Great times at TNNA

We're in Long Beach at TNNA and are having a wonderful time meeting with the yarn manufacturers, seeing all the new yarns and patterns, and speaking to a lot of the local yarn store owners who are here as well. It's nice to have a chance to talk to others about the business, to compare notes on which yarns are popular and to see all the fabulous outfits the ladies wear to the show. Next year, I'll have to knit something special for myself.

One lady I've seen is wearing an absolutely gorgeous floor-length free-form sweater coat that has to have a hundred different fibers, including some lovely metallic touches. I wish I could get a photo of it, but we're not allowed cameras in the exhibition hall.

We're seeing the yarns for next winter and it looks like the big wools are the big hit. There are so many different colors being offered that I can't honestly say that there's a particular trend. I'm seeing some really pretty metallics -- rose colored, blues and copper. Some new and interesting shades that I absolutely love.

We've been speaking to many of the new manufacturers about Yarndex so they can be sure to have their products listed. If you haven't visited Yarndex you'll want to check it out. It's our online directory of over 4,000 yarns -- completed with all the specs. The magazines and designers tell us they rely on it for doing yarn substitions for patterns.

We have a booth here and our lovely "booth ladies" Sue and Marianne are doing a great job speaking to people and showing them our stuff. Sue attended a class about moebius strips and is working on a really unique moebius strip purse. (I accidentally made a mobius sock, but that's another story.) She was hoping to get some time to knit at the booth, but has been so busy she hasn't made any progress. Once she gets her purse completed, I'll see if she's happy enough with it to let me put a photo on the blog.

A lot of people have visited our booth to check out Stephanie Quattrini's HanzOn Creativity kits. The ladies especially love the Freeform Purse, but they're also very interested in the shawls and wall hangings. The designs are so unique and colorful that we've had a lot of people ask if they can buy our booth samples! Isn't that wonderful? The magazine editors who are at the show are very interested in the kits, too, so we're hoping for some press in upcoming issues.

We're really happy about that everyone loves the kits because we met Stephanie when we were on vacation in New Zealand and just happened to walk into her shop. We were absolutely taken aback by her designs. They're really easy to do (I've made a couple) and Stephanie's brilliant with colors so her creations are really striking. It's nice to see that the American market is as impressed with the HanzOn kits as the folks in New Zealand and Australia.

Well, I'd better run. The show starts again at 10:00 a.m. and I'm still in my pajamas! Alex and Jan start their meetings with manufacturers very, very early in the morning. I feel very spoiled that I can sleep in until 7!

I have the fun job: speaking with the media and checking out all the new yarns that I nag Alex and Jan to buy for Yarnmarket. They've got a long, long wish list right now, so I can't wait to see what starts arriving at YarnMartian Headquarters after the TNNA show..