Last week-end I had the opportunity at the last minute to visit the h+h trade show in Cologne, Germany, with a friend. This is a huge show reserved for professionals and retailers, who come from all corners of northern Europe to shop for new products and yarns.
New knit designs are shown everywhere,
And beautiful yarns … (+ a few balls to try out for future collaborations with my favorite brands, I’m so excited!)
I got to meet Rob and Sharon Dunbabin, owners of Cascade yarns.. and show them my newest design, the “Marin d’Odouce” sweater made with their wool 220. It was really great to be able to chat with them about their company and yarns, I loved it !
I also met Ruiko, my contact at Tulip Etimo. She let me try their newest products, and it was so nice to finally be able to put a face on her name 🙂
I got to try a few “new” hooks too, including
- Knitpro’s new hooks,
- Lion’s brand’s twisted hook developped in collaboration with London Kaye (which I didn’t enjoy as much as I thought, surprisingly. Maybe because it’s such a large hook, and not the size I usually use)…
- and 3 different kinds of PONY hooks which I already like very much, and which Pony was kind enough to give me samples to try out (look out for a review soon) and let people try in my “magic box”, along with 13 other types of ergonomic crochet hooks…
Of course, I also stopped by on Istex’s stall to discuss future collaborations and check out their yarns “for real” (I had only ever touched the lett lopi yarn, which I used both for my “Loup” jacket and “Open spaces shawl”), and cannot wait to try their Einband and Plotulopi…
Finally, of course NORO was another of my go-to places. I mean, don’t you loooove those huge 200g balls of colored yumminess ? Here again, contact was made and I hope it will indeed lead to successfull colloboration for designs, as I love the Noro yarns so much !
And I guess that’s about it.. I’ll just leave you with a taste of german breakfast goodness: cheese, wurst and vollkornbrot ! Yum 🙂