As has become tradition, Laura Grutzeck and I traveled together. (Psst: did everyone see Laura's beautiful Essential Cardigan in the new Interweave Knits?
As I mentioned before, we happened to be on the same flight as crochet goddess Kathy Merrick, so the three of us nervous flyers were able to keep each other company. Apart from a teeny bit of turbulence (which nearly caused me to pee my pants), we had smooth flights both ways and only had minor flight delays.
Once we got to the hotel, we were immediately accosted by the Koigu people. There was a talk of a gift for me and I was floored. Visions of Mori danced through my head, fantasies about KPPM mill ends or maybe a special colorway for me....but my gift was totally unexpected and totally perfect: an inflatable man.
(This, my friends, is why I had to travel through airport security -- on the way home -- with an inflatable man in my bag.)
Friday evening, we did the unthinkable: we skipped the fashion show. But it was only so that I could spend some quality time with my girl-crush Veve. We had a lovely dinner with her, Laura and the awesome Robin Melanson, too. So, alas, I cannot report back on the runway show for you. We returned to the hotel to attend the Ravelry party, where there was free Jeni's ice cream and all sorts of mayhem.
If you seem to see a pattern of increasing intoxication in those photographs, I'd have to say it's all in your mind. I mean, do any of these lovely people look like they've been drinking?
(Note to self: take translucent powder to TNNA next year.)
Saturday, we hit the show floor bright and early. We kept running into fun people the whole weekend, and ogled lots of new yarn and patterns, which I will tell you about in future blog posts. It seemed to me that there was lots of optimism and enthusiasm for the coming fall/winter season, although I got the feeling that yarn companies perhaps released fewer new yarns and played it a little safe, offering different gauges of already-successful yarns or variations on familiar yarns, rather than taking a lot of risks. Given the concerns about the global economy, this makes sense.
There was plenty of people-spotting,
Jillian "KnittySpin" Moreno & Laura and you can see how shy I was about asking people if I could take their picture.
Laura with Mercedes Tarasovich-Clark 
It was especially exciting to see the Classic Elite booth with the new St-Denis yarn, Boreale. Here is a placard showing the little girl's tabard that I did for the second magazine:
Of course I spent lots of time ogling the Rowan and Nashua from Westminster Fibers, and hearing all about the new fall yarns and patterns there and elsewhere (Classic Elite has a yummy yarn called Magnolia and Berroco also had some great things). I was well-fed at the market across the street -- and I especially liked the display of Japanese kittehs at the sushi/Thai place
where I conveniently ran into Kristen Rengren (of Vintage Baby Knits fame).
There was all sorts of networking, and hugging, and catching up with friends old and new
Hi B.J.!
and eating of unhealthy food
(this was not my breakfast; I'm more of a coffee & bagel type) and the ignoring of certain signs on Mindy's behalf.
So..... that about sums it up. I'll be doing some more book reviews and some fall previews in upcoming posts. Right now, I'm about to take the kids berrypicking (yep, school's out) so I will post again soon.
3 comments:
It was great to meet you in person, Carol! Thanks for making my first TNNA even friendlier!
Fun times.
And dudette, you are sooo adorable :-)
Ack! That sign!
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