New Purple Line Colors

So, where were we? Oh yeah, we'd just finished dinner on Friday night. On Saturday morning I met with Leslie and Diana from Mountain Colors. We discussed next steps on the Duet Series. Things are coming together nicely there. We have a vest that Ginger Luters designed up next. I'll have good photos soon.

The show floor opened on Saturday morning and we were steadily busy all day. I'm always a little anxious before a show. I worry about how the new colors will be received. Which ones will be hits? Will there be a dog in the bunch? It's always a topic for discussion around here when we're deciding on which will make the cut. We're usually right on the money, but we've been surprised a time or two.

This season we brought out four new multi colors for the Purple Line. In addition, we had a little contest to find new sock designs. Here are the new colors along with the winning socks.

First Place went to h.e. wintermute's Florentine Lace Sock shown here in Woodlawn.













Second Place went to Jeanne Giles's Herringbone Lace sock shown in Maple Grove and Harvest. It turns out that Jeanne works at Jimmy Beans Wool. We didn't find out about that until we were in Columbus.













We ended up with a tie for Third Place. This is Janine La Cras's Fisherman's Fancy Sock. It's knitted in our South Shore colorway.













Last but not least, Sara Morris's Architect Sock in Ashburn.














Aren't the designs fantastic?

I was delighted that folks seemed happy with all of the new Purple Line colors. Ashburn, Maple Grove and South Shore were all universally liked. Woodlawn was a little funny. One person would be unsure of it and the next would tell me she sells those colors like crazy. I'm not sure whether it was a regional thing or what. I know I'm biased, but I think they're all pretty great.

Saturday night was the Interweave Press party. I got to rub elbows with Franklin Habit, Annie Modesitt, Eunny Jang, Marilyn Murphy, Kim Werker, Carol Sulcoski, CookieA. I better stop now. I know I've forgotten many people and I'm going to get in trouble.

Off to dinner with Laurie from Sticks and Strings in Scarsdale. It's always so nice to catch up with shop owners one to one. Especially after being starstruck at the cocktail party.

Sunday was a quick breakfast with Angelika. This was another opportunity for a one on one chat. It was so nice of her to meet me that early. She lives on the West coast, so it was extra-special early for her.

Unicorn books was right across from us at the show. They had lots of famous people signing books. Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, Amy Singer and Jillian Moreno to name just two.

On Sunday evening Amanda went off to play at the Potter Craft party while I attended to business at the Yarn Group meeting. (She'll have to tell you all about that.) After YG meeting, there was a tribute to Pat Chew. She founded Classic Elite Yarn and passed away earlier this year. I didn't know her well, but she a ground breaker in our industry and will be missed.

Afterwards, we had dinner with a few friends from Classic Elite and Vogue Knitting. We had such a nice time and I am grateful to them for always being good to me ever since I was brand-spanking new in this business.

Monday was a whirlwind. Up early for a meeting with a vendor, then we worked the show all day, broke down the booth in record time and back in Chicago by 10:00. Whew!

I still have a surprise or two to tell you about next week. Enjoy WWKIP!!

Columbus TNNA

Goodness, it's been a long time. Prepping for TNNA got the better of me this time around. Now I have so much to share with you that it will probably come over the course of the next several days.

We left for Columbus mid morning on June 5. There was the usual scramble at the last minute to pack barely-dry yarn and the sweater that arrived via FedEx. This year we had one sweater that didn't make it. Yikes!

We spent the drive making swatches for the new Green Line colors. I posted awhile back about procrastinating. This was what I was procrastinating about. For some reason, I just couldn't make myself sit down and design new colors for it. Silly, huh? Anyway, I finally got them finished and I think they were worth the angst wait.

So, without further ado, here are the five new Green Line colorways. All of them are available in both the DK and Worsted.

This is Fresh.













And this is Passion.













Verve.













Ingrigue.













Last but not least, Sublime.














Speaking of Green Line colors, while we were setting up, Bobbie from Ewe Knit Kits came by with an adult version of Elizabeth Zimmerman's Baby Surprise Jacket. It uses all the solid colors in the line. Pretty spectacular, isn't it? And our Miss Amanda looks very fetching.


This trip was a whirlwind of socializing business meetings. Usually dinners are booked pretty solid, but I had breakfast engagements every morning as well. Thursday evening we had dinner with Craig, Laura and Mark from Loop and Patricia and Margo from Patricia's Yarns I've known Craig and Mark for years and I'm so glad they brought along new friends.

