Yarnometer: September 2018

September was fairly quiet knitting-wise as I was having to juggle a new baby, but I did manage an impromptu trip to Yarndale.

Projects finished
A rainbow Baby Puerperium
I loved this project so much! Everything about it was a joy. I started it before our baby arrived, and knitted the sleeve and the neckband very, very slowly once she was here!

Socks for the Yarndale sock line
I technically missed the deadline to get these to Winwich Mum for the Yarndale Sock Line, but she kindly let me send them to her a few days late.

The ins and outs of yarn
Yarn in

• 400 g of yarn for a stocking for the new baby
• 250 g of yarn for a couple of pairs of Peeky Catsocks
• 200 g from my third Knit Crate,* plus an extra 300 g as I like the yarn so much
• 1000 g of Drops Karisma from Yarndale to make a long cardigan
• 120 g of mini skeins from River Knits at Yarndale to use in a Buccaneer Shawl
  

Yarn out
Knitted

• 65 g for the Baby Puerperium
• 81 g for the Yarndale socks

Total
Yarn in: 2270 g
Yarn out or used: 146 g
Total: 2142 g

Year to date
Yarn in: 24 527 g
Yarn out: 12 363 g
Yarn used: 5264 g
Total: 6900 g

* Affiliate link. You'll get $10 off your first crate, and I'll get $10 towards a future purchase. I am not associated with Knit Crate, but really like their products.

Yarndale 2017: What did I buy?

I'm pretty certain that when I said I was going to Yarndale, no one expected me to come home empty handed. And I didn't. Here are the things I picked up at this year's Yarndale.

First up is the Extermiknit bag from The Knitting Goddess. I had been admiring this bag since it was launched a little while ago, and have even had one in my shopping basket on the The Knitting Goddess site for a few weeks. When I realised they were going to be available at Yarndale I made a point of buying one. The bag is fab. Nice and sturdy, good thick fabric, and an excellent design. I'm really excited to start using this bag.

I didn't need more project bags, but I was picking up a unicorn one from For the Love of Yarn for a friend, and as there were still plenty in stock, I got one for myself as well. These unicorns are really cute, and the bag is a good size for a sock project.

I have wanted a sock ruler for ages, and knew that Rosie's Moments stock them and would be at Yarndale. This little device makes it easy to measure sock lengths while you're knitting as you can put the ruler into the sock and stretch the sock out. I used it last week for the first time and am really pleased with it. The sock ruler features both EU and UK sizes, and cm and inch measurements, and I think it's going to be really handy.

The sock ruler in use

I looked at a lot of yarn while I was at Yarndale, but kept coming back to the Ripples Crafts stall. They had a huge selection of colourways and bases and I totally fell in love with this deep pink Donegal Nep aran. This is definitely going to become a hat.

I noticed the Pond Street shawl pattern on the Baa Ram Ewe stall - they had a sample hanging on the front of one of their boxes and it was beautiful. I thought for a long time about buying the kit, but went for it, and in the colours that were used in the shop sample. I think this is going to be a pretty quick knit, so I'm hoping to get it knitted before it gets properly cold!

I made one other purchase at Yarndale: a very boring ball of West Yorkshire Spinners Signature 4 ply. I'm planning on using it for heels and toes on a lot of pairs of socks!

For years I said I didn't like pink, but this haul seems to suggest otherwise! I hope you've enjoyed seeing what I bought at Yarndale. Hopefully I'll be able to share some projects knitted from it in the near future.

Did you go to Yarndale? What did you buy?

Yarndale 2017

The blog has been rather pattern launch heavy recently, so here's a bit of a change of pace: a little peek at my trip to Yarndale a couple of weekends ago.

Yarndale is a yarn festival held annually at Skipton Auction Mart. This year was the festival's fifth year, and apparently there were over 8000 visitors!

I hadn't been planning on going to Yarndale - I had already been to Edinburgh Yarn Festival in March and the British Wool Show in the summer - but my friend Sam said she was driving down for the day on the Sunday, and that there would be space in the car if I fancied coming along. Obviously I accepted, as did my friend Jo.

