Wow, so many things have happened since our last entry.  The dandelions are in full bloom, Allyson now knits (her first knitting experience was cables - she is really daring!); Thyra's baby is walking (he was just two months old, last I checked), Tina is in training with a new therapy dog (difficult to tell who is training whom), and I'm thinking about moving the shop to Main Street - more on that later.

In January I attended the TNNA show in San Diego.  There were so many classes I wanted to take, but they overlapped - John (bless his non-knitting heart), attended one for me.  The class with Cat Bordhi was enlightening - she's a wonderful teacher.  Unfortunately, I already knew all the techniques she taught (but meeting her was lovely).

The yarn and tools there were amazing.  Moving Mud had astounding glass tools and pins, Skacel had so much gorgeous, soft yarn that swooning was on the agenda, Delicious Yarns was as scrumptious as its name, Treenway = tactile and visual heaven, Frog Tree was delectable, and there were so many others that I can't keep track of them all.

The one thing I made certain to do was to approach a certain long-established pattern vendor about horrific pattern experiences (the company recently filed for Chapter 7 - karma, perhaps?).  Unfortunately, they have a history of publishing "Beta" patterns.  There is one project, knit by Jane, which took her over a year and well over a month for me to finally decode:

• The photo in the pattern slyly covered a construction problem with a long-stemmed rose;
• There were crucial errors in the stitch key;
• The morphing of the stitch pattern, between the waist band and the body, was badly designed, looked jagged and out of place, and was down-right ugly;
• There were errors in both the written instructions and the stitch-pattern charts;
• The pattern was apparently tested in only one size (Jane's was one of the untested);
• An entire set of written pattern instructions was missing, and worst of all,
• The company knew all of this, did not publish errata, and charged a mint for the booklet.

It would have been polite for them to have apologized, or at least offered to fix the errors, but c'est la vie.  Despite that, the show was a never-ending sensory festival, and I wish I could have seen it all!  I'm looking forward to attending TNNA and Madrona next year.

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