Recap: TNNA - Phoenix, AZ 2012

The weekend before last, I flew to Phoenix, AZ for the semiannual needle arts trade show. It had been exactly 12 years since I had gone to Arizona. Then I was traveling with a 9-month old and have done quite a bit of sightseeing! This time I had seen not much more of the city than the Convention Center, a hotel and couple of restaurants.

This trade show was slightly different for me than the other trade shows before. I had spent majority of  time talking with people rather than walking the floor, so I had not gotten the whole scoop on the latest and the greatest.  The three days really don't seem to be enough to be able to see everything. But that's OK. I had spent time with my clients, friends and met new ones. While at the show, I had invested my time into brainstorming upcoming collections, came across some new opportunities and sparked some new ideas for the upcoming year.

So here we go. This is what I did. 

I attended a few book signings.

Dora Ohrenstein's Custom Crocheted Sweaters book signing .

Kristin Omdahl's Seamless Crochet book singing

with Faina Goberstein.

Robyn Chachula's Simple Crochet book signing with Marly Bird and me.

I had met up with some of my favorite people: Faina Goberstein, Marly Bird, Linda Permann and Robyn Chachula; as always lots of fun. 

Faina Goberstein and I.

Andee Graves, Faina Goberstein, Marly Bird, and me.

Robyn Chachula, me, Linda Permann, Jill Wright, and Tabetha Hedrick.

I enjoyed talking with fellow designers Tabetha Hedrick and Jill Wright.  It was nice to see  Anne Kuo Lukito of Crafty Diversions,  Kate Oates of Tot Toppers, Stefanie Japel from Craftsy, Grace Akhrem, Kristin Omdahl of Styled by Kristin, oh and many others.

With Grace Akhrem.

 I had gotten the opportunity to meet a star designer Josh Bennett of Boy Meets Purl, who had introduced his new menswear knitting line with Rowan yarns. In addition to his own line, he works with Irina Shabayeva, the winner of one of the seasons of Project Runway. Go see her collection where you can see the knitwear Josh had worked on for her. Very impressive. What a talent.

Josh Bennett, me and Faina.

And of course, I saw some beautiful yarns. Below Linda Peramann, Marcy Smith, editor of Interweave Crochet, and I are at the Berroco's yarn tasting bar, knitting and crocheting with their newest yarns for Spring/Summer 2012.

Linda Permann, Marcy Smith and I at Berroco Yarn Bar.

Below you can see the new color scheme of Imperial Yarn.

Imperial yarn - new colors for spring/summer 2012

Lantern Moon has introduced the Scrumptious (45% silk, 55% merino) yarn designed by Jeni Hewlett of Fyberspates. The yarn is offered in a variety of weights ranging from lace to chunky. I really liked this one, it is so soft and has a beautiful sheen. I'm looking forward to getting an opportunity to work with it.

When I am at the show,  I usually forget to take pictures, but I think this year I got a bit better. What do you think?

Well and that's a wrap. :)

New Imperial Knits Collection coming soon!

The new Imperial Knits Collection for Spring/Summer 2012 called Water is Life will be introduced next week at the TNNA in Phoenix, AZ.  The designer, Anna Cohen, had not only created the collection but also worked on creating the color schemes for some of the yarns in this collection. The few I had seen so far are really beautiful, so I cannot wait to see all the colors. If you are at TNNA next week, make sure to stop by Imperial Yarn booth to preview the whole collection and the yarns. I had written more about the Imperial Yarn Ranch company here.

This is my second time working with Anna on the collection for Imperial Yarn, doing the design interpretation for her.  As I might had mentioned in my previous posts, it is creatively another dimension to my own designing work, I get a wonderful opportunity to explore and implement. I enjoy helping Anna's vision come to life. You can read more about this Spring/Summer 2012 collection and how such collection comes to life in the latest Imperial Yarn eNewsletter. Thank you Anna for such nice words about our working together; it's been a delight!

If you had not gotten a chance yet, please check out the new Imperial Yarn group created on Raverly. You can also follow them on Facebook.

Portland Fashion Week 2011: Imperial Yarn

At the beginning of this year I met Anna Cohen, internationally recognized sustainable designer and creative director of Imperial Yarns. She had paired with Imperial Stock Ranch to create her first in-house hand knitwear collection of patterns called The Imperial Yarn Knit Collection.  At the time I met her, she was looking for hand knitwear designers to work as a technical designer/interpreter for her collection of hand knit patterns for Fall 2011.

This was my very first time to work with a fashion designer; and I was very excited about the opportunity. Anna had built and led successful apparel company from 2005 - 2008, making sustainability her priority in her designs. Working with Anna has been a great experience for me. The process of bringing her designs to life was slightly different from what I have done in the past; and it had taught me a lot.  To work on this collection for Anna, among other things, had taught me about sustainability in the US; something I really have not thought about much before. Moreover, Anna's designs are beautiful, fresh with nice silhouettes and she's a pleasure to work with. All the designs in the collection are worked in yarns of Imperial Yarn that are unique, soft and very comfortable to knit with. The yarn is produced by Imperial Stock Ranch, a 140-year-old, family-owned ranch based in Shaniko in central Oregon, that is known for its mindful and sustainable ranching and land-management practices.

I have worked on three designs for the Fall 2011 The Imperial Yarn Knit collection and two designs for the Spring 2012 collection (pictured below). These designs are available in knit-it-yourself kits that are made 100% in the USA including the pattern and Imperial Stock Ranch's wool.

This Imperial Yarn Knit Collection was presented at the Portland Fashion Week 2011 this month. You can see the whole collection on the runway below.

Winter Luxe Cardigan (Fall 2011)

Winter Luxe Cardigan (Fall 2011)

Essential Sweater Dress (Fall 2011)

Simona Circle Bag (Fall 2011)

Tank Top and Bag (Spring 2012)