The Place Where They Make the Cream Cheese

Just got back from another wholesale tradeshow, this time in Philadelphia. The BMAC tradeshow in Philly is probably my favorite show – the quality of work is phenomenal. Everything at this show has to be crafted in America or Canada (nothing mass produced overseas). Marianne and I do this show together, which just adds to the fun.

Yippee for Fingerless Mittens!

I usually have an easy knitting project I work on while at a tradeshow. I have an awesome circular needle clutch from Offhand Designs which makes traveling with my knitting stuff so much easier. I often default to making a hat, but this time I decided to do a pair of fingerless mittens. I love using Noro Kureyon yarn and when I found this easy and free knitting pattern for fingerless mittens I decided to give it a go. I only got the right hand done, but it looks great and matches the hat I knit in San Francisco last week.

I had dinner on Saturday night with one of my favorite jewelry artists, Lori of Lieske Designs. Lori is an absolute hoot and every time I see her at a show I always seem to pick up at least a piece or two of hers. I’m also very excited about a new little table I bought for the entry way of our house from Studio 78. Very fun & colorful.

Random building I took a picture of while walking around in Philadelphia

One of my favorite parts of traveling for work is discovering new places to eat. Since I’ve been doing the San Francisco show longer I’m a lot more familiar with those restaurants and I have some favorites that I revisit each time I’m there (i.e. Shaha). This time in Philadelphia, on Lori’s recommendation, Marianne & I had dinner Monday at a restaurant called Audrey Claire’s. Absolutely delicious and I would highly recommend it to anyone visiting the area. If you have any Philly dinner favorites let us know so I can try them when we’re there in February.

I usually don’t mind flying (especially since it usually means I’m starting out on some type of adventure or going home to see my dog), but this time I had a layover in Dallas… now I know that Texas is a meat loving state, but you’d think that they’d have the occasional vegetarian traveling through this major international airport. It was tough finding meat-free food and I’m surprised that the yogurt & granola I got from a coffee stand didn’t have bacon bits in it. The universe made up for it when on my flight from Dallas to Portland, OR I got to watch a lightening storm at night from the plane. Simply breathtaking. Watching a night lightening storm from above it was kinda like playing God and watching the weather from the other side. Such a neat experience.

I’m home now, but I head to New York on the 14th for the NYIGF show. If you’re planning on attending we’re in booth 6221 (handmade division near the German stage) – stop by and say hi! We’ll have samples to show of the new Autumn Series sock style with us: October Morning!