Amy Singer, Jillian, Abby Franquemont, the Harlot, Annie Modesitt, Knitspot Anne, Norah Gaughan, Mary Heather, Casey and Jess, Amanda from Lorna's Laces. This is totally like sitting with the cool kids at lunch! After a bit, I tear myself away (Jillian helped) and go to help set up the Stitch Cooperative booth.

The Stitch Coop is a group of independent knit and crochet designers who have banded together to distribute our patterns to yarn and craft stores. As a group, we can share some of the costs and responsibilities of self-publishing and for yarn stores, it's one-stop shopping for high quality patterns from independent designers. Many yarn stores, I think, would love to carry patterns from indies, but just can't manage the hassles of 20 designers' order forms and invoices, broken printers and family vacations. The Co-op will allow both sides to win, so I'm very excited about it. And with a league like this, who wouldn't be? That's Annie Modesitt, Robyn Chachula, Amy O'Neill Houck, Dora Ohrenstein, Shannon Okey and Jillian Moreno. Not in the photo, are Stefanie Japel, who hadn't arrived yet and Andi Moon, who couldn't make it to Columbus.

Aside from taking orders and getting the word out about the Stitch Coop, having a booth meant we had chairs on the showfloor. Guilt-free sitting! A place to shove your bags. This saved enormous wear and tear on my body. Last year I remember my shoulders aching and my feet being about ready to fall off. This year was better. Maybe due to the Keens. Apparently the official TNNA shoe, as everyone was sporting them it seemed. Can we maybe get a sponsorship out of that? Still by the end of the show, Jess, Mary Heather and I found ourselves apologetically putting our sore, bandaged feet on the marble slab room divider/bench in the Hyatt lobby and wishing for some sort of minty scrub. (Yes, this is the insider TNNA gossip you were hoping for!)

Lexie Barnes, Amanda Allen, Jillian Moreno, Karin Strom, Annie Modesitt, and the Ravelers -- Jess, Casey and Mary Heather.

Robyn talking to herself on television.

Jillian and Amy getting all knitty. Amy had no voice for the whole show. She had to write things on cocktail napkins.

Jillian and Amanda.

The massive chocolate spread set out by Lexie Barnes and crew. Those girls know how to show the love.

But here's the real Barnes sweetie: Calvin.

And speaking of small, cute people, here's Elinor and her mama, Nathania.

And as long as we're talking about small and cute, here's Casey and the little Bob. Note that Casey is wearing a Bob shirt and making the Bob face.

And here's little Bob tucking in to a gin & tonic. I don't think it was his first.

Bob wishing he too were young and in love.

TNNA. Tip Top. What's the deal, you ask? There is beer. There is yarn (BYOY). And there are sweet potato fries.

There are many opportunities to take poorly lit photographs and threaten to blog someone blogging someone else.

There is Mike from O-Wool. Who is leaving to teach art. But already concocting ways to keep his hand in the yarn industry. It's hard to imagine that he won't continue playing the role of Mr. Tip Top.

And there are lots of good times.

The weekend was exhausting and inspiring. A chance to see some wonderful new and new-to-me yarns. Re-connect with folks that are gettting to be old friends. Seeing people that you feel like you know well, but have never seen in the flesh. It may be hackneyed, but TNNA truly has that "there are no strangers, only friends you haven't met" quality. People who not only understand what it is you fill your days with, but why you can't imagine wanting to do anything else.

I just tech edited a pattern for Miriam Felton called the Foliage Shawl and it's all I can do not to cast on immediately. You can see it on her blog. It's really gorgeous. Leafy, with a knitted on border. Do I really need two triangular shawls in similar colorways? I love the first one, why wouldn't I love the second?

For those in the know, or those who care, it's a Kromski Minstrel. I wanted a castle style double treadle wheel. And I wanted something pretty. Something that would like right at home in our parlor. And this definitely fits the bill. It came with some assembly required, but it didn't take long to put together. An hour or so, aided by some cimne piwo (residents of Chicago and Warsaw will be able to decipher that one... and really, appropriate, as it's the only Polish I know!) I set it up with the Scotch tension and single drive since that's what I was familiar with from the Ashford Traveler, but it can be set up with a double drive as well.

If all these terms seem arcane, consider Lazy Kate, niddy-noddy, footman, distaff, maidens, mother-of-all... spinning is an old art and it's got an argot to prove it.

I love that there are no plastic parts. And I have to say that I was impressed by the recyclability of the packaging. All cardboard and newspaper, save just a handful of plastic wrap and a small square of styrofoam. Such an anachronism in these days of planned obsolescence. Or I suppose the spinning wheel was more or less rendered obsolete a couple of centuries ago and thus remains outside the fray of plastic parts and shrink wrap.

