Let The Name Dropping Begin

Ok, this weekend was the TNNA in Indy, and I was able to attend with my friend Cathi, owner of Cottage Knits. I am an instructor at her shop. Oh my gosh, it was a blast!... very exciting and very exhausting. I waited in so many lines for book signings, some paid off some not. A few times I waited in line for 30 minutes only to get to the booth or close to the booth to find they were out of books. This happened in the line for "Handknit Holiday"s by Melanie Falick, but she was nice, I did get the "Greetings from Knit Cafe" while in that same line, so all was not lost. My daughter loves that book and really wants it, but I am not giving it to her, she can, however look at it whenever she wants. Didn't get the Nicky Epstein, "Knitting Flowers" either, but did get a tote signed by her. I didn't get in the line for Norah Gaughan's "Nature Knitting" in time either, but I did see her. I got books signed by Margaret Radcliffe, "The Knitting Answer Book", The uncorrected proof of Melissa Leapman's " Cables Untangled", the uncorrected proof of Suss Cousin's " Home Knits", Barry Klein and Fayla Reiss', "Knitovation", and a favorite of mine Kay Gardiner's and Ann Shayne's " Mason * Dixon Knitting", Iris Schreier's, "Modular Knits" and Candi Jensen's " Crochet Bags". I also met Jo Sharp, Lucy Neatby and Annie Modesitt. You were warned, I told you I was going to be a name dropper.

And then, there was all the yarn. I have never touched so much cashmere, and silk and alpaca in my life, not to mention the merino and the cotton and the synthetics, and anything else you can imagine. The vendors were very generous with their samples today. They didn't want to have to pack them all back up and take them home, so I got a ton of yarn. Some of it is truly "sample" size, just enough to knit a swatch and some of them gave you quite a bit of yarn. Diakeito was very generous, I think I have enough from them after 3 days to knit a multi colored sweater for my youngest daughter. And they were the nicest bunch of people, not that the other vendors weren't, but they just seemed to stand out. I got a sample of the new Jo Sharp yarn too, but for some reason it didn't make it into the picture... trust me, it is lovely. Once my head stops spinning from all the excitement, I will knit something up with this lovely yarn. What a great experience this was, thanks for taking me along Cathi.