Coming home from TNNA becomes my next order of business after I finish my class on Monday. I’m all packed and ready to go so I roll down the street to the Gallery/Chinatown Metro Station and begin wrapping-up TNNA. I get on the Yellow Line to Reagan Airport, effectively reversing my arrival. I put money on my card in the station and then have a very short wait for a train. I ride the train (on which a young woman asks me how to learn to knit after watching me knitting on my Silk Road Cardigan).
Wrapping-Up TNNA: Leaving
I choose to walk to the distant terminal for my Southwest flight rather than taking the shuttle. It is usually my strategy to walk as much as possible before getting onto the plane where I will just sit.
The airplane trip is always good for wrapping-up TNNA; a good place to digest everything I did, saw, and experienced since arriving in the TNNA location.
Friday was the last time I will spearhead putting on the back end of the fashion show. I like doing it, it just was time for someone else to take it on. Hopefully it has been organized sufficiently that it can be divided amongst more than one person. This last show required a lot of last-minute adjustments and decisions, and it is thoroughly exhausting. I am happy be wrapping it up and passing it on.
Wrapping-Up TNNA: My Classes
Saturday I taught my Grading Basics class, walked the show floor, talked with colleagues, looked at yarn and products, and ended the day with a dinner with fellow Starship captains. Several of us adjourned to our hotel for another drink in the bar afterwards. It is amazing how fun it is to talk knitting with people who do the same thing I do! I had another 7:45 a.m. class so I called it a night relatively early.
Sunday I taught Simply Amazing Techniques. It was Amazing. Teaching shop owners/workers/designers is a little fast-paced, but we managed to get everything in. I had plenty of help from students who shared their new-found skills with the person next or across the table. Each technique was something that had to be demonstrated individually or to pairs, so it was a bit time consuming, but everyone gamely rearranged tables so I could walk around more easily and we got through in just over 2 hours.
Wrapping Up TNNA: Connections
I thought I had more than enough time, but I ended up not having quite enough to get through my very short list of things I wanted to do at TNNA. I didn’t get to hang out with Sara Lucas nearly enough, Jeane deCoster at Elemental Affects never had time to engage with me, I wanted a skein of yarn from Happy Fuzzy Yarns and forgot to get it. I did get some yarn from Round Mountain Fibers and spent an hour talking with Colinton Australia and Elizabeth Booth (who has a nice blog post about our chat). The wrapping-up TNNA was pretty easy since I had no agenda to begin with. This photo is of Monica from Round Mountain Fibers and me last year at TNNA. She had just shaved her top off this time. I think we took photos, but I don’t have them.
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