TNNA Report: part 1

It's going to take me several blog posts to tell you all about my trip to TNNA. After going a few years in a row, I've finally learned to travel light, to do as much pre-registering as possible (it's great when you can just go to the airport with your boarding pass in hand), and to leave a little room in one's baggage for any goodies that materialize.

Partner-in-crime Laura Grutzeck and I were very lucky: the weather was fine midday Friday and our plane was on time. Since we're both nervous flyers, this was especially nice. Our travel was pretty uneventful and before we knew it, we were checking into the Hyatt hotel. Just as we were getting out of the cab, we ran into Taiu and Rhichard of Koigu fame.


(And no inflatable men -- or women -- exchanged hands. Phew.)

Look at the lovely view of warehouse roofs we got to enjoy from our room:



A quick trip over to the Convention Center to get our badges was next. One thing I learned for next year is to pack my previous year's badgeholder and bring all my past year's pins; you get a new pin each year -- sort of like the Olympics only nerdier. Then you can walk around with dork flair. (This is the technical term for it.)

Guess who this adorable baby is?



Does this help?


Philadelphia's own Grace Anna Farrow, and her lovely daughter.

After a quick visit with them, we went back to our room to freshen up. Then Laura got to have dinner with Veve and several other cool Canadian chicks, while I attended Marly's fabulous designer dinner. I stumbled into an invitation, and was a little nervous, not having a single clue who would be there, but I ran into many old friends, including Somebunny's love, and Stitchy McYarnpants and so many others that I can't remember them all. (The amount of wine I drank had nothing to do with my memory lapse. Really. Honestly.) The dinner was at a tapas place, with excellent food. But the piece de resistance was the swag that we left with.

Marly apparently spent months contacting various companies in the industry and asking them for donations to the goodie bags. "Goodie bags" is kind of a deceiving way to describe the largesse we were given though; a metric ton of fibery goodness comes closer. We got yarn

we got buttons, tools, needles, hooks and other accessories;


there were tote bags, and coupons, and (believe it or not) the wonderful people at Namaste gave us each a bag:


Mine is the honeysuckle color that is Pantone's color of the year, and the lining is so adorable, with little hedgehogs:


I have to confess that I never owned a Namaste bag before, but now I think I will be adding one to my Christmas list, maybe one that will fit my laptop! It's beautifully made and cleverly designed, with lots of pockets. And did I mention the HEDGEHOGS?????

I had to go to the shipping place down the street and mail a box home to myself because all the swag I got wouldn't fit in my bag. Seriously.

So after a few more drinks at the Hyatt, catching up with lots of fun folks, I poured myself into bed, still so excited I could barely sleep.

to be continued