics.

  4. WOW — must be nice to be a designer/blogger and get free swag – great marketing which tempts all of us readers until we see the price of the skeins …

  5. Hi!
    I tried to go to the Alisha Goes Around Etsy page, but I am sort of confused by her message…
    Where do we go to buy her stuff?!
    Thanks!~
    M

  6. Great colors Anne, beautiful yarn! Love that Zen Garden purpley color, and the brown Otter. Just so beautiful and rich! What a haul!

  7. I love animal/bird counters and when they are applied to yarn – perfect! This is a drool-worthy post! I am going back several times just to look. Thank you!

  8. Arm wrestling Clara Parkes, I’m not sure I’d have the guts 😉 I love those yarns (especially that last, lovely, dark dark gray/black one, mmmm). Here’s hoping my LYS owner made some good orders this year!!

  9. Raft of OTTER yarn??
    I will be sendins this link to my husband. We met in part because of a love of Otters.
    :-}
    And our 10th anniversary is coming up in August!

  10. Beautiful yarns–love the bronzey zen, the BFL/silk and super soft merino. Enjoy knititng them up!

  11. And of course – did not see the BFL/SILK yarn in her Etsy shop at all. Not there yet? Gone already? MUST HAVE!!! I’ve bought her yarns before and I really like them. But really – everything is so lovely – the fumes must have been overwhelming. Did you get faint? LOLOL Thank you for sharing – it’s so fun to see what’s coming. I’m not a designer – or a shop owner – or a dyer. I’m just a knitter but the evolution of the fibers and colors available since the 1970’s has sure been exciting. It’s a long way from the boxy, fuzzy sweaters and worsted weight socks of those days to all we can do now, thanks to the vision of people like yourself. I’m so glad you blog!

  12. Ooooooooooh, what wonderful yarn bounty! I’m curious as to which of these might appear in the club next year! My favourite is the (unnamed) raspberry coloured Serenity lace – I’ll arm wrestle you for it!! Hahaha

  13. Wow, what yummy yarns! Caused my heart rate to kick up several notches.

    That blue to make a wasp and rose is magnificient. And possibly my favorite.

  14. Ditto, Josiekitten – Zen garden yarns are beautiful, and the colours in that unnamed skein remind me of a bowl full of field berries. So lovely. The Pear Tree yarn is amazing – wonderfully soft. I am fortunate enough to have 2 skeins of the merino worsted weight in my stash. Then there is the BFL – not my colourway, but what is not to love about BFL! Wow, Anne! Methinks you have experienced yarn nirvana!

  15. Pretty, pretty! Thanks for sharing! And for teasing with the idea that you’re shopping for next year’s club…I’m just doing the pattern version and totally impatient for this year to begin! ahahaha

  16. Gosh serious yarn pron!!!! Thanks for sharing, can vouch for that Peartree yarn so gorgeous.

  17. mmmmm yarn haul…..love it! did you get to see any of the swan’s island yarns? i hear that they were very buzzed about at the show! i saw the color card of the fingering and worsted yarns from one of their reps a few weeks ago, and they were gorgeous…..

  18. OMG. Those yarns are incredibly beautiful. Can’t wait to see what they become.

  19. The deep purply burgundy is the one that rings my bell. Thanks for sharing all this yarny beauty! Jo

  20. Oh, I can’t stand it! It’s almost painful. Total yarn lust. That last gold one is gorgeous.

  21. mmmmmm. must not buy more yarn must not buy more yarn…but that otter i think i must have it!!

  22. Anne, this post is making me sound like an adolescent boy looking at pron… Every picture has me inhaling deeply and muttering to myself “Oooh, baby, lookit THAT!!!”

  23. I want to go to TNNA next year. At least as a visitor if not an exhibitor.

    And I just finished Sprossling with Alica Goes Around Marmalade of Ponies (merino 2 ply). Picture on my blog and on the sprossling is sprung thread in the knitspot ravelry group.

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