Alisa the Yarnista

It's official, I've moved to a shiny new website!

My new home is lovely so check it out: http://alisatheyarnista.com/

Cheers!

It's been a little over 2 weeks since I returned from TNNA. If you don't know what TNNA is, this is *the*event where the folks in the fiber industry meet up once a year for a huge trade show in Columbus, Ohio - basically equal parts of awesome & exhaustion.

TNNA's 2012 Summer Trade Show was a ton of fun. I've posted on the Firefly Fibers blog, but I wanted to share some highlights of the event and trip from my own perspective:

Blue Sky Alpacas and Spud & Chloe: We met 'Cousin' Katie and she is nothing short of amazing! Here is a photo of their booth from Katie's blog post on TNNA. I've been a fan of Blue Sky Alpacas since before Firefly Fibers and they have a very special place in my heart. They are a small company with very passionate employees that believe in their amazing yarn and their enthusiasm is contagious! You can expect more Blue Sky and Spud loveliness at Firefly Fibers and on my needles in the near future!

Unicorn Books: Unicorn is one of our vendors and I was so happy to meet our accounts payable guy, Kirk, whom I've only corresponded with via email. He was quite the 'bouncer' in his black shirt collecting tickets for the book signings - those authors were totally safe with him on the job! We also met Josh, who works in the warehouse and he was busy applying Unicorn temporary tattoos any and all willing parties. They are a great group!   

New awesomeness at Firefly Fibers: I can't divulge details, but we have some brand new yarns coming and they are fabulous! The waiting is driving me crazy so, rest assured, I'll share as soon as the orders start to show up. Keep an eye on the Facebook page. Really, it will be well worth the wait!

The vendors: This event is a lot of fun, but it is serious work for everyone attending and especially exhibiting. With independent designers on the rise, many of the vendors are small companies with just a couple or maybe a handful of bodies to work their booths. I appreciate the time the vendors put into their beautiful booths - I know this was exhausting for them, as well.

Jeni's Splendid Ice Cream: I resisted this with all my might, yet the peer pressure of regular tweeting about Jeni's finally made us give in. I thought, "really, people, it's just ice cream", I was wrong. I'm not a big on ice cream or sweets in general, but seriously, this stuff is amazing! We went twice and ordered Jeni's Ice Cream cookbook from Unicorn.

North Market: This place ROCKS! Sarah and I decided to venture over for some ice cream and pleasantly found a delicious lunch, as well. It was nice to pick up a few things and take them back to our room so we had some fresh food in our fridge.

Mike, my wonderful husband: My hubby has a job, one that he works very hard at, yet he always graciously helps out when he's needed at the store. During TNNA, he took vacation time so Firefly Fibers would be open while I was gone. Thank you for all you do, my dear, you are my hero!

Knitting Sarah: Last but definitely not least... Sarah... Yes, Sarah gets her own, and well-deserved, bullet point. Thankfully, I was not flying solo this year and without her company, I surely would have collapsed on the show floor at more than one point. I told you, this event is equal parts awesome & exhaustion and I was awed to the point of exhaustion at least once a day. Not only was she very helpful, she was very entertaining and kept me going. It was priceless to see her look of awe when we first arrived on the show floor and I can only imagine I had the same look the first time I stepped foot in the market. You can read her take on the trip here. A million thanks, Sarah!