TNNA Report—It’s All Good

Some of the luscious yarns I picked up at the end of the show. All are from Berroco, left to right: Inca Gold, Seduce (and I am "seduced" by this yarn--can't wait to try it as an accent with a fine wool or silk), Inca Gold (really soft, great colors), Ultra Alpaca Fine (going to try felting this), Ultra Alpaca, Soft Twist (wool-rayon blend), and Lumina (when a little shine is needed). Though these yarns are designed for knitting, I'm sure going to play around with them at my loom.

Just back and recovering from a fabulous TNNA show. I’m not just making it up when I say that there was actually a “weaving buzz”! My “Weave Now Class-how to introduce weaving to your shop” was sold out and I had enthusiastic students in my rigid heddle weaving all-day workshop. Melissa (sales and marketing), Stephanie (sales and customer service), and I talked our heads off in our Schacht booth and had a great time doing it. We enjoyed meeting and chatting with our current customers, new dealers, and curious knit shop owners who just wanted to know more about weaving and spinning. Our new Cricket loom received rave reviews.

Melissa, Stephanie, and I all wove skirts to wear in the booth (too bad we forgot to take pictures) and we are pretty sure we were “hot”. (If you think you are, you are? Right?) Anyway, our little trio will be at Convergence next week and we’ll really, really, try to get a picture to share.

The news from TNNA: “real” yarn is back. Thank God. Beautiful piled yarns in sport and fingering weights were in abundance and will show off the new interest in stitch pattern knitting. Indie dyers were plentiful with their gorgeous painted and hand-dyed pallets. I’ve shown some of my favorite finds above, all from Berocco.

Links:

www.TNNA.org

www.spinweavedye.org

www.schachtspindle.com

Sewing My Dibby Dabs Skirt

Good thing for friends. Thank God for friends who sew (thanks MK). Except for the occasional napkin hemming and pants shortening, I’m PJHHE (pre-junior high home ec) when it comes to sewing. This little handicap, however, didn’t stop me from going along with my staff’s idea to weave and sew skirts to wear to our summer conferences.

I wanted to show off novelty yarns and created what I call my Dibby Dabs skirt, a potpourri of novelty yarns and pearl cotton in a variety of colors and textures. Though we went to the store to buy most of the novelty yarns, this project would be a wonderful way to create cloth from all those odds and ends you have leftover from other projects.

I elicited the assistance of my good friend Mary Kay Stoehr (former designer for Handwoven magazine during my tenure as editor), who was an accomplished seamstress by 12 and a home ec major in college. Here are a few tips from our sewing session:

1. Because the fabric was fairly loosely woven, we took the fabric immediately to the machine after cutting out the pieces and used a broad and long zigzag stitch around all of the pieces.

2. To reduce bulk, we cut the facings from a lightweight cotton fabric.

3. We lined the skirt, and to further reduce bulk, Mary Kay attached the facing to the top of the skirt and the lining to the facing.

4. Mary Kay cut bias strips, about 1 ½” wide from the lining fabric and bound all of the raw seam edges.

5. Before hemming, we let the skirt hang overnight to find its natural drape.

6. For a bit of fun and accent we added a silk ruffle along the bottom edge.

If you’re at TNNA or Convergence, stop by the booth to see our creations. Besides my sewing lesson, I learned that cutting into that handwoven fabric isn’t so scary after all—especially under the tutelage of an experienced friend.

TNNA--The Long Beach Report

I just returned from sunny Long Beach where I taught a beginning rigid heddle weaving class and also a class to shop owners about how to add weaving to their shop inventory.

TNNA (The National Needlework Association) is a trade organization that sponsors classes for yarn shops, as well as trade shows for manufacturers and distributors of supplies and equipment. TNNA is where your local shop goes to purchase wonderful new stuff for their shop. Some trends I detected: novelty yarns—aka eyelash yarns—are out; plied yarns are in. Gorgeous colorways in natural fibers with space dyed treatments were prominent (watch for Handwoven’s upcoming feature on space dyed yarns), as were fibers for spinning and felting.

Knitting needles galore—Stephanie, my Schacht sales colleague was gaga for the new line of Jul needles featuring silver accents. It also seems that knitters are looking to spinning as a way to make their own unique yarns. If you haven’t discovered spinning yet, keep your eyes pealed for Maggie Casey’s new book “Getting Started Spinning” (Interweave Press). It is a handsome book and Maggie’s straightforward writing and instruction will be just what you need if you want to learn to spin. I also think I felt a little “weaving buzz”. Could it be that knitting shops are discovering that weaving is another way to use yarn?

TNNA Travel Report

I just returned from TNNA (The National Needlework Association), held in Columbus, Ohio. TNNA is a trade organization primarily for the needlearts: embroidery, counted cross stitch, knitting and crochet.

Debbie Becker weaves her scarf.

The gathering in Columbus offered shop owners, designers and teachers classes and a trade show. I went to teach two weaving classes: "Weave a Scarf in a Day” on the rigid heddle loom and “Knit One, Weave Too”, a class designed to help yarn shops introduce weaving to their customers.

A proud Amy Swenson shows off her scarf. Amy is a partner in Make 1
Yarn Store located in Calgary,
Alberta Canada. She is also author
of two recently published books
“Not Your Mama’s Crochet” and
“Not your Mama’s Felting”.

Schacht also had a booth where we showed our smaller looms and spinning wheels, including our new Ladybug Spinning Wheel. Terribly exciting for me was the high interest we found in weaving and especially spinning. People seemed to want to learn to weave and spin. Also interesting was how many people had woven in the past and wanted to take it up again. The main catch for shop owners was finding someone who could teach weaving. My pitch of the day is if you are a weaving teacher, offer to teach a class for a yarn store, guild, school, city rec center. It is only through teaching that we can invigorate our craft.

Here’s some news from my days in Columbus:

• Stora Vavboken,a wonderful comprehensive Swedish weaving book, is going to be distributed in the US in English. Favorite Rag Rugs, another Swedish book, will be available in English. Look for both within the year.
  


A rare quiet moment in the Schacht booth.
• Preliminary results from the TNNA survey indicates that spinning is at the top of needleworkers’ lists of what they’d like to learn.
  
• The offerings of natural fibers—soy silk, bamboo, hemp and organic cotton—are developing and promising to be exciting.

Columbus Restaurant review:
Trying out local eateries is one of my great traveling pleasures. Barry and I had a delicious meal with warm hospitality at Barcelona, on the edge of German Town district in Columbus.

Visit the Schacht Booth at TNNA

Dateline: TNNA May 31-June 4, Columbus, Ohio
If you have a yarn shop, then TNNA is a great place to see all that’s new in the yarn industry. TNNA (The National Needlework Association) hosts two shows a year, one in January in San Diego and the summer show in Columbus. This wholesale, members-only show features classes on running a business, techniques, and how to be a more successful shop. Since every major yarn company is there, TNNA is a great way to see what you want to stock next fall in your shop. We’ll have a Schacht booth and will show our small looms and spinning equipment. We’ll also have a prototype of our new entry-level take-along spinning wheel. We call it the Ladybug—because it is so cute and adorable. Spins great, too. Attractive price point. I’m teaching two classes: weaving a scarf in a day on the rigid heddle loom and introducing weaving to your shop.