Edinburgh Yarn Festival 2018

Last month I travelled to Edinburgh for the annual Edinburgh Yarn Festival. Edinburgh Yarn Festival has been running for a few years, and is one of the highlights of my knitting calendar. So what did I get up to while I was there?

The day started early - I live in Durham, which is an easy day trip by train from Edinburgh, but to get there for doors opening at 10 am still required a rather early start! The weather was a bit of a surprise, with bitter wind and a little snow, and the day didn't have the best start with the ticket machine in the car park being out of order and the only other option being an automated phone line that refused to understand my accent through the howling gale! I did manage to get the car parked in the end though, and just had time to collect my tickets (and grab a coffee to warm my hands on) before catching the train.

One of the lovely things about travelling to a yarn festival by train is spotting fellow knitters - the people in the seats next to mine were both knitting, and from their conversation I could tell they were definitely on their way to the festival. When we reached Newcastle the seat next to mine also became occupied, by a lovely knitter who lives somewhat locally to me, and we had several friends in common (six degrees of separation is definitely reduced within the knitting world!). We chatted the whole way to Edinburgh, admiring each others projects and yarn, which made the journey go super-quickly.

Having been to Edinburgh Yarn Festival twice before, I knew the bus route, so hopped onto the bus and watched as it filled with fellow knitters along the way (you could mostly tell by the assortment of hand-knitted hats!). I had managed to pick up an advance ticket, which avoided a lot of the queueing; I think the staff let ticket holders in a few minutes early to save us all freezing! Getting in early really helps with browsing without the crowds, so I made sure to start by having a look round the whole of the marketplace. There were so many beautiful things on sale, lots of wonderful hand-dyed yarns from companies I was familiar with, and many that I wasn't. The festival is very much geared towards smaller producers rather than larger companies, and it was lovely to be able to chat to the stall holders before the room got too busy.

Rather than wander aimlessly round the marketplace (which is a sure-fire way for me to blow my budget), I had deliberately picked up a couple of skeins from home that I wanted to buy a third skein to go with so that I can knit them into a Doodler. With this in mind, I wandered round the marketplace hunting for the perfect third skein, taking photos of all sorts of combinations to bear in mind for later.

Two skeins in need of a friend

Potential yarn mates

Once I had looked at most of the stalls in the marketplace, I wandered up to the podcast lounge, where I caught up with lots of people I had met before, and met lots of new people that I chatted to as well. The podcast lounge was much less crowded than in  previous years as the organisers had added an extra marquee to the back of the venue to allow seating for an extra 500 people. It really changed the dynamic of the whole event, and for the better as there was a lot more space to just sit and chat and knit, which is what knitters do best!

I decided that it would be sensible to pop out to get some lunch, for a bit of fresh air if nothing else, and handily the venue is right next to a large supermarket, so I braved the freezing conditions (yes, it was still snowing!) to take a quick walk out of the venue and clear my head. Once I'd had lunch I returned to the festival feeling refreshed, and embarked on more chatting and yarn browsing. I finally found the perfect third skein for my collection - a skein from Undercover Otter via the Stephen and Penelope stand. Stephen West was there, and I was wearing my Dotted Rays shawl but I was far too shy to go and say hello!

My perfect skein...

...and here it is with its friends!

While I had been browsing the festival there was one colourway I kept being drawn to: a vibrant mint green with dark purple speckles. A lot of dyers had variations on the yarn and every one of them was beautiful. For some reason the yarn seemed familiar to me, but I couldn't work out why. After another period of sitting and chatting I realised that I already had a skein of something very, very similar at home!

My favourite skeins had a lot in common with this one!

As the festival was drawing towards its close, I had one final browse of the marketplace. It was really starting to wind down as people were heading off, which allowed much more space to browse. I had looked at the Martin's Lab stall earlier in the day, but it was too crowded to see everything, and when I went back at the end I saw a beautiful cowl made from mini skeins, which I knew I would love to knit and wear. Martin's Lab had both the yarn and the pattern (Soul Warmer by Lete's Knits), so I bought both and am hoping to knit the cowl as my advent project this year.

Perfect last minute purchases

My other purchase on my final look round the marketplace was a skein from The Wool Kitchen that I had eyed every time I walked past it. I have no idea what this skein will become but the colours are perfect and vibrant and so, so beautiful. I might just keep it for a bit to admire.

A flash of colour

By this stage I was pretty tired, but still had a couple of hours before my train was due to leave, so I headed to a coffee shop (within a book shop) to have a sit down and rest my feet. After the busy-ness of the festival, the rest was very welcome!

I dozed for most of the train journey home. The weather was still bad and I was grateful that the trains were still running. There were no excited knitters on this train - I suspect a lot of us were dozing!

