Tag: TNNA

Spinzilla Is No More

The news has been creeping out slowly, and if you’ve heard the rumor, it’s true. Spinzilla is no more. For a variety of reasons The National Needlework Association has decided to discontinue Spinzilla.  Here’s the official announcement from TNNA. I’ve participated many years, it’s always been fun to spin and just as fun to watch everyone else spin on the years I couldn’t squeeze it in. I do appreciate that TNNA recognized that it hasn’t been running as smoothly as it should. What will you and your spinners do instead of Spinzilla?         How is your Tour ...

Spinning at TNNA

Amy, Kate and I attended The National Needlework Association convention in Cleveland, Ohio a few weeks ago. This is the wholesale show where knitting shops go to buy for the fall season. I’m always on the lookout for spinning things. This year there seemed to be a little less spinning than in the past, but the show was smaller overall.       Of course, Schacht was there in full force, celebrating their 50th anniversary. I need to buy the 50th anniversary shuttle before they are all sold out! Ashford was there too. I saw lots of demos of their newer e-spinner. I’ve tried it and it’s ...

TNNA 2018 – Things That Aren’t Knitting

Amy, Kate and I are just back from the annual National Needlework Association convention, where we get to touch yarns and plan with yarn companies and designers. Amy posted to the Knitty Instagram all about the knitting side while we were there. I get so caught up in looking and touching new fiber things and the hugging of friends that I forget to take pictures, but I have a few. I do have to mention one yarn company that always makes me smile with their creativity, Freia Fibers. That dress is knit from their gradient yarns. I have a crush on Tina’s yarn akin to the crush I had on Noro in the 1990s. She has a ...

WWW: TNNA, Knitting National Parks, a knit-loving Costume Designer; TCM Knitting Club is aces

Last week’s WWW update was lost in the pre-TNNA/Amy on vacation shuffle. Sorry about that. Kate did a much better job at making sure we never missed a week. I will endeavour to live up to her legacy in future. But on the positive side, TNNA (our industry’s trade show) was a fountain overflowing with great new products, inspiration, and quite a few connections made for new designs in future issues. Watch out for brand-new reviews when we launch the Surprise next month…we’re doing two sets of reviews every issue now, so you can see all the new stuff as soon as possible! And I’ll be writing ...

TNNA: the knitting industry’s trade show…UPDATE!

Jillian and I have just returned from our annual trek to TNNA’s trade show, this time in Washington, DC. Jillian used to live there a very long time ago, and I’ve never been, so it was an interesting venue for us to explore. Every year, we gauge what’s out, what’s in and what’s growing in popularity. This time, without question, the most popular trend was gradients. Gradients in every form, from sets of single-color skeins that make up the gradient to super-long-color-change skeins (first popularized, I believe, by Tina Whitmore of Freia Fibers). Here’s a sampling of the new ...

Fresh from TNNA

TNNA [The National NeedleArts Association] is the organization of manufacturers of almost everything we all knit with, from yarn to needles to notions to bags and more. Going to the TNNA trade show in Columbus, Ohio, every June is a tradition for those of us in the industry. Knitty first attended TNNA in 2004, and every year, what we see gets more interesting. Most importantly, we get to meet in person the folks that make the stuff we love, sometimes after having corresponded by e-mail for years. It’s pretty neat. So this week’s What’s What Wednesday is devoted to what we saw and a few peeks at what ...