TNNA Columbus Videos + More

What can I say that hasn’t already been said all over the Interweb? I was Tweeting our trip, you can catch up at our Twitter page. It was a whirlwind! It was my second time attending the The National Needle Arts trade show and I felt a lot more comfortable with my new perch. The new collection was really well-received and I was thrilled to see my first design sent down a runway (Locus from the Booklet #289 Lustra). With all the excitement surrounding supersoft Blackstone Tweed™ and the mega-affordable Vintage™, I feel like Lustra™ is getting lost in the shuffle! I’m designing with it now and it’s gorgeous–so shiny and the colors are soOoooOoo pretty. It’s hard to pick a favorite!! That said, I’m knitting with the deep violet blue Provence =)

It is always inspiring to be around so many knitting greats, but the highlight of this show for me was catching up with the younger ‘new guard’ knitters, too many to list here but you know who they are! It’s staggering to look around and see all the bloggers I’ve read for years working for yarn companies, publishing books, going on book tours, building websites and generally kicking butt in the yarn world. And oh yes, having a mess of fun while doing it…Casey from Ravelry suggested that Ysolda and I have a knitwear model walk-off, a la Zoolander (I can only find this Lego version on YouTube)…madness ensued in the lobby of our hotel, with an audience of knitting stars that quickly became our paparazzi.

Watch the Great Model-Off of 2009, graciously shot and compiled by the lovely Laura Chau.

Ysolda and I did our best to recreate all of the most notorious cliches of the knitting fashion world, including one of our favorite tricks, putting on a sweater upside down (a la Violette-de-Luc and Linear)! This usually happens by accident when a stylist misunderstands a garment but with Norah Gaughan sweaters it is often pretty uncanny, they look amazing and completely new! In the videos below you’ll get to see Potter from Norah Gaughan vol. 5 upside down and it looks fantastic. I’ll admit, I was pretty neutral about this sweater before, mostly because it wasn’t very Norah-y. After wearing it all night and noticing the details (perfect collar, cool sleeves, ability to look good when worn “incorrectly…”) I’m sold! And you have to love Mimosa, an energetic new shade of Pure Merino.

Mary-Heather from Ravelry captured Norah jumping to my aid and Jessica from Seattle’s Fiber Gallery captured the SCREAMS of laughter. I’ve uploaded a gallery on Flickr with some iPhone snapshots…not great quality, but hopefully they’ll make one thing clear: Berroco <3s Columbus!

CR