Spent a successful weekend at TNNA, one of the fiber industry’s main events every year. This year, it was held 6 weeks earlier than usual, and due to scheduling conflicts it was in a different venue (Indianapolis rather than the usual Columbus), which made a few folks cranky.

The date change meant that I had to have a case of advance copies of Knits That Breathe expressed to my hotel  because the paperback version won’t be here until early June. FedEx came through for me, but the hotel (Omni Severin) then tried to charge me a $20 “receiving fee” for holding the box until my arrival. What’s up with that?

Add paper-thin walls and a largely unchaperoned group of high school students on the same floor (playing tag in the hallway, having intense adolescent confabulations late into the night outside their rooms, and generally whooping it up much later than I would have liked), and maybe, just maybe, I was one of those cranky folks.

But enough about the hotel already!

The Great Wall of Yarn was loaded with new yarns to sample from dozens of vendors:

And on the show floor, all kinds of fibery gorgeousness, such as this lovely and unusual example from Alchemy:

It was a great opportunity to catch up with knitting friends, colleagues, and acquaintances such as Melissa Leapman and Jocelyn Grayson:

The biggest thrill for me was to share Knits That Breathe projects with the yarn company owners who were kind enough to provide support for the book, such as Susan Moraca holding Iced Frappuccino in Milky Whey from Kolláge Yarn:

Best of all was seeing Knits That Breathe prominently displayed on the wall at my distributor’s booth:

There it was, right at eye level. Gotta love that!

Indianapolis has many charms (in the food domain, Napolese Pizzeria and Bee Coffee  are two stellar examples), but after long days of sourcing new yarn for upcoming book projects and promoting my new book, I didn’t mind seeing them in the rear-view mirror as I headed back to Chicago. More soon!

It’s great to be back after a long absence while my site was offline being updated. Now that it’s new and improved, I’m so ready to roll up my sleeves and let the fun begin!

First up is the release of Knits That Breathe: 12 Breezy Projects To Keep You Cool, otherwise known as the book I’ve been working on for the last year. It’s very much a labor of love.

I look forward to sharing the details of each design over the next several weeks. You can pre-order the paperback now on the SHOP page of this site. The bonus? Doing so gets you an instant download of the e-book version for free. There’s something so magical about that word “free,” n’est-ce pas?