Day two of the actual market portion of the TNNA show. (The first two days are classes.)
Sorry I didn’t blog yesterday – just too dang tired. It’s exhausting walking the show floor all day long, but after a good long sleep, I woke up and did it all again today! I’ve placed a few orders and seen lots of fun things. To see some photos from the yarn side of market check out our Facebook Page.
And from the needlepoint side of the show floor, Julie and Paula made some finds today as well!
Today was a busy day for all of us. Each of us took a class (a needlepoint class for Paula, and a visual merchandising class for Julie and me), plus the Retailers’ Luncheon, a frenzied cash and carry pre-market market, and culminating in the Fashion Show put on by the Yarn Group during each market. My battery always seems to run out on my phone when I try to take photos at the fashion show, and the quality is always a little blurry, but here’s what I got!
We’re exhausted tonight – walking the show floor is tiring, and our minds are a-whirl with all of the possibilities! So only photos, in no particular order and with no captions…
I was on my own for most of the day today at market. I attended an all day class on ‘Content Marketing.’ It was probably the best business class I’ve ever taken at TNNA, but I don’t want to bore you with the details – I can’t imagine that you’re all that interested in it 🙂 However, I wanted to mention briefly that the instructor was Johnny Vasquez of New Stitch a Day, a website devoted to knitting and crochet education. Be on the lookout for our involvement with their 30-Day Sweater Challenge this fall.
The evening was a busy one. First, there was the feeding frenzy of Sample It, the only cash and carry component of this market. Over 60 vendors had kits, canvases, yarns and more for sale so we could take stuff home right away. We picked up some new needle magnets from Elizabeth Turner and Accoutrements. Yarn kits from Anzula, Hikoo, the Fibre Company, and Knitted Wits. Canvases from Sundance Designs, Painted Pony, Alice Peterson, Cheryl Schaeffer and more. What fun!
Later, the Yarn Group’s fashion show commenced. There were fabulous garments from indie designers, yarn companies and magazines. I tried to take photos with my iPhone, but the lighting was bright enough. Luckily, the Yarn Group is great about posting the whole fashion show to their webpage, so look for that in the next week or so.
Tomorrow, the actual market opens. We’ll try to post as many photos as possible to our Facebook page.
See you soon!
It’s time for one of several “markets” that we attend every year – this time in sunny, warm San Diego.
The grass is green! It’s so nice to see some green other than my Christmas tree 🙂
Our hotel is right next to the convention center where the winter trade show for The National Needlearts Association (aka, “market”) is being held. Plus we’re right next to the Gas Lamp district – an historic area of San Diego filled with fabulous restaurants – and the stadium for the San Diego Padres.
I spent some time walking around this charming area during the early afternoon (in 63 degree weather – I know, I should really stop rubbing it in, but I feel so lucky!). I found at least 10 restaurants I’d like to eat at…
Later in the day, I headed to my first class of the weekend: Moving Miters with Barry Klein, the owner of Trendsetter Yarns. Barry has been in the biz for his whole life, following his mother around to stores and market. He and his mother started Trendsetter 25 years ago. To celebrate their anniversary, Trendsetter is having a special promotion, which you can read about here. We just received our order of the 100% mink (!) yarn, Lotus ‘Mimi,’ from Trendsetter. Buying just one skein of this yarn will qualify you for the promotion.
Anyway, the class was fantastic. We learned how to make rectangular miters, instead of the more traditional diamond or triangle shaped miters. Here are some photos, concluding with the beginning of the a scarf that I will be making out of the two skeins of Ascot that Trendsetter gave each of us. (Sorry, we don’t carry this yarn; although I can think of lots of other yarns we do carry that would look great using this mitering technique.)
It’s been a fun day! More tomorrow…
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