Hi Everyone

As many of you know Steve & I were in Long Beach over last weekend to attend TNNA – the Spring/Summer buying show for the yarn world.  It was tough coming right out of New Year’s and getting on a plane almost immediately.  I had to leave on the Wednesday after New Year’s as I serve on the Retail Council and had meetings and such ahead of the show.  Although being away from home has gotten more difficult as the boys have gotten older, the early arrival allowed me a couple of extra evenings to catch up with some of my dear friends like Betsy of Classic Elite Yarns & Beth of Lorna’s Laces.  The opportunity to grab dinner with folks like them and catch up on things is truly priceless.

Steve & had a great show, saw lots of wonderful yarns, caught up with even more friends and met lots of new ones.  The show is always a whirlwind and somehow we never have enough time to do everything!  We did find lots of new goodies that will be arriving in the coming weeks.  Sparkle (introduced here)  came along for the adventure and let me tell you, that little penguin made the most of his time in Long Beach.

He thoroughly enjoyed the view from our room – looking out over the Convention Center:

He loved the way the lights changed color at the hotel bar.  He was particularly fond of the blue:

He met Beth from Lorna’s Laces while checking out the hotel bar and felt a strong allegiance to her display on the New Products Table at the Convention Center:

Sparkle enjoyed the Fashion Show.  Here is Joel from Lantern Moon opening the show with a lovely wool-clad wee one.

Some of the lovely new designs featured in the show:

After the Fashion Show we headed to a local restaurant to grab dinner with the crew from Berroco.  We were early and were able to enjoy a little down time and music:

Saturday morning the show kicked-off and it was time to get down to business:

First stop was Fiesta Yarns and our friends Jeannie & Brad:

We stopped by the Dream in Color booth to check out yarn and the latest items in the Herdy Collection.  Yes, those are sheep salt & pepper shakers (we bought them) and there is also a sheepy bank not shown (bought that too!):

Of all the booths at the show, I’d have to say that Lantern Moon won for most beautiful, most creative, most – whatever – it was gorgeous.   Sparkle loved it too.  The vase you see here (and there were several in their booth) are filled with rice that was dyed by the talented Gina of Alchemy Yarns.

Sparkle was busy sucking up to talking to Beth at Lorna’s again and I was loving this yummy new design:

Beth makes string pretty:

Amy at Madeline Tosh is no slouch either.  Her booth was INSANE.  The small twist skeins you see behind Sparkle represent new colors – there were 10 or 12 of them.  All magical.

Sparkle also has very discerning taste.  Here he is wrapped in a 1 skein scarf made from Artyarns new 3-ply cashmere glitter.  Needless to say it was not pretty getting him to leave Iris & her lovely yarns:

But like most of us, Sparkle is fickle and soon forgot the cashmere and was cuddling up to Be Sweet’s Bambino Taffy.  Lovely colors and Nadine is just so nice, Sparkle was smitten 🙂

When we got back to the hotel after the show, we ran into our friends from Plymouth – Jen & Terry who were very happy to meet Sparkle.

I think in Sparkle’s excitement from being at the show all day, he might have gotten a bit carried away Saturday night:

Sunday we visited with our friends from Abstract Fibers.  I love their stuff.  We currently carry some of their fiber but wanted to add more.  Sparkle gave his vote of approval:

We ended up adding to yarns from Abstract as well.  Although all of their colors are beautiful, “Pheasant”, shown below across several different fiber bases, really spoke to me.  I don’t think this picture does it justice but even so, it’s not a color that I would normally get excited about “Pheasant” really spoke to me.

On Sunday evening, it was apparent that Sparkle had “arrived”.  He had the privilege to meet Debbie Bliss:

We made it to Monday and the last day of the show.  We visited the Universal booth and Sparkle not only found his kind (more sparkle-y yarn) but this particular piece is woven, not knit.  Smart little penguin:

Finally it was time to come home.  We endured a red-eye out of LAX which was not nearly as bad as the three of us were anticipating.  We were all very happy to see the East Coast.

As you can see, we have lots of great new products on the way.  We had a blast and as hard as it is to be away, it’s always productive.  But it’s also always good to come home.  Keep an eye out on the website, here on the blog and in email blasts for the arrival of the products highlighted above and more!  Not on our email list?  You can sign up here.

I hope you enjoyed our recap.  What are your thoughts on Sparkle’s adventure?

Kathy

Tags: TNNA Long Beach