TNNA, baby!

Well, THAT was an experience!

I got to Columbus in one piece and settled in to the hotel no problem. When I arrived, there was a massive mixed-flower bouquet, candle, and jar of bubble bath waiting for me from Adam. (Did I mention I was traveling on my birthday? He's such a sweetie.) I had dinner in the hotel restaurant and took a piece of cake back to my room to snack on later. And then ate it right away. *ahem* It was my birthday, people! Cake!

The mall was right next to my hotel and I had had plans to go get a new shirt to wear to TNNA the following day, only to find that the mall closed at 7. (My flight arrived at 7:15.) Seriously. Columbus is the state capitol and everything was closed by 7. Made. No. Sense.

I called Jamie and talked to her while I finished putting the lining in my bag and sewed in the handles. I think I finished at about 11 and tried to go to sleep then, but didn't actually fall asleep until 1. Curse you, time change!

At 6 am, someone dropped a breakfast tray in the hall and I couldn't fall back to sleep. So, I gave up at 7 and got up and got ready. At which point, I realized I'd forgotten to bring socks. I got myself together, took my bag downstairs and checked it at the front desk and asked if they knew where I could buy socks.

Sure! But none of the places open until 10!

Le sigh... So, I went out and got a taxi and headed over to the convention center in sneakers with no socks and a boring ole v-neck shirt. Oh, the humanity!

But wait! I had been dropped off at the wrong corner of the convention center and had to walk through the building and found an Ohio State Spirit shop! And they were open! I scored myself a sweet pair of bright red knee socks with large, white Os all over there. Sha-weet! I said a silent prayer of thanks that my pants were long enough to cover my socks completely and made my way to the convention itself.

Oh. My. There was a wall of fiber. A wall of yarn, mine for the stroking. And then there was a long double row of tables with mini-exhibits of different products and yarns. So many things to touch... But I was hungry and needed fuel and there were mini hoards around both of these exhibits, so I grabbed myself a smoothie and sat down at a table and was soon joined by a handful of women from a yarn shop in Indiana who were there to order. The owner didn't seem like she knew what to make of me, but I had a nice time chatting with her sister, who came with her every year for the heck of it.

When 10 rolled around and the doors opened, the mini-hoards made their way in and I took the opportunity to go through the mini displays and grope yarns and poke at gadgets, then I headed in to the event.

If I had to estimate, I would guess the floor space at about 2 or 2 and a half football fields large. Having never played football, I can't be expected to be completely accurate about that, but that's what it seemed like to me. Half of the space was for needlepoint things and the other half was for yarny things, with a few booths from each discipline mixed in on the other's side.

The first booth I sidled up to was the Mission Falls 1824 booth. It was staffed by an older man who looked like he was still getting settled, so I almost passed it by. But I went back and stepped in and had a looksie at the back wall of yarn and mentioned to the man that I was a designer. His response was, "Oh! Well, grab a ball and see what you can make of it!"

!!!!!

Crack to addicts, people. Crack. To. Addicts.

I made my way down that aisle, which happened to also house SWTC, who had a 6-stall space set up with GORGEOUS displays and holy dookie this amazing yarn they are coming out with that has SEQUINS, but they aren't insane sequins, and they also sell a version of the yarn without the sequins, so you can use the sequined version as just an accent if you want. I told them the lady who approached me that I was from Mesa and we chatted a bit and I handed her my flyer with my designs on it and she got very excited about one of them, and took it over to another lady who also got excited about it and came over and said she wanted to buy the pattern and she'd send me the yarn when she got back to make it up for them in Karaoke.

!!!!!

15 minutes into the event and I've learned that I can get whole skeins of free yarn AND I've sold a pattern.

I thanked them muchly and exchanged info and then moved on to the next booth that was taken by Conjoined Creations, which is a yarn producer in Cave Creek. So I said hi to them, too, as a valley local and we talked. They had some gorgeous yarns and when I told them I was the head of the Mesa Stitch'n'Bitch, they offered to come over and sell us some of their discontinued yarns and seconds. Yay!

From there I moved on a bit more methodically through the yarn side of the room, stopping to see who had crochet pattern support and offer my flier to all who would take it. The smaller yarn companies were very open to crochet submissions, and the large yarn companies were very eager to provide yarn support for any patterns that were to be published in a book or magazine. Both bits of information were excellent to hear!

I saw amazing things. Wonderful yarns that are coming out that have a "normal" yarn base, with a bit of sparkle or sequins or beading. They weren't "novelty" yarns, but they added a bit of sumthin-sumthin to the projects. I touched acrylics and acrylic blends that felt like fine merino. (There is no reason for acrylic to be harsh and scratchy and plasticy in feel. That is all the result of yarn companies pandering to the tastes of knitters of the 30's and 40's for whom rough, coarse wool meant projects would be durable, and they created their acrylics to appeal to people who thought things had to be coarse to be long wearing. They are FINALLY catching on to the fact that people really aren't interested in that any more and want SOFT and durable yarns.) I saw a lot of yarns with soy and corn components to them. Lost of exotic fibers; yak, qiviuk, buffalo, all trying to increase their footprint. (Did you know that buffalo doesn't felt OR stretch?!)

I saw Amy Butler bags suitable for knitting projects, a new bag from Namaste that looks like a yoga bag, book mock-ups (Saw the Crochet Me book!! It is BEAUTIFUL!), lots and lots of product distributors who appeared to be selling the same sets of things. Clover has these cute little "critter" pouches coming out that are rubbery animal shapes that have a zipper around their equator. They killed me.

