Of course the best thing about TNNA is seeing everything that is new for the upcoming fall season. There are no cameras allowed on the market floor, but outside the market there are two display areas for new goods, one strictly for yarn and one for yarns and other items too. Here are some photos I took for you:
Some beautiful yarn, hanging in hanks
more…..
This was a great TNNA market! I came home feeling newly energized and enthusiastic about knitting & crochet: new yarns, new designers, fashion trends. It was actually the most exciting Market I have attended, even though there were fewer exhibitors and fewer attendees than previous markets. Maybe it was just that all the excitement was distilled down and distributed among fewer people.
I arrived Thursday afternoon and went to a class on intentional patterning of hand-dyed yarns. I need to actually try it out on some of our yarn before trying to communicate it to all of you.
Friday I spent most of the day in class with Cat Bordhi, (you’ve heard of her, right?) learning more about writing up patterns for kits. Cat is one of those people who just “charges into the fray” and somehow things come out right. So much energy!
Monday morning I spent with Lily Chin, in a class on interpreting fashion trends. What a fun and knowledgeable lady — she is soooo talented, and she talks a mile a minute.
I hope to use these classes to increase the interest in our newsletters as well as our products and patterns that we offer to you.
Next post, pictures!
Besides just going to Stitches South, which was new, we also made our first attempt at putting a garment into the Stitches Fashion show. It was a duster-length jacket in Super 10 in a brilliant fuchsia color. Gosh, we were soooo nervous–we had no idea if people would like it. There were about 500 people at the show, and when they didn’t like something, there was a lot of silence.
I was so relieved after our entry went on the runway!! The Stitches people hire professional models, and have a first-rate “dresser” there to accessorize every garment to show it off, and she did an outstanding job. She chose a great model, dressed her in white, and hung the fuchsia jacket on top. There were oohs and aahs, plus applause, and we could hear people around us talking about it. Because of contracts I wasn’t able to get a photo of the jacket on the model, but here’s a picture of it hanging at the booth:
I was so pleased–it got a lot of appreciation from the crowd and we sold several kits for the jacket in the next two days. It will be up on the website soon.
Was that we were the only vendor there with mostly cotton (we took Super 10, Sirocco, and Ecoknit Organic Cotton). Most of the booths there had wool, and we heard from more than one customer that the word spread over the market floor that we were there with cotton for the Southerners. Here are some basic pictures of our booth:
And did I tell you how nice all the people were? They were just fantastic. More next post
(yes that’s me on the left trying to stay out of the picture–obviously without success)
As I left you we were gratefully falling into bed, but the next morning, Thursday, we were up and ready to get started to finish setting up and decorating the booth. We made a quick trip to a supermarket (don’t you always forget something??) and our check-out cashier, Peter, gave us some great advice on getting some breakfast:
The OK Cafe
What a great, funky, Southern restaurant, with good food and smiles everywhere–not just the employees, but all the customers were having a grand old time before 9 AM! The decor is a cross between mid-fifties kitsch and recent folk art, with sculpture everywhere, including a 2-story “money tree” in the middle of the round dining room. The waitresses might be dressed like those in American Graffiti, but they were absolutely, positively one-of-a-kind characters, who were all tremendously helpful, gracious and fun. Our first waitress, Chelly, was a dead ringer for Diana Ross c.1968–tall & willowy with that great angled haircut and super-sultry soft voice. And AJ, who dressed her hair with a fabulous sparkly corsage, had a blinding smile and personality that was both sparkly and blinding! The food was great, and copious too-I asked if anyone ever finished the 12″ pancakes we saw going by, and you guessed it, the answer was no.
The next time you’re in Georgia, check it out!! The OK Cafe, where Everything’s OK, All Day
We had a very, very good time at Stitches South, and will probably go again. Where to start? Well, at the beginning wouldn’t hurt.
We rented a truck, loaded it up, and headed out for Atlanta from here in Maryland. It was an enjoyable trip, mostly because we took the western route down the Shenandoah valley, along side the Appalachian mountains, instead of the “citified” route. When we started in Baltimore on Tuesday, the redbud trees were just showing buds, but the farther south we got, the bigger the blooms, then the dogwoods in bloom, and poppies, like this:
We have to admit we were tired by the time we got to Atlanta on Wednesday. We found the Cobb Galleria, pulled in, and with one false start managed to unload the truck with not too much trouble. It was the beginning of the set-up that gave us fits– I had this GREAT idea, right? We would arrange all the Super10 in a spectrum–a rainbow–of color. Wonderful!! We started…….. we kept trying….. we gave up. The 130+ colors might have been arranged that way years ago, but now they’re all mixed. We wound up going back to the numerical order. Well, live and learn, right? 🙂 We wound up admitting exhaustion and collapsing in bed.
More tomorrow….
I was looking at the new Verena magazine that just arrived, and there’s this great feature article on glamorous lacy tops. And it got me to wondering, how many of you don’t even try lace? There are all sorts of reasons:
“Lace is hard….” No it’s not! It can be complicated, but it isn’t difficult. And it doesn’t have to be complicated, either! Lace is simply a series of yarn overs that make the holes (you can do that, right?) and decreases to keep the stitch count even (I know you can do that!)
