We've got yarn!

I spent much of yesterday sleeping. I stupidly sent Sydney to school, even though she wasn't well enough, so now she's suffering a bit of a relapse (and we may have ruined our sweet carpool setup in the process by exposing them all to Sydney's old-man hacking cough...). I took her to the doctor this morning and he ruled out mumps and pneumonia - apparently there is a nasty strain of flu going around, which confirms what I suspected we've had. Although I haven't yet developed the chest congestion - I've just been dead tired all week. Perhaps I'm developing sudden-onset narcolepsy. I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop since I haven't felt right for days but it could be that I'm just suffering a post-TNNA nervous breakdown!

Now that all the TNNA orders are (pretty much) mailed off, the website is updated and I don't have any immediate deadlines looming, I'm not quite sure what to do with myself. I've been trying to knit a hat out of a single skein of Tilli Tomas Rock Star (which is a gorgeous beaded silk), but it's just not cooperating. First it was too tight. Then it was too short. I'm right on the edge of not having enough yarn to finish, so I keep ripping it out and knitting it just a little bit bigger. I'm about to embark on the third iteration, and if this one doesn't work, it may end up being a scarf instead.

But enough about me...let's finally take a look at the yarn I picked up at TNNA! One of the many benefits of exhibiting at TNNA is that on the last day, when everyone is packing up and not wanting to cart everything home, there's a lot of free yarn to be had (particularly for designers promising pattern support). Here are some samples given to tempt me into designing with them.

First up, I got four balls of Frog Tree (one of my faves - such a great company, and such great yarn) in different weights and fibers:



We've got fingering-weight alpaca and brushed suri, worsted-weight alpaca and chunky alpaca. Yum!

Next is a small sampling of my haul from Lorna's Laces. I could've taken more, too, if only I would've had room - they are so generous!



The multicolor skein is Shepherd Bulky in the Edgewater colorway. The pink skein is their new Green Line DK organic wool. It is so lovely! They've got a Green Line worsted-weight yarn as well. It's not superwash, but boy is it nice!

I got two awesome sock yarn samples, the first from Cascade who's coming out with a new line of sock yarn called Heritage:



Isn't it pretty? I'm going to be working on some exclusive patterns for this yarn over the summer.

I also got a nice little sample of this amazing yarn from Neighborhood Fiber Co, a little outfit based in DC:



Those are just my colors, aren't they? Karida, the color genius behind this line, stopped by to chat on Sunday afternoon after she'd sold out all of her slots (she can only take so many orders since it takes a set amount of time to dye each one). Lucky duck! The yarn is posing nicely on top of my autographed copy of The Secret Language of Knitters by my friend Mary Beth Temple.

I got a couple of samples from other folks stuck down in the half-booth boonies - these two lovely skeins are North American Shetland from Elemental Affects:



She has a ton of lovely colors that just scream colorwork. I also got this gigantic hank of sport-weight, hand-dyed cotton from Caya Colour Yarn, a small outfit in Colorado run by a chicken-owning mommy much like myself (check out the awesome picture of the chick wearing legwarmers on the front page of her website). It is the best-smelling skein of yarn I've ever owned!



I don't know what she put on it, but boy does it smell yummy! I also snagged a gorgeous skein of Pear Tree merino, beautifully colored yarn from the land of Oz, again in my favorite color:



When paging through my most recent catalog, I noticed that I have a definite bias towards orange. I know I tend to gravitate towards purple, so I tried not to design too many purple things. Turns out when I don't use purple, I gravitate towards orange! I'm also in the process of learning which colors photograph well (greens and blues) and which ones not so well (reds and oranges).

We got to talk to lots of yarn companies (and there were plenty we didn't talk to), and there were a few who were particularly open to providing yarn for my pattern line - you'll be seeing lots of future designs using Frog Tree, Malabrigo, Mission Falls, Cascade and of course Lorna's Laces. I know there are more companies who are very supportive of indie designers, but I had to stop there because I only have so much time to design!

Now that this post has totally drained me (maybe I have Chronic Fatigue Syndrome?), I'm going to wrap it up with the little contest I promised you. Comment on this post and include a) how long you've been reading the blog and b) what things you especially enjoy reading about. I'll draw randomly from all the respondents who ANSWER BOTH QUESTIONS (this is also a test of your reading comprehension and ability to follow directions, you know) on Sunday. The winner will receive a brand spankin' new copy of each of my new Spring/Summer '08 patterns. Time for all you lurkers (and I know you're out there) to come out of hiding!!! And I wanted to thank all of you who bother to read what I come up with on a regular basis (and who managed to read to the bottom of the post). So thank you!