Hello From the Other Side

It’s been a while since I’ve written a blog post. Well, not counting the Geek-A-Long. That monster runs like a well oiled machine. But, I feel like we never talk anymore, you know? Probably because Lattes & Llamas has been on semi-maternity leave since Megan-Anne gave birth to our newest employee at the end of January.

Mabel is doing great, by the way. Megan-Anne swears she’s going to tell you all about her sweet little nugget next week and all the stuff she’s knitted for her, so keep an eye out for it. There will be SO MANY cardigans.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BB26m7XiZt5/?taken-by=doctor_llama

Anyway, it turns out that tiny humans require a lot of attention. I did a guest post on Bijou Basin Ranch’s website last week, sharing what our atypical day is like. And the deeper I got into it, the more depressed I became. I love blogging. There’s something so wonderful about getting to share new knitting books with you or talk about a local yarn store we visited on our travels, but I haven’t had the chance to do that in a while. I’ve been remiss, and I’m here to put a stop to that.

So, what have we been up to other than baby stuff and the Geek-A-Long? Well, you might have noticed that the Lattes & Llamas website got a face lift. I’m still working out some of the kinks — I’m not a web designer, and if it weren’t for youtube tutorials, I’d be dead in the water — but I’m happy with the way its turned out so far. The old static blog page made it harder to shop or find the latest on the Geek-A-Long, and I think the changes have made it much easier.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BCioGfZHy2w/?taken-by=jac_attacking

This year Lattes & Llamas is hitting the yarn show circuit. It was something we had planned to do before Mabel surprised everyone by existing. And even though it was already organized, certain people tried to pretend as if those applications had sent themselves in and it was a complete surprise that we had to leave Mabel behind in the care of her father and grandmother. At one point Megan-Anne even attempted to convince everyone that she could totally work the booth with a six week old baby strapped to her chest and would only mildly freak out if someone tried to touch Mabel with their “germy hands.”

Needless to say, I dragged Megan-Anne kicking and screaming to our first show of the year out in Pittsburgh for the 12th annual PGH Knit and Crochet Festival. (I know, I’m a terrible sister. But her husband agreed that she could use some fun time away from the baby.) It took Megan-Anne a little bit to calm down and stop demanding “proof of life” photos from Mr. Llama or Grandma Llama every hour on the hour, but once she did, we had a blast. It’s always fun meeting Geek-A-Long people in real life and sharing our sock yarn with new people.

Side note: I’m always amazed at other peoples amazement of our color palette. Shouldn’t socks be bold and colorful? What’s the point in putting in all the work if they don’t scream, “Hey, look at how awesome I am!” Maybe it’s because we were near one booth that loved pastels and another that specialized in natural yarn? I’m not sure, but the response was overwhelming. It got me wondering if we missed the mark on what’s going on in the market right now. Does everyone want pastels right now? I know it’s spring, but come on! There shouldn’t be shock over seeing bold color. BE BOLD, PEOPLE! In all aspects of your life, not just your socks.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BCisV78CZs-/?taken-by=doctor_llama

My favorite portion of our trip to Pittsburgh, besides meeting Laura Knoop from Knit One and setting up an event at her LYS in June, was hanging out with Dave and Pam from Louet North America. I’ve sung their praises many times, here and here to name a couple, and we’ve talked plenty via phone and email, but this was the first time we met in person. And boy, was it an awkward first meeting…

So, there Megan-Anne and I were, arguing in the elevator about how we should’ve brought the display up in two trips instead of doing it in one since the extremely heavy metal grates were clearly crushing her, when a nice gentleman stepped onto the elevator. He got to witness her say, “It’s fine, I got it!” while they started to fall off the dolly and pin her to the wall.

Honestly, it was hilarious and only slightly mortifying. There I am, basically doing an I-told-you-so dance while Megan-Anne is trying to decide if accepting help from the kind man would be worth her pride, which is about around the time when she realized who he was: Dave from Louet.

It probably wasn’t the most professional introduction, witnessing us in our true bickering-sisters glory, but it was definitely the most accurate portrayal of us as people. Of course, Dave laughed and helped us get the grates back onto the dolly, but I’ll never forget the look on Megan-Anne’s face when she recognized him.

Mortification aside, it was a great ice breaker.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BCjbSlWiZle/?taken-by=doctor_llama

Since Megan-Anne learned that maybe people other than her can be trusted with Mabel’s well-being, we packed up again a few weeks later and headed down to Savage, Maryland for the Homespun Yarn Party. Hands down, this is one of my favorite yarn shows. We went for the first time last year as attendees and knew we had to go this year as a vendor. The Homespun Yarn Party has all the fun of one of the bigger shows squeezed into five hours of hand-dyed bliss. The people who run it are absolutely lovely. Plus, they giveaway a prize basket every 30 minutes!

While we were there, we debuted a couple of brand new colorways on our Adventure Yarn base:

DARTH UNICORN

MERMAID HAIR

We met a few Geek-A-Long participants, including one of the winners of the 2015 raffle!

https://www.instagram.com/p/BDLyF_KHy3H/

Overall, we had a fabulous time, even if it was abnormally cold that day. And I think Megan-Anne and the company came out the other side of her maternity leave stronger and ready for action. We can’t wait to meet more of you during our travels this year. So, what have you guys been up to?

~ Jac
Alright, so I’ve had Adele’s “Hello” stuck in my head for three days now, but it’s a lot better than when I had “Barbie Girl” by Aqua in there for two weeks. It’s crazy how much of that silly song I remember from 1997, but gun to my head, I couldn’t tell you my husband’s phone number.