What the........

Just for the record, today is March 28th. Spring. I know it's New England, but COME ON GUYS -- we need some sunshine, some little buds on the trees, some HOPE that this will end sometime soon!

Enjoy your weekend. I plan to knit. After all, what else would one do on a snowy day ... in March.

Windy City

Wow. What a great 2+ days I had. I just returned from attending the Yarn Market News Smart Business Conference in Chicago. Fabulous. Really fabulous. It was a great mix of hard core information, fun, networking (really great networking!), and swag. Yep, swag. The conference sponsors (of which my company was one) really outdid themselves with giveaways. I'm having a raffle in the office today to share some of the goodies with our hardworking staff. And the speakers were fantastic! Check out their bios and websites. They had great information to share.

Yesterday, before we all headed home, we were treated to a tour of Lornas Laces.
Beth was a gracious host, explaining her products, showing us works in progress, and she even did a little dying demo! It was fun to see the action.

Soho Publishing (parent company of Yarn Market News) did a great job. I hope this event becomes an annual one, and that I am fortunate enough to be able to go again. It was wonderful meeting so many talented retailers, and brainstorm how we can all grow the yarn/knitting/needlearts business together.

Now I just have to find the time to summarize all my notes and implement all the great ideas I heard about!

Texas

I just got back from 6 days in Texas, visiting my Mom, brother, sister-in-law, and 3 nieces (2 local, one from NYC). I was lucky enough to travel with my daughter and grand-daughter, so there were 9 of us enjoying each others' company. It was a really good visit, and we were able to parcel out small-ish times with everyone. I helped Mom finish her taxes and hang pictures on her walls. She moved to a new space recently, and has lots more room, with big windows and a good location - such an improvement over where she had been! I also had some relaxing time by the pool and on walks. It was great to skip wearing a coat for 6 days!

Now it's back to the grind. Hopefully lots of knitting and weaving too. Even though it's going to snow overnight tonight, I sense that spring is right around the corner! And that means more playground time...