Last weekend I flew to Phoenix, AZ for The National Needle Arts trade show. TNNA, as we call it, is a time for yarn shops to come see what’s new and stock their shops for the next season, and it’s also a chance for designers to chat with yarn companies and each other. I go to check out all the new pretties, but I love that I also get to help pick out stuff for Yarnivore. Between doing both I don’t know where my time went, but I do have a handful of pictures to show.

I stopped by the Knit Picks booth to say hi to my friend Stacey, and my new friends Alisha and Jenny (above). I gave them an impromptu lesson on joining crochet in the round, which as you can see was very interesting. Punny aside: When I saw Jenny’s circle, after praising it, I said “I hate to be a knitpicker, but you could change the way you join these rounds.” She said, “Well, you are in the Knit Picks booth!” so it went over okay. I’m excited to see these ladies crocheting!

I spent a good deal of the weekend hanging with some of my favorite people, Simona Merchant-Dest, Marly Bird, Faina Goberstein and Robyn Chachula. I swear, I’m not sure that I really even saw all of the yarn because I was too busy running my mouth. I basically feel like I am on fire (in a good way) at trade shows because it’s only once every six months that I get to talk to people who do what I do.  I also finally got to meet my tech editor (KJ Hay) in person this show–finally, after working on two books together!

See, most of the time was spent laughing (with Marly and Robyn).

Now I just need to process and figure out what to do with all of the new ideas/opportunities the show brought. I have lots of ideas for the coming year and can’t wait to sort them all out.