More fun than phone

So what were my TNNA takeaways?

Like a lot of people I was interested/confused by the Knit Knit gadget. If you just took the business card and not the bigger product card, I don't know how you'd remember that this is the sort of big gizmo thing that yea, does sort of remind me of a birth control pill dispenser, but I'm pretty sure that the pill dispensers were smaller.

Pink and white and kinda somewhere between clunky and compact. And for all the "everything you need" aspect, why point protectors but no tapestry needle?

The TSA approved is a possible big selling point if proven.

I was not the only one drawn to PolarKnit with its yarn made from Polartec, Polar Fleece. Easy care, cool in the hand and warm on the body, I like this stuff and can see big fun especially for kids. They had some really cute semi-sculptural hats in the booth all copyright free (read sell my yarn please). Vancouver as I recall, I hope they can thrive and look forward to them growing the product.

Bijou Basin Ranch -- who knew yak could be so beautiful and yak plus Cormo? I had to 'splain Cormo to a couple of people at the show but Cormo is a nice bouncy/springy yarn that works and plays well with the yak.

I had the hots for the yak + bamboo blend but I wasn't immune to the lace weight pure yak and even made some noises at LYS owners.

I love the Bison Gold but the price point is an issue and the yak makes a little more sense and if they can find a way to drive the price further down and retain quality (perhaps by people buying more for economies of scale) I'd be thrilled.

Where Bijou lets the yak be what it is in colouring, Himalaya Yarns mixes yak with Bamboo but does some additional processing to yield a different range of colours. Buttery yellow and a sage green are the cornerstones of the colour palette and I was far from the only one paying attention to the well priced yarn.

BTW, this is also the can buy hair sticks place but you wouldn't know it from their web page. So Google's right to lead you to Yarn Market rather than Himalaya if you do a search that includes hair sticks. Yes, those are some of the same hair sticks I've demo'd over and over again when asked how I get my hair to look like that.

I was also really taken by the fine gauge cotton at Bergere de France -- gorgeous stuff. Shame that they have all their design work done in France, because I would love to use it in combination with some had dyed.

But then, after a couple of nice chats with the folks at Skacel (where fellow guild member Cia was wearing a gorgeous sweater of her own design in their can't remember durn it yarn) I think I could easily transfer my cotton love to Algarve from Austermann and Aslan Trend's Pima Cotton for heavier gauge.

I was taken by the silk at Jumbuk Fibres and quite curious about the company as they are practically local up in Dana Point. No web page yet, she's working on it, but go figure I bought some of her silk from Liz at Needlecraft Cottage a couple of years back so I can dig it out and play at some point.

On another oh, I have some of that happened at Ecobutterfly Organics where I found Pakucho Certified Organic Cotton. Stephanie and Steve of Ecobutterfly are now distributing the Pakucho so that's another shop the stash to swatch story.

More on yarns and such another day. The big news for any Ravelry sort was a Jess & Casey encounter. Yup, I got Bob.


Other images are from Saturday's walk to the convention centre with plenty o urban art goodness, Some of it official, some of it just so not.