“Lace is only done with eentsy-weentsy yarns and needles…” No it’s not! You can use almost any yarn–worsted weight yarn isn’t uncommon at all! And many many lacy patterns use a needle size that is larger than the normal size for stockinette. That’s part of what makes it lacy.
“I can’t understand those charts ..” Oh really? You can read you know. And reading is just translating a bunch of squiggly symbols into something your brain and mouth and hand understands. The difference is that when you learned to read, you didn’t try to learn everything all at once, right?
If you’ve never done lace before, then start with something simple in a good quality yarn. The quick scarf pattern below would look great in Butterfly Super 10.
As you tackle more complex projects, don’t struggle–use tools that make it easier.
When a pattern repeat is longer than 6 stitches or so, use sliding markers on your needles between every repeat. Use a “life line” every 10 rows or so. Just thread a darning needle with a good length of carpet thread or fine yarn and pass it through the stitches while on the needle. Let the thread just lay there and keep knitting. If you do make a mistake, you can rip out the knitting to the life line without confusion.
Make the charts work better for you.
I almost always get charts enlarged on a copy machine or scanner–they’re just easier to follow. Just like when kids are learning to read, big type is easier for them. If you don’t respond well to symbols, then try coloring in the squares with a different color for each kind of knitting operation. It sometimes helps to darken the lines between repeats. Do whatever makes it easier for you.
When working with charts, remember two things: 1) each square is a knitting operation, sometimes spanning more than 1 stitch, like K2 tog. 2)read the chart the same way you knit–1st row right to left, 2nd row left to right, all rows bottom to top.
Cotton Scarf
(Adapted from a Twilley’s Denim pattern)
Materials: about 200 g DK cotton yarn, US 10 (6mm) needles
The pattern repeats over 3 stitches, & has 2 edge stitches each side.
Cast on 31 st. If you do not want fringe, work three rows garter stitch, otherwise begin pattern:
R1: K2, *sl1, K2tog, psso, y/o twice* repeat to last 2 st, K2.
R2: K2, *P1K1 into double y/o, P1* repeat to last 2 st, K2
R3: Knit
Continue this pattern until scarf is about 72″ or desired length. (Add 3 rows garter stitch if you are not adding fringe.) Bind off knitwise. Add fringe if desired.
Ok, we’ve had a request for a photo…. Hmm, wonder why??? Anyway yes they’re done but they need to be washed and blocked properly. This is a scan, not a photo because it’s easier, but you’ll get the idea.
Anyway, they’re made from Socka Mexico, by Schoeller & Stahl. This is the great German yarn company that made printed yarns popular, and is still one of the leaders in this today. This happens to be a discontinued color, but there are many more beautiful colorways available as the folks at S&S keep producing great variations.
I just used a “plain vanilla” sock recipe sized for a man, with just the alteration of the length of the foot. Even though Evan has narrow feet for shoes, he has high arches like me so the circumference of the foot at the widest part is the same as an “average” man’s foot.
Of course one of the many pleasures of hand knit, custom made socks is that they fit better. I have to tell this story that relates to this–I made Son#2 a pair of socks for Christmas, and they were too big in the foot, because I didn’t have his measurements and was just guessing. He put the sock on, and proceeded to argue with me that it was fine–the heel of his socks was always an inch up the back of his leg! No, that is NOT fine, it is wrong, and it took very little time to frog the toe back an inch and make them fit. So there!
Thought I’d start a new thread with what’s on my needles right now. Please dive in and add what you’re working on too!
Socks for Son #1, in a discontinued Socka Mexico Color
Sample of a new Super10 Kids sweater–didn’t like the colors in the pattern picture so I’m working it up in brights
Swatches (there are always swatches!) of Marble Chunky, a new bamboo yarn we are thinking of importing
Scarf in Big Print….but I think this one is going to get frogged. Just not happy with it.
Still working on the Faina Scarf in Elysium…been on hiatus for a while. Ought to finish that up.
You know how in summer you wind up knitting or crocheting handtowels or dishcloths or Anything That Won’t Hang Down on Your Lap and Make You Hot? Well it’s six months from summer, and we just paid a heating bill and I wanted to knit something that would keep me warm while I’m making it. So I’m thinking, all I need is a little inspiration, right?
Sometimes its just hard to get started on those big projects, so I took some time to work up several afghan ideas. We have a couple of patterns with a variety of yarns, so you can pick the one that fits your style and budget. Everything from acrylic to hand-painted wool, from down-right cheap ($42 for an afghan-Wow!) to luxury (baby camel at $300+).
We sent an email about this out to our customer list, and as I was designing that email it occurred to me what a value a hand knit or crocheted afghan is. It’s stimulation and pleasure and entertainment in the creative process, it’s accomplishment in the completion, and it’s warmth and enjoyment, maybe even some romance, in the using for years. Pretty good value, I think.