So one Sunday morning I found myself getting out of bed far too early (I was up around 6; much earlier than I am usually up!) and walking to Sam's house ready for the drive to Yarndale. Skipton is about two hours from Durham, and we made excellent time, chatting excitedly the whole way. We made it to the Park and Ride at around 9.20, 10 minutes before it officially opened! Fortunately the Park and Ride was prepared, and we caught the second bus out of the car park. I managed to do a little bit of knitting - the bus was almost empty so I didn't have to worry about elbowing anyone!

Bus knitting

We did have to queue to get into the festival, but only because it wasn't open when we arrived. The stewards were all very efficient about getting our wrist bands sorted out before the show opened and checking our bags. The entrance we queued at was lined with food and coffee stands, so I enjoyed a very welcome coffee while I waited in the queue!

When the show opened I made a beeline for the two stalls I knew that I wanted to buy specific things from: The Knitting Goddess for a Dalek-themed knitting bag that I have had in my online shopping basket on their site since the bags were launched a few months ago; and For the Love of Yarn for a unicorn project bag for a friend that couldn't make the festival.

Once I had done my 'essential' shopping, Jo, Sam and I walked methodically round the festival, eyeing all the stalls and squishing all the yarn. There were so many wonderful things to look at: knitting-themed cards; fabulous crocheted mandalas; so much amazing yarn (I've shared a few of my favourites below); fantastically innovative ways of displaying socks; balls of yarn as big as Sam's head (you can knit a whole jumper from that ball of yarn); Latvian mittens...

Greetings cards from Beyond Measure

A fabulous shade of purple from Yarns from the Plain

I'm considering displaying all my hand knitted socks on sock windmills (Five Moons yarns)

Sheep socks. I have no idea where I saw these!

A ball of yarn as big as Sam's head (on the Woo Sheeps stand)

Can you knit like a Latvian? Latvian mittens from Hobbywool

I did not take enough of my own advice at this yarn festival. Towards the end of the day (when we were all a bit tired) we tried to find the stall that was selling the Latvian mitten kits. We knew that their tag line was 'Knit like a Latvian', but ended up walking round and round in circles trying to find the stall with the mittens. We did eventually find it, but only after asking a lot of people for help! It turns out the stall was called HobbyWool, not any of the many, many options we tried in the vendor list. If you see something you like at a yarn festival, always write down enough information to work out what it was later!

As ever at a yarn festival, I found a lot of buttons that I loved. I particularly liked this method of displaying buttons, which I saw at the An Caitin Beag stall.

I am surprised none of us came away with cat buttons

Once we had looked at half the stalls, the three of us were pretty shattered - it turns out cooing over yarn is exhausting. Thankfully Yarndale has plenty of outdoor space for picnics (and the weather was perfect: not too hot, not too cold, and dry). The outside areas were all decorated with intricate yarn bombings, which were interesting discussion points while we ate. Not that I took any photos of them!

Back in the hall after lunch, we continued our walk around all the stalls. We found more yarn (lots of yarn); beautiful magnetic ceramic pin catchers (unfortunately I can't remember who was selling those); cute cuddly toys; an excellent project bag; fantastic tapestry city map cushions; easy peasy christmas decorations that combined wool and wood...

Unicorn Fart yarn by Easy Knits

Fabulous Donegal Nep Aran on the Ripples Crafts stall (we all bought yarn from this stall; the colourways were amazing)

Ceramic needle dishes

Adorable cuddly toys on Sue Stratford's stand. I love the little dragon

Cute hedgehogs from Jem Weston

The cutest sparkly elephant on Truly Hooked's stand

The best project bag (from Temporary Measure)

Aren't these cushions brilliant (from Hannah Bass)

I love this decoration. It would be a great activity to do with kids (from Woolly Mahoosive)

...and a ridiculously large crocheted mandala.

All in all an excellent day out. It took me a few days to recover!

Did you go to Yarndale? What was your favourite bit?

If you want to see what I bought, pop back tomorrow.

Yarning Along: A top-down challenge

This week's Yarning Along finds me just the tiniest bit tired. On Sunday I went to Yarndale with my friends Sam and Jo and had the best time (yes, there will be a full post about Yarndale in a few days time), but that combined with the usual mild winter lurgies means knitting time has been a bit limited by my need to get a few early nights!

