Fiber Dreams

Okay. That was fun. Way fun. Lots of fun. Did I say it was fun?

Kristie and I had such a marvelous time at TNNA that I can’t even begin to tell you how much fun we had. We talked to tons of fabulous people such as Kaffe Fassett, Cookie A., Kaffe Fassett, Kristin Nicholas, Kaffe Fassett, Erika Knight, Kaffe Fassett, Susan Druding and her son Loring of Crystal Palace Yarns, Kaffe Fassett, Peggy Jo of Brown Sheep Company, Kaffe Fassett, Charlie McGee—my Leisure Arts rep these past seven years (thank you for the wonderful lunch!), Kaffe Fassett, and a host of others. Did I mention that we met Kaffe Fassett? OMG. I don’t know if it was the yarn fumes, or what, but every time we passed Rowan’s booth after that we craned our necks to see if he was there again. And then, when we weren’t expecting it (it must have been the yarn fumes), after we turned around from having gotten Erika Knight’s signature on our books (I got a copy of Cables & Arans, Kristie got Knit &Purl), there he was again. Talking calmly with the folks running the booth. Asking if he can sit in the booth and knit. Can you imagine saying No? I’m sorry, Mr. Fassett, this is a knitting-free zone. Not! Of course you may sit here and knit. Can I get you some coffee? Glass of wine? Oh, and did I mention? He signed our Kaffe Knits Again books for us. I think we both died and went to heaven. We didn’t even drool.

But it wasn’t all glorious book signings. Those were a lot of fun, so was getting the piles of books for free, finally getting to meet Charlie face-to-face after all these years, just being there. We also worked the room. Hard. Talked to tons of yarn companies, large and small, got a feel for the vast range of possibilities out there. It was interesting. Because of a tiny bit of a thread that I read over on Ravelry a couple days before, I knew that we should introduce ourselves to vendors as designers, we don’t have a shop. That way they’d know whether or not it was worth their time to spend time with us, since their primary function in being there was to get sales, and ours was not to buy. The responses to that simple little statement ranged from a polite dismissal (once or twice not quite polite) to a virtual embrace from Peggy Jo at Brown Sheep. She just happened to be the one who was available to greet us. She just happens to be the V.P. She just happens to be looking for new designers to work with. I don’t know if anything will happen there, but we exchanged business cards, and promised to talk. Soon. Did the same thing with a couple indy dyers, Conjoined Creations (fabulous lace weight semi-solids, very interesting approach to dying for sock yarn), and Chameleon Colorworks (fabulous colors, a different way of preparing the merino wool that makes it extra soft in all weights). Only time will tell what comes of it.

A salesman at the Louet booth talked to us for quite a while. Though their “designer” plan is reasonable on the surface, I don’t know if I’ll pursue it or not. They have a lot of yarns that contain a fair amount of linen; they’re definitely pushing linen. And neither of us liked those yarns. Not soft. Not at all. They were sure generous with their yarn samples, though. I got full skeins of a number of them, and generous swatch-able bits of others. The first picture is the yarns that include some amount of linen, the other is the yarns that have no linen at all. See the disparity? I will definitely be swatching at least some of those linen blends, though, and washing them. I want to see if they soften up at all.

Rowan showcased a brand new yarn that isn’t on their web site yet, hasn’t been released. It’s fabulous. No, I’m not going to tell you what it is. That would ruin the surprise. I’m definitely looking forward to trying it when it comes out (drat, no samples) this spring. All I’ll say about it is that the fiber is something Dave can wear.

I did get a sample ball of Mission Falls 1824 Wool. I’ve been wanting to try this for quite a while. They also gave me a set of color cards for both their wool and cotton lines. Score.

Crystal Palace was giving out small packets of samples of all their yarns. These little babies will knit up quickly into nice swatches.

As we walked the aisles we became laden with yarn samples, books, trial sizes of Soak and Eucalan, magazines, price lists… It was amazing.

We never did see Sheri from The Loopy Ewe or Jess or Casey from Ravelry. Though we have to admit to not looking as hard as we might have. Blame it on concentrating on business. Blame it on the yarn fumes. I was disappointed to not get a Bob button, but I imagine I’ll live.

We came home both days exhausted, sore from carrying around sacks of stuff, excited about… everything.

Before I wrap up this post, I have to share with you the wonderful belated birthday present that Kristie gave me on Friday morning. That there’s a hank of Smooshy from Dream in Color. In a glorious blue colorway. What’s more, when Kristie saw that Cookie A. had a new pattern out, and that she’d used this very same yarn, why she bought me the pattern, too. Score. I can’t wait to start these socks. There was also a little sheep ornament that Dave packed away on Saturday when I was out of the house, so I didn’t get a picture of his adorable wool-i-ness. Thank you, sweetie!

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