And besides, the alpacas were pretty darned cute! We had a marvelous afternoon getting to know the critters. They're very calm and quiet, a bit skittish, but really pleasant animals. Less smelly and dirty than a dog, and, according to our hosts, Kari and Wythe Davis, easier to take care of.

And their fleece? Delightfully soft. Warm and light (alpaca hairs are hollow which makes them marvelous insulators). And much cleaner than sheep's wool because they don't produce lanolin. Even an unwashed fleece seemed at most "dusty" rather than dirty. The hairs are shorter, straighter and slipperier than a nice crimpy sheep's wool, but even as a neophyte, I didn't find it much trouble to spin. Alpacas come in a range of colors from a rich chocolatey black to creamy white. So even undyed, the color choices are interesting.

We got to wander around with the alpacas in their pen and learn about them and finished up our visit looking at the fibers, fleeces and yarns Kari had for sale. Meanwhile, the children were entertained with a box of kittens. Really. So if you're interested in alpaca yarn or fiber drop the Alpaca Valley Ranch a line. She's happy to ship fiber... but not kittens.

As far as what I'm knitting, I agreed to give myself a little vacation from my current must-knit, 3/4-done, all-the-mystery-is-gone project and cast on with my creamy fingering weight alpaca. What's on the needles? A pattern I've been rhapsodizing about for a long time, Hanami from Pink Lemon Twist. I have just finished the first repeat of the basketweave pattern. I have no expectation of getting it done quickly. I think it's one of those things your relish slowly.

*Or, one llama named Tina and some alpacas.

I've been reading about the yarn harlot's isolated adventures in the snowy cold. Walls of snow piling up. Having to seriously limit exposure time to avoid death. She might as well be on Mars. Her locale is just as exotic.

Here, I am happy to report, it is spring. Anyone taking me as harbinger will know that spring arrived officially last Wednesday. I wore white. I wore culottes. I was greeted by the wafting scent of orange blossoms as I came out the back door.

I have plotted and schemed. I have dug dirt. I have lugged $40 worth of craigslist bricks into the car, out of the car and placed them artfully in and about the front yard. I have brought out the pushmower and given our token lawn the once over. I have cleaned out closets. I have re-organized drawers.

The fruit trees have budded. The first rose has bloomed. There are enough peas to make a serving. Birds are chirping and looking at one another suggestively.

Oh, and you could be outside way longer than twenty minutes without risking bodily harm.

On the left you see it as it looks plied, though the colors aren't very true. The green is really the brightest, unsubdued chartreuse. My thinking was to either grey it or pink it, so in the interest of expedience I dashed the smaller skeinlet into a bath of boiling cherry kool-aid. Amazing what a little pink will do. The green tuned variously pink, orange and brown, the purple got rosier and the browns got warmer. All what you'd expect I suppose, and much more something I'm likely to knit or wear.

Anyway, here's a tidbit to amuse you in these days of informality.

A man addressing a woman always waits to call a woman by her first name until she has taken the initiative. A woman may make a point of the change by saying, "Please, don't call me Mrs. Edwards"; or she may simply start calling the man by his first name. But, unless the man is very much older than the woman, he should never fall into the modern rudeness of saying, "Do call me George."

Which turns out to be a sewing machine cabinet. The "drawers" are a facade for a built in bench with underseat storage! How sleek and built in. How mid-century!

In that miraculous interchangeability of sewing machines built in the days before planned obsolescence, the old pink Brother fits right in. This is maybe one of the most loveable things about sewing machines. Need a belt? Need a bobbin case? A cabinet? They're all standard sizes. Across brands. Across decades. Plus you can actually observe all the moving parts and figure out which one isn't moving the right way. No mysteries. No chips. It's an actual machine.

The machine in the cabinet seems very close to working -- needs a new belt and a new slide plate, but I think I can find those without much ado. At first I thought I'd get rid of it and just use the cabinet for the Brother, but I tried it a bit and I think it might be a winner. I've never heard of the brand and couldn't find much on the internet -- it's a Radi-O-Matic, and has enough levers and dials to get a man on the moon. All metal. No plastic. And it's got the manual with it. And if there was any doubt about it, it's very Modern. It's even labeled.

I heard through the grapevine (and the University of Chicago alumni magazine) that my old friend Paul K. has released a 100 song MP3 collection available through iTunes. We used to call Paul "the singing librarian" or "the suburban balladeer". You might call him a singer-songwriter or a folk singer. Anyway, twenty bucks gets you a whole lot of Paul. Including a song about me.