Monte and I returned this week from the TNNA show in Columbus, Ohio, where we scouted out new yarns for fall and winter. It is pretty overwhelming to have hundreds of vendors in one location! This show was the best of the few that I've attended so far, because the market is changing rapidly and there were more smaller companies offering their specialty yarns and products.
Let me start by saying that what's hot right now is shawls. We saw them in all styles...lace, stockinette, long, short, bulky, fine. There were so many hand painted shawl and sock yarns it was hard to not buy them all. We stocked up and when they start arriving, I'll report more details. I guess I'm going to have to stop sleeping when these come in, so I can manage more knitting hours.
Great news! Cheryl Schaefer and Schaefer Yarn Company had a large booth filled with her fabulous yarns. 
Cheryl was the first person to enter the market with hand painted yarns in the 80s, and all these years later they're still painted one at a time. Read about this awesome family at Schaefer Yarns. We actually spent almost all of Sunday morning in her booth, carefully choosing sock and shawl yarns, as well as some wonderful afghan kits. I hope to have some samples knitted and in the shop by Wool Festival.
A top priority for this season's buy was to start stocking yarns from Be Sweet. For those of you who're not familiar, these yarns and products are manufactured by a cooperative in the East Cape area of South Africa, in support of the Xhosa women. We are proud to be supporting businesses help women around the world have better lives, 
and hope that you'll be as delighted with their yarns as we are. For more about Be Sweet, visit their website at Be Sweet. These should be in stock by mid September.
Look for a new look in the shop...we're working on new displays for you to see these special yarns to their maximum advantage. For those of you who're planning to visit during Wool Festival this fall, we're stashing yarns now for our sale bins, so start dreaming about them now!
Lastly, for those of you who have followed our kitten adventures...Yoda Man went home with Joan, as planned, and Shermie Jr. and Leo went to the Taos Feral Feline Friends shelter just before we left for Ohio. From there they'll go on to their new homes. It was hard to let them go, but it was the right thing for my household. For now, we're still feeding a couple of ferals at the shop and hope to have one of them be an indoor kitty by winter. ---Martie
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