"tis the season

It's abundant garden time again. I took some pics this morning in the garden and of the shop. See the whole album.

AKD Panel at TNNA

From Heather Gooch's blog:

During The National NeedleArts Association’s Summer Market in Columbus, OH, this weekend, I had the pleasure of watching five successful industry professionals share their insights during a panel session hosted by the Association of Knitwear Designers (AKD). The session, “Achieving Mutual Goals In The Yarn Industry,” took place Friday evening right before AKD’s Fashion Show.

Moderated by AKD President Jill Wolcott, who is also the creative director of Y2Knit, the panelists included:

Read more!

TNNA Recap

On the drive home from Columbus last night, Jill and I made a running list of all the things we did at TNNA. Then, I forgot to make a copy, so I'll do the best I can to remember. It really is an overwhelming four days of meetings, networking, fun, connecting with friends and business acquaintances, eating, walking, selling, buying and more.

This year's adventure started on Wed in SF for Jill, taking the red eye to Dulles. I picked her up Thu morning at 7 am and we drove back to Hagerstown to pick up the rental car. Enterprise did us good by finding a hatch back for us. It's so much easier to load and unload. We got our personal items and our entire display in a Toyota Matrix!

We left Y2Knit World Headquarters in Funkstown at 10 am. The drive was uneventful and no rain. We talked about business that we hope to accomplish and some changes we want to make, but we're both tired, so it's not super organized, but some good stuff got talked about. We stopped, as usual, at the rest area in WV that is on top of a mountain and very beautiful. It was perfect to sit there and eat our homemade crackers and cheese, pea pods, asparagus and strawberries. Jill had a piece of chocolate for dessert. The rest of the drive was smooth and we pulled up at the hotel just a few minutes after 4.

After checking in, we buzzed over to the convention center to check in, get our badges, and check out the Great Wall of Yarn. Yarn companies hang hanks of yarn so we can preview new items. Designers knit swatches to go with them. Jill knit an amazing counterpane for Alpaca's Kiss. We then walked over the North Market, a block away to check out what was new there. Polish replaced Mexican food, but the rest seemed the same. We anticipated yummy lunches.

We had dinner at a restaurant new to us, sort of Mediterranean. Being tired, we decided to eat light and chose some small plates. While we waited for those to be served, we chatted with Nadine, Tanis and Christine from Be Sweet who had taken the table next to us. They were as tired as we were.

Friday was a busy day: we gave two presentations in the morning, set up our booth after lugging all our display to the booth, lunch at North Market, meeting for Jill, AKD panel discussion, Fashion Show, meeting for Jill. Capped it off with dinner at Haiku with Maureen and Kennita. Nadine from Be Sweet sat at a nearby table (are you seeing a theme here?)

Saturday Jill had a meeting in the morning, so Maureen and I picked up scones at North Market and put the finishing touches on the booth. We were pleased to be taking orders almost immediately. Maureen surveyed yarn shop owners for data we plan to use to improve Y2Knit products and services. The day sped by. Kristen joined us, so with Maureen and Kristen in the booth, JIll and I could get out and check out products and visit with vendors. It's good to catch up. After the 10-6 in the exhibit hall, we attended the Teacher/Designer Meeting (well, kinda. We arrived late and it finished almost as soon as we settled.) We had a delicious dinner at Lemongrass with Jill, Jenny and Melba from Zealana. Skacel staff was at the next table. We didn't see Nadine from Be Sweet. Jenny and I planned a Y2Knit /Zealana trip to New Zealand. Start saving those pennies!

Sunday, more of the same. We connected with Hal from Universal and were pleased to see Ilhan from Bursa, Turkey! So many wonderful people to talk to and lovely yarn to behold. We placed some orders. Dinner with Mountain Meadow Wool at Barcelona, this amazing restaurant we always go to. Little plates, good business connections and lots of laughter as we get to know Karen and Valerie better and plan some joint ventures, including our trip to Buffalo, WY this September.

Monday, more of the same, we saw Nadine at breakfast. It's a short day so we run around placing orders and making necessary connections. Good chats with Peggy Jo from Brown Sheep, Darcy from Angel's Kiss and Antonio from Malabrigo among others. Lunch at North Market, meeting with Zealana. Then it's 3pm and it's over. I get the car and we take it down, load it up and head home. I took Jill to the airport early this morning. I'm tired now. I hope she gets some sleep because she has to teach when she gets to SF.

More about impressions of yarn, etc. tomorrow or soon.

Heading for Columbus

Tonight Jill flies to Dulles, where I pick her up in the early AM. We'll drive back to Funkstown, pick up the rental car and load up for our drive to Columbus, OH for the annual TNNA trade show. The National NeedleArts is the trade organization for the yarn industry and also includes counted thread, cross stitch and needlepoint. The trade show is huge, with all the yarn companies and other products represented. Y2Knit has a booth to display our latest creations for the LYS owners who are shopping for product to stock their shops for the fall/winter season.

So, after we have loaded the car with display, garments and our personal stuff, we head west. It's an easy drive, the first 108 miles in Maryland as this bitty state stretches it's skinny arm west. While we drive we have our annual June business meeting. Jill knits and takes notes, Susan drives since Jill just took a red eye flight.

