I wasn’t planning to go to the *TNNA Summer trade show in Columbus this year. I’ve been for the past three Junes and I just couldn’t get myself excited about going this year. But sometimes fate has other other plans, and long, long, long story short, Caroline and I drove to Columbus last Thursday for a weekend of photo shoots, meetings and soaking up inspiration.
Primary we were in town to meet with designers, with an eye towards our Spring/Summer 2013 collections and some ebooks we are working on. Oh my goodness! We saw some incredible portfolios. And the craziest thing happened. We were meeting with Tabetha Hedrick and she was showing us her work on her iPad. She kind of quickly went past these pics:
At which point I said, “WAIT! GO BACK! I think that’s my step-sister!” AND IT WAS, Y’ALL. How weird is that? The pattern (which is a KNOCK OUT) appeared in the Winter Twist Collective, and I vaguely remembered Amy asking me if I was familiar with the magazine, but I must have been completely in my own world at the time because I never understood that she going to be in it.
To make matters even weirder, I had looked at the issue when it went up and admired the sweater without noticing the the lovely model and I once shared a bedroom. Crazy, right?
Other designers we met with included Lindsey Stephens, Corrina Ferguson, Ruth Garcia-Alcantud, Edie Eckman, Adrienne Ku,Rebecca Velasquez, Joan Beebe, and Kathryn and Andrea of the forthcoming Quirky Bird Knits . I’m almost definitely leaving someone out because I don’t have the memory God gave a goose, but everyone we met with was talented and it was time very well spent.
Caroline and I were tickled to death to meet Kristen Kapur, who is absolutely charming and said very, very complimentary things about our brilliant Caroline’s fall collection. (Kristen is also planning a design with one of our fall yarns that is going to be a masterpiece. SWOON!)
June in Columbus means hanging out with Debbie and Nell Bliss, who are the very definition of a hoot. Watching Debbie and her intern Theresa dance to the song from Pulp Fiction in the middle of a crowded restaurant is something I will never, ever forget. As I have said a million times, Debbie Bliss is exactly who you want her to be. She is kind and funny and she thinks you can do anything. She think you are AMAZING, actually.
We spent some time with Shannon Oakey and Elizabeth Green Musselman from Cooperative Press and bounced around some cool ideas. We ran into Stephannie Tallent and got a sneak peek at her forthcoming book, California Revival Knits, which is a work of genius. I finally met Jaala Spiro of KnitCircus in person and she is just as lovely as she is via email.
Of course I also got to meet and speak with some of the shop owners who are carrying the Juniper Moon Farm yarns. It is still almost surreal to me that so many wonderful shops have elected to carry our yarns. My gratitude is truly boundless. How can I possibly come up with words to thank people for validating our work, for making our dream come true? I don’t know that I have the words. “Thank you” will have to stand in for all the things I am thinking but can’t express.
The very best thing about going to TNNA is that I came back inspired, refreshed and recharged. Look out, y’all! We’ve only just begun.
**UPDATED, because I left out my other favorite moment of the weekend: I was hanging around the KFI booth near our Fall collection and I saw this really gorgeous woman walk by, wearing an equally gorgeous shawl. As you can imagine, the place is kind of wall-to-wall shawls but this one really stood out. So I said to the woman, “OMG, that shawl is lovely! I really, really like it. ” And she said, pointing to the JMF yarn on the shelf nearby, “I really like this yarn. I really like the farm.” And then she turned to look at me and it was Laura Lough of The Unique Sheep. Not only have I worked with Laura in the past, I’VE MET HER. And neither of us recognized each other at first! It was hilarious.
Which just goes to show you that I really DID like her shawl. 
*For the uninitiated, TNNA is The National Needleart Association. They hold two annual trade shows for the yarn industry, the bigger of the two being the Summer show in which the yarn and designs for the following fall are previewed to shops owners, designers and journalists.
