I’m always sympathetic to those people who come into ThreadBear and feel a bit overwhelmed by the size and myriad options. It’s something that I see on a daily basis, and frankly, there really are days when I look around and get the feeling that things look stale… even occasionally empty. Of course, that’s usually followed by a moment of realization that I’m being highly overcritical, but we all get used to the things we see every day. My reason for bringing it up, though, is that I just got a massive dose of not-even-remotely-stale: TNNA Market in Columbus, Ohio.
For those of you who don’t know and haven’t read elsewhere, that’s the trade show where shops generally purchase much of their season’s offerings. We also have a ton of wonderful sales reps who service this part of the country, so much of our ordering was already done, but it’s still breath-taking to walk into such a smorgasbord of beautiful and intriguing fibers, yarns, tools, and accessories. We did wind up ordering several new (or new to us) lines that we’re very excited about including Habu Textiles (for whom we also scheduled a trunk show and guest instruction with Takako Ueki), Alchemy Yarns (HEY, GINA!!), and Neighborhood Fiber Co. We also added bags Lexie Barnes, new Vivian Hoxbro kits, shawl and jacket closures from Moving Mud, and the KnitTube from Namaste (plus restocks on their other great bags), and (yes, Barb) we’ll finally be bringing in the luxury wood needles that we’ve been lusting over from Lantern Moon.
As much as anything, though, the highlights of the trip for me were the numerous connections we were able to make with folks from all over North America. We had a great dinner with our friend and S. R. Kertzer sales rep, Norm Bagley, and got to finally meet his delightful wife, Judy. We showed up for dinner and found out that we were also being joined by designer Sandi Prosser who turned out to be a hoot (by the way, Sandi, e-mail me if you read this… I have that billboard photo for you). We had beer and sushi to eighties disco with indigirl, Amy Swenson of Make One, and her partner, Sandra. It was also the weekend for Columbus’ gallery walk, so Saturday night, Rob and I met Lucy Neatby and Susan (sorry, Susan… I never noticed your last name) for a fun, funny, and quite loud dinner at Haiku for AMAZING sushi and marching band music (by what appeared to be more of a sashaying band… well, except for the women) and walked back through the throng of people and checked out a bit of the ambiance of Ohio’s capitol city’s High Street. We played with our buddy Jillian Moreno, our favorite Canadian wool-a-phobic, Amy Singer, and the ever-so-humble and eminently talented Annie Modesitt, made crazy face with Cookie A, and were delighted to meet Kristi Porter, Drew Emborsky, Amy O’Neill Houck. Sally Melville introduced us to her daughter (who is beautiful, by the way). AHH!!! We just saw EVERYBODY!
Oh, I can’t NOT mention this. We had a wonderful conversation with Stacy Charles. Since, we joined TNNA, each time we’ve seen him, he’s been running to be someplace else. He’s served as TNNA President, and as owner of Tahki-Stacy Charles, there’s always someone vying for his attention. But he was very gracious with his time, invited us to have a seat, and had quite a nice conversation with us about how ThreadBear got started, how things were going, and where we were headed. Now, I had always heard that he was a nice guy, but I had no idea. I’m fond of many of our vendors, but it’s really easy to sell products when you know the people behind them are interested, not only in their own bottom line, but yours and your customers’.
Dream in Color Tulip Baby Sweater
Rob and I made our name in this business putting together kits and colorways for people. Recently, Stephanie Pearl-McPhee posted her interest in the Tulip Baby Sweater from Dream in Color, and the knitting world went nuts. It’s a very cute sweater, certainly. And we love the yarns. But really… did you think we’d settle for the original? It’s available as a kit, but so are the other eight color options below. If you’re interested in picking one up, let us know at orders@threadbearfiberarts.com.
Original
TBT01
TBT02
TBT03
TBT04
TBT05
TBT06
TBT07
TBT08
If you’re paying attention, you may realize that the even numbered offerings are actually the inverse of the preceding odd-numbered colorways. Each kit will contain enough yarn to complete the project as written in the selected colorway. That means that if you switch the colors around, you’re apt to run out of yarn. The kits will run $32 plus tax (where applicable) and shipping (again, where applicable). Please contact us at orders@threadbearfiberarts.com to order or call 517-703-9276 (YARN) or toll-free at 866-939-2327 (BEAR).
Have a wonderful evening, and I’ll talk to you soon… yes, I said soon. 😉