Sunday at TNNA

SweetGeorgia Yarns is a Canadian company located in BC. I did my first order with them today. These won't be in the store until the end of August/beginning of September. I'm sorry - I want them now too but they will be great for fall knitting projects.

We're starting with Party of 5 kits. These are 5 mini skeins of Tough Love Sock (80% superwash merino wool, 20% nylon, 3-ply) with approx 105 yards per colour.

These kits will sell for $35 and SweetGeorgia will have free patterns coming for the kits.

Laura Bryant is wearing an awesome shawl knit in 6 colours of Prism Yarns Merino Mia. Merino Mia is 100% super wash merino, fingering weight yarn in 50gram skeins.

It's knit lengthwise so the ends become the fringe - no sewing. YAY!!

Laura is all about colour and put together some amazing combinations for the shawl. These will be in the store late summer.

Did you notice the skirt Laura was wearing? Here it is a bit shorter in another colour combination. The skirt is knit in Linen so you don't end up with sagging. We have customers asking about skirt patterns - this is available in a kit and we can order for you.

The Colinette booth is always a feast for your eyes. We have more Ab Fab afghan kits coming.

I didn't spend a lot of time at the show today. I woke up with a migraine thanks to the changing weather. I did some orders and then came back to the hotel for a rest. Tomorrow I finish. There isn't much left to do. A few orders and I need to pick up a few things that I purchased. There is a new Offhand Design bag coming home with me.

Busy Day of Shopping

I did a bit of damage on my credit card today.

New shawl pins from Bonnie Bishoff.

From Blue Sky Alpacas

The Royal Petite Babies Series are treasures to create and collect. There are 6 beautifully packaged kits that contain all of the yarn and notions necessary to knit your royal court. 

The animals can be knit in the round or seamed. The kit contains the yarn for the animal, the yarn for the pillow and crown, embroidery floss, eyes and beans to help the animals sit up.

I was walking the aisles and these gradient kits caught my eye. I have ordered the kits as well as a sock yarn.

Everything that I have shown so far has to be shipped to us and should be in the store in 6-8 weeks.

These shawl pins are in my hotel room - with a dozen more. They will be in the store on Wednesday.

After the show I had a short lay down. It was a tiring day :) Now it's dinner time with my friends Phil and Thomas from England.

Pre TNNA

The show doesn't open until tomorrow but there is an area where booths can display their new products for the upcoming season. Here are some sneak peeks of what will be coming.

Yarn bowls from Pawley's Studio. The shiny bowl is calling my name.

Prism has two new colours for fall.

Zen Yarn Garden - choosing is going to be hard.

Lorna's Laces.

Mrs. Crosby has been holding out on us. There are three new colours. I will be stopping by first thing in the morning to order these. I hope she ships quickly. I NEED the purple/green speckled one.

Shopping this morning wasn't as good as I had hoped. I saved a lot of money which means more money for yarn tomorrow. :) Now it's time for a rest. I'm having dinner later with my Rowan rep and some fellow Canadian shop owners.

Ikat with Laura Bryant

My class today was awesome.

We were working with hand dyed yarns and finding your magic number. This number allows you to do awesome things in knitting.

I had to zoom in for this picture so it looks a little murky but trust me, the swatches were amazing.

Ikat dyed yarns have two sections of creme separated by two sections of colour.

This is my first swatch. The colour sequence is creme (undyed), blue, creme and a different blue. I have already found my magic number and am knitting to show how a pattern comes out.

My swatch later in the class. The beginning was garter stitch and then I changed to stocking stitch in the creme and reverse stocking stitch for the blue. Laura thought that I was knitting a bit loose so I've changed needles and am going a bit further before I start a wrap.

These beautiful planters are all around the convention centre. Very bright and pretty.

This picture is for Beth. I went for a drive after class and there was a Sonic. If you don't know Sonic, it is a drive in. Think back in time with people bringing out your food on roller skates. Now they do it on roller blades.

It was a long day and now it's bed time. 6 hours in a class room is a long time for me. I have my father's genes - we don't sit well. We need to be moving. 

Tomorrow is shopping day. Crate and Barrel. Pottery Barn. Restoration Hardware. Cheesecake Factory. Good thing I came in Beth's truck and not my mustang.

Made it to Columbus

The drive yesterday was pretty uneventful. It was long when I was by myself so I made more stops than normal. I checked in, had dinner and relaxed. Didn't even knit.

I took this picture at the gas station. I don't know if this is a Canadian thing or just in Ontario but we have to hold the nozzle the whole time to pump gas. Not in the US. You can jam the handle (sorry, it's early and can't come up with the proper term) and let go.

My hotel room is very nice.

It's time to get ready for my class. I'm very excited.

Noro Jewels

A new book arrived today with some really pretty patterns.

These are knit in a new yarn from Noro called Tokonatsu.

• 40% Cotton, 30% Silk, 30% Viscose.
• 20 sts & 26 rows = 4” (10cm)
• 50g/136 yds (125m)

The ball of yarn doesn't really show the very subtle tweed. Here is a close up of the skirt from above so that you can see how great the yarn is.

Today's post is going to be short. I'm trying to pack mail orders before I go and then I need to pack my suitcase. The plan is to be on the road before 9 am but right now it doesn't look like I will be in bed early.