About 6 hours later, we arrive in Columbus and continue our planning discussions as we have no commitments tonight, unlike every other night when we have scheduled dinners and reservations already made. As far as eating, we love the Farmer's Market, just a block away from the Convention Center. We get lunches picked up for us there every day, and stock fruit and fresh baked goodies for breakfast in our hotel room. Many good restaurants in the area and we've found our favorites. Jill has already made reservations because she is not going to chance a bad meal. Plus, we are tired and spacey by the time we get to eat about 8 each evening. It's good to have the plan in place.

One of things we have learned about traveling is that Jill brings her French press and coffee, makes it upon rising in the morning and is not cranky. This is good because I am a morning person, bright and perky right out of bed. I take the first shower, Jill caffeinates, and we good to go.

Friday, we're up early to unload the car at the Convention Center. We'll get everything to our booth, unpack what we need for our 10-11am classes, teach the classes, then back to set up the booth. Lunch at the Farmer's Market. Back to finish setting up the booth. We'll also cruise around the Exhibit Hall to greet friends, like Karen and Valerie from Mountain Meadow Wool, the gang at Skacel (cuz we know they'll be doing something fun at the booth), Catherine at Red Barn Yarn, Bijou Basin and Zealana. We'll miss Tina who always cracks us up and is so much fun to be around!

Friday evening Jill is hosting the AKD gathering and panel discussion. Susan makes a quick trip through Sample It! but it's really the worst kind of shopping atmosphere for me (crowded, noisy, too much stimulation) so I mostly shut down and take very little in. I try to take mental notes for Jill, but it's a good thing it's not a top priority for her. Then I'll join her at the AKD function, after which we'll go to the Fashion Show. Y2Knit has three garments in the show, the Azalea Shawl (pictured above), Bobblet and Pendant Pullovers (pictured here). Following the Fashion Show, we'll check out the Ravelry Ice Cream Social, then go to Haiku for dinner with a group. We'll have connected with Maureen, our roommate, helper, and marketing consultant.

Saturday we're up early to put the finishing touches on the booth, block anything that's wrinkled still and to cruise the Exhibit hall . We don't have any early meetings, which is nice. We're on our feet until 6pm, then we can sit down for the Designer/Teacher meeting. After that, it's dinner with the gang from The Yarn Sisters. We'll be back to the hotel room between 10 and 11, debrief, unwind.

Sunday is a replay of Saturday, except it's the Yarn Group meeting and dinner with Mountain Meadow Wool. I should mention that while we are in the booth all day, taking orders for patterns (we have to sell them first), we take breaks independently and go to booths we need to check out for buying product for the shop. Some of this we do early before the Exhibit Hall opens, leaving notes of what we want. Vendors we know understand we are busy and let us do this. We've handled Malabrigo this way for years. It's easier to pick out what we want when they aren't busy.

Our routine is sort of like this: Susan goes to the bathroom. On the way, she stops off at booths x, y and z to see new product, new colors or to check something out. On the way back, she visits a, b and c. Always carrying paper and pencil, she can then debrief Jill back at the booth. Later, Jill goes to the bathroom and follows up at same booths to see what Susan wanted her to see. Maybe she sees something else, back to the booth, debrief, and so on. This is our procedure for buying for the shop. Jill is also scouting yarn for designing. And we're making connections with yarn company people we need to connect with. We try to arrange scheduled appointments to reduce the happenstance encounters.

Monday we only have to go until 3pm, then it's a quick pack up, load the car, pick up eats at the Farmer's Market and head back to Funkstown. Jill usually drives, Susan takes notes as we debrief the last four days. After we unpack, we can hit the sack. By now it's almost midnight. We're up at dawn or earlier to get Jill to the airport for her 6:50 am flight. Then I return to Hagerstown, take the rental car back, unpack our bags and put display stuff in the attack, open the shop at 10. Early to bed Tuesday night!

Lovely Yarn

I've really enjoyed knitting with Laramie, the worsted weight wool from Mountain Meadow Wool. I've been knitting some samples for them, using Y2Knit patterns. So far, the Ribbed Soaker (pattern releasing this week), Flip Top Mitt, and Double Star Tam.

As is evident, fabulous stitch definition and the yarn lends itself to even, easy stitches. Here, I'm just using the naturals: cream and two shades of gray. This is really out of the box for me as I always want to knit with color. I'm really enjoying the calm of the neutral colors. I'm actually considering a natural cream colored sweater.

Turns out we have one room left at the Occidental Hotel for our Y2Knit Experience Buffalo in September. It's one of the Bordello rooms (this could be a once in a lifetime opportunity!) that shares a bath with two other rooms. The suite mates are easy going. The Bordello is right next to the snack room, complete with antique dining set that I won't even describe here. You've got to see it to believe it. If one feels the need to swoon or faint, the red velvet fainting couch awaits you in the foyer of the suite. Of course, there's the back stairway, nicked and gouged by the spurs of the cowboy's boots as they climbed the stairs to visit the Bordello. If you are interested, give me a shout! Discover the old west in new ways!