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MPLS MINN: You rock!

We saw no evidence of those scary Minnesota winters last weekend, when the temperature soared to 70 degrees. It was a beautiful start to VK’s first-ever Minneapolis show. There’s been so much rancor in the intervening few days, and it’s something I don’t feel ready to talk about at length. So instead, let’s take a look at some of the…

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Popa-palooza

Here in the Philly area, we’ve been hearing about the Papal visit for a while now. I happen to live in a neighborhood near one of the SEPTA train stations that will be used to move vast numbers of people into and out of Center City, so we’re hunkering down for a crazy weekend with road closures, traffic, and other…

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Spinners: You need this book

Several years ago, at one yarn show or another, I met a gorgeous redhead named Beth Smith. I didn’t realize it at the time, because she was so funny and humble and warm, but Beth is a goddess of spinning. She’s had her hand on more sheep than James Herriott — taking tangled, grassy, greasy fresh-shorn fleeces and seemingly effortlessly…

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The positively, absolutely true story of vending in Seattle.

When I packed all my yarn up, ready to leave for Seattle, it looked like this: (That doesn’t include the three gigantic boxes I had already shipped out….) My booth partner Brooke and I had spent a lot of time planning, talking to folks in the industry, calculating a break-even point, and figuring out what our booth would look like,…

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Booth 405!

Sometimes an opportunity presents itself, and you just can’t say no. When Brooke Nico, co-owner of the Kirkwood Knittery and knitting designer/teacher extraordinaire, asked me if I would share a booth with Kirkwood at VK Live: Seattle, the show was only two months away. I had some misgivings — mainly about my ability to produce enough yarn and roving to…

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Over so quickly!

It’s a good thing I had a fabulous weekend at Rhinebeck, because I had no sooner gotten home and put my jammies on than we had our own little ground-floor tsunami. The plumber is here right now trying to figure out how bad it is. So I’m going to ignore the sound of the Wet-Vac and remember the amazing weekend…

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Stitches Midwest recap (or why I love Chicago)

I am unlikely to get very much done this week, which is unfortunate from a workload standpoint, but on the other hand, I am still riding such a buzz from my weekend at Stitches Midwest. I have a soft spot in my heart for Chicago: one of the first trips I took with my husband (way back when) was to…

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TNNA Recap

I’m back from a jam-packed weekend at TNNA, and as usual, I feel tired and happy and bursting with new things to think about and work on. (TNNA is The National Needlearts Association, a trade group consisting of the yarn industries: both knitting/crochet and other needlecrafts like cross-stitch and needlepoint. Their big annual show is in late spring/early summer, showcasing…

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A quick hello from historic Lebanon, Ohio

It was a long drive–about 9 hours in all, even without stopping for more than five minutes at a time–but now that I have arrived in Lebanon, Ohio, I am charmed.  I mean, how can you not love a town that has a public library that looks like this?   I am staying at the Golden Lamb, a historic inn…

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