A Look Back at TNNA

July 1, 2012 by Sarah White 2 Comments

For all the years (now more than five!) that I’ve been part of the knitting world I still haven’t made it to any of the major conferences or conventions in the world of knitting and needle arts. I really wanted to go to TNNA — The National Needlearts Association — summer meeting this year. It’s held annually in June in Columbus, Ohio, and it is the place to learn all about what’s new that’s going to be hitting the yarn shops for fall and winter knitting. For someone who knits and writes about knitting for a living, it’s also a place to meet up with other designers and make connections in the industry.

There were a few reasons I didn’t end up going (and it happened that my daughter’s first-ever performance in front of people, at her preschool’s end of the year party, was that weekend, so I’m glad I was home) but I really, really want to and intend to go to at least one of the shows next year (there’s a winter one in California, which sounds pretty nice).

But thanks to the Internet, all of us who weren’t there can get a little taste of what the convention was like. My go-to source for these sorts of things is Clara Parkes, who runs the excellent Knitter’s Review and just logged her 13th TNNA. I know she’s on the lookout for the best yarns because reviewing yarns is what she does, so I know if she mentions something in her roundup it’s going to be a big deal in the coming months.

She noted that novelty yarns are coming back, but they’re better this time because so many are made with a higher percentage of natural materials than those all-synthetic yarns we had the last time novelties came around. Color is also a big story, as it has been all year, with more indie dyers in attendance. One yarn she talked about that I’m excited to try: Koigu Bulky! It looks like a beauty.

Have you ever been to a big yarn show or industry event? Spill it!

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Knit Some Pretty Flowers for Spring

Whether because of Mother’s Day coming up or wishing spring flowers would arrive a little faster, now is a great time to knit yourself some flowers that won’t wilt. I’ve shared some flower knitting patterns before but I think these are all new ones that you can add to your collection!

These pretty little flowers from Fitting in Knitting on Etsy are great because you can customize them in lots of different ways. Change up the color, of course, but you can also make them with or without stems and leaves depending on how you want to use the. You can also make the center of the flower a contrasting color or not as you like. They use DK weight yarn and the flower itself is 6.5 cm/2.5 inches across.

Tina Vejlø Andersen’s lotus flowers (available on Ravelry) are so pretty and delicate. I love them in the purples shown in the sample but think they’d be lovely in any pastel colors. The petals are knit separately and sewn together, and knit stamens are also added. You can work the petals in three different shades or make it a single color. There are instructions for knitting a stem as well. The pattern uses fingering weight yarn and is available in Danish and English.

For a very different look, try the Puffy Petal flowers, free on Ravelry from designer Hanxiao Zhou. These are cute as purse accessories or backpack charms, and though the pattern calls for worsted/aran weight yarn you can use different weights to make flowers of different sizes.

Or you can make a cute floral bookmark from this design by JaNae Yagi. The flower is knit separately from the stem, which is made out of I-cord and includes a leaf at the end. The pattern notes on Ravelry say the yarn choice depends on your gauge, but finer yarns would be best for using as a bookmark.

If you want to try your hand at translating Norwegian, the Strikkeroser flower from Helene Rønquist Knutsen is really pretty collection of three roses the designer describes as having three different levels of difficulty, though they are all pretty easy. The pattern calls for fingering weight yarn and is free (though, again, only in Norwegian, but Google Translate did a good job with the pattern page) on Ravelry.

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