Black Dog

While we arrived Wedneday evening and relaxed that evening and pretty much all day on Thursday (I did get a chance to run over to two of the local yarn shops in town, The Yarn Shop and Knitter’s Mercantile–both cute and very shop-worthy places! as well as some great Indian buffet lunch just across the center from The Yarn Shop), it’s been all GO GO GO since Friday evening. There was a good bit of socializing and hooting at the Fashion Show,

where Matt mugged with Franklin, while other knitterati were part of the group we hung out with (and made snarky comments!) during the runway. Left to right you see Mary Beth Temple, Stephanie Purl-McPhee, Casey from Ravelry, our store manager Sabrina, (Matt/Franklin), and Anne Hanson of Knitspot.

After the Fashion Show, there was much merriment in the Hyatt lounge area. Pictures tell part of the story, but only part, right Jillian?

Suffice to say it’s been a FUN weekend so far, with more to come on Monday. It’s been great to catch up with tons of friends, be they vendors, teachers, other shop owners, sales reps, and more. We’ve met so many new people, as well, and every one has been a delight.

We did manage to have breakfast a couple days at our favorite spot in the food court

On the trade show floor, we’ve seen many amazing things (and ordered TONS of them)….and PS, all photos were taken with EXPRESS PERMISSION FROM THE VARIOUS VENDORS (with more to come another day, including something SUPER SPECIAL that I’ll show/tell you about after it is released on their website, but trust me……it’s EXCITING). Check out this stunning model from Needful Yarns, one of our favorite yarn companies

and this really REALLY pretty pullover, also from them

We’ve ordered both of these yarns–the brown garment is in a beautiful camel-blend yarn that’s sooooo soft, while the other is in a new and subtle self-striping wool that would be awesome felted, too! Both will be in stock later this summer, just before back-to-school time.

I’ve done my usual “begging for the balls” routine at the Skacel booth, which was very fruitful

Those are five new designs and colors in some of our favorite sock yarns, including four Trekking and one Step Duet. The Trekkings will be available later this fall, but the Step Duets were delivered on Thursday (maybe Wednesday) and are really fun when worked up. There’s a batch of the traditional Step striping patterns as well as a pattern that’s dyed to match, so to speak, in the same colors. Of course, I had to start knitting immediately (well, Saturday night) and here’s what I have as of today

and it’s working up quickly due to the FUN factor. New shop model this week!

On Saturday, while walking the floor, I worked on this

my Creatively Dyed sock yarn in her new “Tradewinds” colourways and dyeing style. Very creative and VERY pretty made up. This is DEFINITELY on my list of things to have from her!

I did score some additional skeins of yarn from various vendors

that will be turned into swatches soon so we can see how the yarns knit up and plan some projects around them, should they be part of our fall line-up.

We saw some amazingly beautiful things at the Sheep Shop booth today, but best of all we got to meet Fonnie, the owner, and her able assistant Jess (Jess is responsible for tracking me down prior to a shipment–NOT an easy task). We learned a good bit about their new two new products (spinning fiber and sock yarn—YES! both are awesome and ordered both for delivery as soon as they’re available as well as about the two yarns we don’t (yet) carry from them–Sheep 1 and Sheep 2. We’re well stocked on Sheep 3 now, as we filled in all gaps in our stock and placed orders for the new colors and more “tester yarn” to be knitted into a few other patterns (both Sheep 1 and Sheep 2)

which we already stocked a partial colour palette and which I’m quickly falling in DEEP love with as I work on their long cardigan pattern

that is totally amazing in knitted fabric

I made EVERYONE touch this baby over the course of the weekend and I can’t wait to work on it in the car on the way home tomorrow. Speaking of home, I can’t wait to see these guys tomorrow

after a long weekend of being away. It’s been exciting to be here (for pete’s sake, we had dinner with two amazing friends–Meg and Liz–and got to know Kim Werker, editor of Interweave Crochet alot better over some amazing pasta). Dinner with these ladies has got to be the highlight of the weekend, for sure. Wait until you see what we ALL have cooked up for fun and learning and more over the coming months.

Be safe, and keep your thoughts focused on the folks in the Midwest who are fighting with flooded homes from too much rain and fantastic property destruction due to tornadoes and wind sheer. It’s been a wild weekend while we were gone!

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