I'm currently working on a lot of top secret projects that will make their appearance in the new year, but there is one project I can share: some top-down socks in Regia Pairfect.* I've used this yarn before and it really appeals to my perfectionist tendencies. The yarn is designed in such a way that it will always result in two perfectly matching socks, and comes with stitch counts for various foot sizes. The one drawback with the yarn is that it forces you to knit the socks top-down, which is unusual for me. I'm using the basic sock pattern from Custom Socks (an excellent comprehensive book, for the sizing charts alone), but I did somehow manage to knit the heel flap over the wrong number of stitches as I hadn't divided the stitches evenly for the ribbing and didn't think to check before working the heel. So I'm now halfway through my second attempt at the heel.

I am still reading Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine, and am a little less enthusiastic about it than I was last week. I am finding the writing style very, very readable, and have been making an effort to read when the house is quiet, but the main character is annoying, and I'm finding that certain aspects of the story aren't ringing true for me. I was starting to think that the story might be a little predictable, but the bit I was reading last night had a sudden change of pace, so it's possible this book might be surprising in the end.

One other thing I've been doing a bit more of in the past couple of weeks is baking. I haven't especially enjoyed the current series of Bake Off; I'm finding the editing of this series is making the format more formulaic than it needs to be, and am annoyed that the adverts make the running time of the show excessively long. I wondered whether doing some baking myself might make me more enthusiastic about the show, so last week I baked some blondies with peanut butter** that were amazing (and the kids didn't like them at all, so I didn't have to share), and this week I baked a simple chocolate cake, which was delicious, and I did enjoy last night's episode a little more, so maybe it's working!

Linking up with Rachel for Yarning Along.

*Affiliate link.

**Recipe from Bake by Rachel Allen.

Top tips for visiting a yarn festival

This weekend I'm off to Yarndale for the day, and I am am very excited! Having been to several yarn festivals, I thought I'd share a few of my top tips for visiting a yarn festival.

Ahead of time

Book your accommodation
If you're having to travel some distance to the yarn festival and need to stay overnight, book your accommodation as soon as you can. If the festival is somewhere small like Yarndale (held in Skipton, a market town in Yorkshire), accommodation will be limited and is likely to book up fast. If there's no accommodation available very locally, it's worth looking a little further afield and making a weekend of it. For last year's Yarndale I stayed in York with my friend Amy and we got to enjoy a visit to that city as well as the yarn festival. One thing to consider is how easy it is to get between the accommodation and the festival; Skipton has a railway station, so you can make life a little easier for yourself by booking accommodation in a town on the same train line - this will allow you a chance to have a rest on the train while getting back to your hotel in the evening, rather than having to drive after a long day.

Buy your ticket
Yarn festival tickets are often available ahead of time, sometimes at a discount rate, or with preferential entry for advance ticket holders. Last year Edinburgh Yarn Festival, for example, gave priority to those with advance tickets, and advised those without tickets to arrive a little later in the day when numbers in the venue start to fall. I missed out on an advance ticket and was a little concerned about not getting in (it was fine in the end!).

Plan your transport
Some venues have parking outside, others don't, so it's a good idea to check before hand and work out what your plan for the day is. Yarndale provides a park and ride service, as well as a free bus to transport visitors from the town centre and railway station. I can also be nice to take a walk to the venue, especially if yarn bombing has been laid on to greet visitors.

Work out who you really want to go and see
Most festivals release their vendor lists and maps several weeks before the event, which gives you the perfect opportunity to see who'll be there and work out whether there are any 'must see' vendors. If there is something you really want to buy, it can be worth making a beeline for that stall before the thing you want sells out.

Write a list of what you want to buy
When you get to the yarn festival, it's really easy to be overtaken by yarn fumes and buy all sorts of things on a whim. In the weeks leading up to the festival, I make a mental plan of the things I'd like to buy, and work out roughly what they might cost. This can help to avoid overspending and buying things you might not really want when you get them home (or duplicating things you already have).

Set a budget
I have been to yarn festivals with all sorts of budgets, and have had fun at each, regardless of how much I had allowed myself to spend. But I do always work out ahead of time what I can afford, and have that in my head before I set off. It really helps focus the mind if you know you can't buy everything!

