Belated Postcards from Ohio

But we all know the best postcards arrive at least a week after you get back from a trip!! So, last week we were in Columbus Ohio for TNNA, which is a Trade Show for the yarn and needlepoint industries and it involves both education for store owners and a great big market space where there is yarn, yarn, lots of needles and accessories and, of course, more yarn! We kicked off with classes on both Thursday and Friday before market opened on Saturday and we thoroughly enjoyed meeting all the teachers and our fellow students. (A big shout out to Kat, who sat beside me in Melissa Leapman's class and who taught me Norwegian Purl, which ROCKS.MY.WORLD...!) Knitting during class was positively encouraged so I made great progress through the Dublin Dye Company sock which I started on the plane over. One of my teachers was the famous and frankly quite brilliant Cat Bordhi who was really lovely and posed for a picture with me. We had such fun spotting people wearing garments made from patterns or yarns that we knew, and asking people about the source materials for other amazing garments and accessories! The whole atmosphere of TNNA was super friendly, and we'd often get chatting with another random knitter over morning coffee. Inevitably it would start with "What's that yarn you are wearing?" or "What are you knitting?" Knitting continued well on into the evening too, as these "Kinneared" knitters in the bar of our hotel are demonstrating below... There were a serious number of cocktails knocking about though, so I'm quite sure it was easy stockinette on the menu! On Thursday evening we managed to get out to a local bead shop and a local yarn shop. Strangely enough, straight outside the bead shop we spotted some guerilla knitting and photographic evidence was required: Next stop, yarn! The girls in Heavenly Creations Yarn Store were absolutely lovely to chat with and Jacqui picked up some of the sock yarn they had been dyeing themselves on the premises. I snuck out one lonely hank of a lovely laceweight, which we later spotted during the course of Saturday's shopping expedition. Of course, I figured it was a sign that I had bought it for my personal stash, and therefore it HAD to become part of our stock!! What is this beauty I hear you ask?!? Watch this space! Friday night brought around an event called "Sample It" where we had the opportunity to join a frenzy of new-product-purchasing with hundreds of other store owners! The event only lasts an hour, and stock is limited so we had to plan our strategy carefully. We're fairly pleased with how we did though, see? Saturday itself was just as insane but we came away very pleased after ordering from 5 new yarn suppliers, 4 accessory suppliers and 1 new knitting bag supplier! Not bad for a day's work! We also met the incredibly talented Norah Gaughan, and vowed to pack her away in our suitcase the next time we go so she can design exclusively for TIK, lol! Oh and did we mention the yarn? There might have been some yarn: At least, I think there was, anyway: I may have blocked it all out: Cause it was all so overwhelming! It was a seriously great trip and we are just bouncing with anticipation for the first of our new deliveries. Watch this space!!