Just before my meeting with Nicole from Lark, I found a book distributor that was giving away free books! Well, that just opened a whole new door of possibilities. ;)

I meet with Nicole and it was very positive. We talked about what was missing from the crochet books on the market and how gaps could be filled (more intermediate and advanced, kthx!) and she picked my brain on resources and what I saw as the up-and-coming trends. She then told me how to pitch my own book proposal to the company and asked if I had any ideas. I didn't have anything, like, OMGEXCITING in mind. I'd been thinking about it, but nothing wonderful had been cropping up for me in the last week or so.

But that changed later in the day...

Anyway, we ended the meeting and I went on my way for a few minutes before spotting a knit designer and had my first gap-jawed celebrity spotting of the day. Then I had to call Amanda, at which point I turned into a stupid, giggling 13-year old for about 10 minutes. It was the first time in 4 hours when I didn't have to be "on" and the whole "holy crap, I can't beleive I'm at TNNA!" swept over me in a big way.

When I was finished gushing, I pulled myself together and headed back out onto the floor. I stumbled upon Kim Werker doing a book signing and stopped to say hi real quick. She was at the book with the woman who taught Teach Yourself Visually: Handspinning and I got a little geeked out by her, too.

Moving on, I found myself at a book signing for Annie Modesitt's new book, but had to run off before I got a copy, because I had my meeting with Kim. Still, slack-jawed gawping occured from my spot in line while I was there.

I so need help.

Kim and I went out to the coffee klauch and got some food and I met 2 other designers (Amy Swenson & Robyn Chachula) in the line. Kim and I sat and chatted for a while and then headed back in. She was in high demand, so I said goodbye and went to check in with some people she recommended that I go name-drop with. Oh, but before that, on the way in she sidled up to a group of 4 people and introduced me.

And, folks, they were... huge. I got a "hi, nice to meet you" out, but all 4 of them were people I'd seen on TV or recognized from multiple author-bios on various books. Big books. Books with major publisher backing and signing tours. I nearly shriveled up into a little piece of fluff before bursting forth into a burst of gushing and twittering and self-idiot-making. Luckily, we moved on tout-suite before I was given the opportunity to either shrivel or burst. I left Kim at the Interweave booth and went and made a few contacts she had recommended.

I had enough time to make it to the last of the yarn booths that were intermingled with the needlepoint booths before moving outside to catch the cab back to the hotel.

So, what was my overall impression?

People in the knitting/crocheting/yarn world? They are nice. Now, this might seem like an odd revelation. I mean, knitting and crochet is inherently a kind thing to do. Taking the time to make something by hand, for yourself or for someone else, is an act of kindness. But it's never really sunk in for me before this even how open and kind and helpful the people in the industry are. I was at the Karabella yarn booth(s)... Ok, now if there is a yarn company out there that says high-end, New York Couture to me, it's Karabella. I started by speaking to a rep, who was very New York Chic, but insanely nice, offered yarn support anytime, willing to chat with this new-to-the-industry designer, and then waves... oh my gosh, I'm going to type this... Berta Karapetyan over to show me the sweater she designed in the company's yarn. And Berta then went on to whip out her brand, spanking new book, and flip through it with me and show off little details and yarn choices.

Ok, I'm there in my boring, v-neck t-shirt, sneakers, red Ohoi State fan store socks, a bag bulging with freebies, hair that's all out of sorts because I forgot my products at home, clutching my little "I'm a designer, Love me!" flyers in my hand, and

Berta Karapetyan

Is flipping through her book with me and talking to me like I know what the hell I'm doing there.

A few minutes later, I was walking down the aisle again and feeling a little misty about it all, to be honest.

To see someone like (yes, I'm typing it again) Berta Karapetyan so excited and eager to show off what she's done to a little fledgling designer like me and to realize that all around me everyone was behaving this way was just overwhelming.

Because design isn't supposed to be that way. It's supposed to be competitive and cut-throat and you guard your techniques and you scoff at those beneath you, right?

I just didn't know how to process all this. Jane freakin' SOWERBY was at a booth near there chatting with a lady about lace like they were long-time knit club pals.

I had the owner of Alpaca with a Twist turn into a giggling 16-year old as she told me about Kim Werker buying a crocheted shawl off of her at an event to publish in Interweave Crochet!

The freebies were great. It was nice to get away. But the number one BIG THING that I took away from this conference is the realization that industry people WANT designers to be successful. They want you to be doing good work and they are open to seeing your ideas and willing to support you on the way. It's not an imposition to contact publishers and yarn companies with patterns. They are hungry for it. It all sent my brain to swirling, to be honest.

And then, it was time to leave. And leave I did. But the story does not end there. I made it to the airport about an hour before they started boarding (I could have stayed longer!) and called Adam and talked for a bit. He had to go to a homeowner meeting and I started flipping through a magazine.

And WHAM! It hit me. A book idea slapped me upside my skull. I whipped out my notebook and in about 5 minutes, I'd jotted down 18 projects. By the end of my first flight, I'd gotten it up to 22. When I think about it, I can see the photography and layout in my head. (I know not to get married to that, though!) The projects include a few beginner, but for the most part they are intermediate and advanced projects. I know what yarns I want to use for about half of them. But, it's big and I still have a few things to learn about the process of designing a whole book on my own before I take this to a publisher.

I arrived home sore from the knees down, with bruises on both shoulders and my left inner-elbow from carrying a couple of VERY heavy bags all day, tired like whoa and badly in need of a shower, but I am so very, very glad I went.

So, yeah. I VERY nice 36 hours.