Friday night was Laura and Doug of Jimmy Bean's Wool. Laura was the first LYS owner I met when I bought Lorna's Laces. And, she was the web designer that created our website. She doesn't come to TNNA nearly often enough. I'd like to see her more.

More tomorrow. Among other things, there are new Purple Line colors to share

Soldier Field 10

The nice man from the trucking company came and took the crate for TNNA. You would think that would mean that things are settling down. Not so. We are still feverishly working on many last minute projects that weren't finished in time to go in the crate. We will tote them to the show ourselves. This year it will require the services of a sherpa.

Because much of the knitting these days is top-secret....new colors, new patterns etc., I can't really show you any WIP's. I'll post it all after we return from Columbus.

One of the things I did over Memorial Day weekend was run in the Soldier Field 10. It's a 10 mile run that finishes at mid-field on Soldier Field. The reason I signed up for it was I thought it would be a thrill to be able to actually be out there on the turf. I wasn't disappointed.

Soldier Field was built in the 1920's as a memorial to soldiers that had lost their lives in wars. It's probably best known as the home of the Chicago Bears, but many other events are held there as well. Soccer games, concerts, rodeos, circuses, stock car races have all found their way to Soldier Field.



It was a beautiful day in Chicago and along with 6000 of my closest friends, I took off for a run along the lakefront.













Besides finishing on the field, they closed a couple of lanes of Lake Shore Drive and we ran the first five miles there. Then we turned back and run on the path. The view wasn't bad.



















The finish didn't disappoint. We ran through one of the tunnels just like I imagine the players do and out onto the field. I saw myself on the Jumbo Tron and everything. It was fun!

Procrastination

Do you ever have one of those days when you have about a zillion things that need to be done by a certain time but you just can't seem to get started?

Like the in-laws are coming to visit but instead of cleaning the bathroom, you work on finishing the baby sweater for a child that has yet to be conceived?

Or that first one's evil twin: instead of working on the baby sweater for the shower this Saturday, you cast on for Christmas stockings. In June.

Or instead of working on the stack of term papers that have to be returned tomorrow, you reach for that bodice-ripper.

Or instead of making the dentist appointment for that nagging pain that you think is going mean a root canal, you head straight to the salon for new cut and color?

Or instead of working on the enormous list of things that need to be accomplished by Tuesday, when the shipping company comes to pick up everything for the booth at TNNA, you work on a blog entry.

Oh wait, that last one is me. For the past two weeks I have worked slavishly doing anything except get organized for what is arguably the most important four days of the year for Lorna's Laces. Yikes!

I wish I could figure out why. It's really not like me to be this way. I'm usually the one cracking the whip around here and staying late to make sure it's all done well ahead of time. It makes me crazy to find myself behind.

The next step in the process is to figure out who I can blame. I am considering my husband. Or vodka.

Edited: I just found out, it's Franklin's fault! He came by earlier in the week to work on a top-secret project. It's very important to know who to blame. I will rest easy tonight.

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

Sam has been busy making octopi. (I looked that one up. There are two acceptable plurals for octopus, octopuses and octopi. I picked octopi.) They are from an etsy vendor hansigurumi.

The patterns are for knitting rather than crochet like so much of the amigurumi. This is good for us. We're a little crochet challenged around here. I think many of us have good intentions about crochet and then default back to knitting because it's what we know. Like anything else, it's easier to fall back to the known and comfortable.

Anyways, this is Sylvia, he is made from our Shepherd Worsted in Huron with a very sexy Bittersweet underbelly.













And this Orlando. She is made from Brick and Bittersweet.













They are very much in love. They say it is because they are soulmates. I believe it is because they share that Bittersweet underbelly.

A quick WIP

This is Sam's Ernie sweater. It's from Debbie Stoller's Son of a Stitch and Bitch and knit from our Shepherd Worsted. Even though it's from a book for men, she's making it for herself.














Check back tomorrow for the winners of our sock contest and some interesting things from under the sea!

Sock contest

We've started getting entries to the sock contest we announced here and here and of course on Ravelry.

The deadline is May 15th. Can't wait to see what else arrives!

We're planning on having the winning socks knit up in new colors and taking them to TNNA. Yippee!!