Crowing Ram

As I brace myself for the final day of our 2008 Fall/Winter buying trip cum mini-vacation, I’m struck with two things:  how incredibly fortunate I am to be in an industry so full of fun, funny, sincere, and sincerely talented people that I get to spend so much intensive time with just a few times over the course of the year and how incredibly good it will be to get home, hug my dogs, sleep in my own bed, and wake up to a bright new day in my own business that is itself so full of fun, funny, sincere, and sincerely talented people that I get to spend so much intensive time with every day of the week.

Of course, I’ll have lots of fun things to share as time permits over the next several days, but more than anything, the TNNA NeedleArts Market in Columbus, Ohio has again offered me a huge burst of creative energy that I’m dying to share.  Thanks so much to everyone that I’ve spent time with.  Thanks to all of our wonderful dinner companions, it’s so good to sit and relax with so many inciteful and talented people.  Thanks to our friends on the Hyatt terrace… those we saw and those we missed; again, I’m genuinely grateful for those brief moments that we had to interact.  Thanks to all of the vendors who have put their very best out for our consideration; your work is both obvious and tremendous, and it is deeply appreciated whether we placed an order this weekend or not.  Please, know that all of my fall ordering is not finished.  I know that we will certainly be returning to the shop to plan further and more completely with our store manager Sabrina (who I’m so glad so many of you got to meet) and several others of our staff, customers, and friends.  There simply isn’t enough time in the world to do and see all that I’d like to, and three short days is only a small fraction of that.

We’re off to pack up and get downstairs for some breaky before the madness churns up again.  Bracing… bracing…

As previously mentioned, we’ll be off to Columbus later this week to attend TNNA’s NeedleArts Market where most of North America’s yarn shop owners and buyers purchase much of their product for the upcoming fall/winter season.  To us, that means rearranging schedules, packing up models that we’ve had on display from various vendors, getting Busby situated with his kennel, arranging for Tate’s accomodation (he’s well-behaved enough to spend the weekend being shuttled from the house to the shop and back, so keep an eye out for him), and generally getting loose ends tied.

Since one of our loose ends involves the end of our Summer Stitchin’ Stimulus Sale, I’ve had to update the front page of the ThreadBear main site.  I’ve also been able, over the last few days, to get a couple of yarns listed that hadn’t been up before.

As for knitting, though, I’ve still got some end tying to do.  I’ve started a pullover for myself in Nashua Creative Focus Worsted (I’ll picture later), and I’ve got a couple of sock projects on the needles, but I still don’t know what my traveling knitting’s going to be.  More on that soon.  For tonight, I’m headed home for some packing and ice cream!