Check the festival website for what you can and can't take
Some venues have restrictions on what you can take into the venue (the Yarndale organisers have requested that no suitcases or large rucksacks are brought in, and they'll be conducting bag searches on entry), so you should always check the festival website before you arrive.

On the day

Travel light
Not all festivals have cloakroom space; it's wise to check so you're not carrying too much stuff into the venue and are left lugging it round with you all day. You'll probably be adding things to your bag throughout the day, and don't want to be weighed down too much at the start.

Wear comfy shoes and layers
Yarn festivals can require a lot of walking, so I always make sure I'm wearing comfy, lightweight shoes. I also make sure I dress in layers so I can remove layers if I get hot once I'm in amonng the crowds.

Show off your knitwear
One of the most enojyable things about visiting a yarn festival is admiring everyone's knitwear. A yarn festival is the perfect place to show off something you've knitted that you're proud of!

Take cash 
While most vendors will probably take cards, some won't, and others will have problems with their cards machine, so it's a good idea to take your budget as cash (this also helps you not to overspend). I also take some extra spare cash for food and drink or emergencies and keep it separate from my yarn budget so I don't accidentally spend it.

Take some food and water
While there are generally places to buy food and drink on site, the queues are often quite long, and I find that sometimes I want a break from the crowds, so would rather find a quiet corner and have a quick drink from my bag than queue.

Carry a notebook and pen
The one thing I always take to yarn festival is a notepad and pen. I find I can get really disoriented at yarn festivals, and struggle to remember where I saw a particular thing, so if I see something I like I make a note of what it is and who was selling it so I can go back later (or order it online at a later date if my budget on the day won't stretch that far).

Pack a bag
It's fairly inevitable that you'll ending picking up the odd purchase while you're at the festival, so it's good idea to make sure you have a bag to hand to keep your acquisitions safe and clean.

Take your knitting
Every festival I have visited has a knit and natter space for visitors to take a seat, have a rest and get their knitting out. Make the project small and easy - venues are often noisy and you won't want to be working on something that takes your full attention.

I hope you've found these tips useful. Whether you're going to your first or your fortieth yarn festival, I hope you have a great time.

September plans

Hello there September! The past few weeks have been a wonderful whirl of holidays, beaches, parks, gardens, travelling and other fun stuff. I have really enjoyed the summer holidays, but I'm now looking forward to a slightly quieter month; besides, the weather feels autumnal now and I am ready for autumn, handknit socks and cozy blankets!

I'm not certain September is going to be much less busy, but it will defintely be differently busy. I will be off to Yarndale on Sunday 24th September. I wasn't planning on going, but a local friend is driving down, and it would have been rude to turn down the lift (ha ha! I leapt at the chance!). There are two things I need to do before I go to Yarndale: one is to work out what I want to buy (I am currently considering picking up one of the Coop Knits books and the yarn required to knit some colourwork socks); the other is to finish my Pavement Sweater, which has languished for the whole of August. I really hope I can get it done!

The most recent Pavement sweater photo. There's quite a long way to go!

I will be releasing at least two children's sweater patterns this month, assuming I can get my daughter to agree to a photo shoot soon! Photo shoots are always good fun, but there is never a guarantee that I'll get any good photos - I tend to take several hundred as children are great at the unexpected... Turns out 'never work with children or animals' is good advice!

This gingerbread man will be making his appearance later in the month!

September will be very busy on the knitting front: I managed to sneak a small pile of submissions in over August (I worked like I was possessed for a couple of days knitting swatches), so will be working hard getting my Spring samples knitted! Obviously all those patterns will be secrets until they're released, but I am really excited about all of them.

My aunt and uncle are having a big birthday party in October, and as they already own everything, I will be knitting them a pair of socks each. I haven't knitted socks for either of them before, but am pretty sure that they are both knitworthy people.

So, September isn't going to be less busy than August, but there will be more knitting time as the kids are back at school and nursery. I will miss them when they're not at home, but at the same time I am very much looking forward to a little bit of time to myself.

I hope you've had a lovely summer. What are your plans for autumn?