Were you at Edinburgh Yarn Festival? What was your favourite bit? What did you buy?

Edinburgh Yarn Festival 2017

The weekend before last I went on another yarny adventure (my second in three weeks having been to Joeli's retreat, which is pretty good going!), this time to Edinburgh Yarn Festival. This was a real treat as I had thought that I wouldn't be able to go as my husband was going away that weekend, but his plans fell through and I got to go! I decided to post a photo an hour to Instagram for the day, so have lots of pictures to share here now. Here is my day at the Edinburgh Yarn Festival.

My day started way too early - I managed to get up even before my alarm went off at 5.50am. As I was up so early, I had time to make and drink a coffee, and wound the next skein of yarn for my Dotted Rays, just in case I finished the skein I was on (which seemed pretty unlikely as I had about 25g of that skein to go, but it's always good to be prepared).

6.10am: First coffee and yarn of the day

I had planned to get the bus to the station, hence the very early alarm call, but in the end decided to drive and park so I wasn't left hanging around waiting for a bus in the evening. This meant plenty of time to get breakfast at the station, and a bit of knitting while I waited for my train to arrive.

7.05am: At the station: coffee and breakfast

The train from Durham to Edinburgh takes a couple of hours (and is a very scenic route as it runs along the coats for large sections), which I spent in the company of knitwear designer Katya Frankel, which was lovely. I also browsed through my copy of The Simple Things magazine (I love this magazine and love to have a copy with my while I'm travelling; I am clearly their target audience - there was an advert for the knitting shop Loop in there!) and did a few more rows on my Dotted Rays.

8am: Magazine reading on the train

I arrived in Edinburgh and was greeted by my friends Lynda and Leigh (Leigh makes excellent knitting bags, you can check out her shop here) who I joined for (another) breakfast, before finally making our way to the show.

9.37am: Second breakfast

10.40am: I have arrived!

When I arrived at the Festival I was on a bit of a mission; I wanted to get two skeins of red yarn to make a scarf, two Portuguese knitting pins and some buttons for a cardigan. I had been warned by many of the people that had gone to EYF on the Friday that it was incredibly busy, that the marketplace was rammed with people, and that if I wanted to buy particular things, I would be best off heading straight for the stall and buying straight away. Taking this advice I headed straight into the marketplace when I arrived and started my search. Saturday was (fortunately) a bit less busy. There were a lot of people, but not so many that it was overwhelming, and there were lots of spaces in which you could take a break and breathe for a few seconds.

I saw a lot of beautiful red yarn: Phileas Yarns, Travel Knitter and Easy Knits all had yarns that I loved. Dye Ninja was my favourite though; there were so many beautiful, intense saturated colours on the stand. I loved all the shades of blues and greens too. Having a definite plan made browsing a lot easier; I saw a lot of things that were beautiful - everything The Wool Kitchen had for sale was so vibrant and cheerful - but having a plan meant I wasn't tempted to buy things I wasn't necessarily going to use (and I have plenty in my stash that may never be used, so don't need any more!).

1.30pm: Drooling over the Dye Ninja stall

I could only find one stall selling buttons, but it was a good one! Textile Garden had loads of tiny glass pots with a huge variety of interesting buttons. Obviously I was drawn to the novelty section... I have no idea how I resisted the octopus buttons!

Buttons = essential purchases

One brilliant thing about Edinburgh Yarn Festival is the podcast lounge: a large seating area where you can sit and knit, chat and eat (including picnics; which allows more money for yarn!). I sat in the lounge for a few hours over the course of the day, catching up with people I know well, people I've met before, people I know of through Instagram and meeting new to me knitters. Everyone was very welcoming, and it was lovely knitwear-watching as so many people were wearing amazing knitwear!

2.25pm: A little sit down and knitting time

I left the Festival around 3pm, and enjoyed a walk through the city with friends, followed by afternoon tea and a bit more knitting. I deliberately tried to take it pretty easy as I know that overdoing it when I go away for the day tends to knock me for six. Finding a peaceful cafe was very welcome after all the hustle and bustle of the festival.

3.30pm: A walk through the city

4.05pm: Afternoon tea

5.05pm: Still sitting and knitting

I caught my train home a little after 7pm, and slept pretty solidly almost all the way home!

And here are my very modest purchases: 200g red (Nanny Ogg's Bloomers, with a donation to the Alzheimer's Research UK, in memory of Terry Pratchett) merino/silk blend DK from Dye Ninja, two Portuguese knitting pins from Textile Garden and a mini skein from Easy Knits (which will be added to my sock yarn blanket). I didn't buy any buttons as I couldn't see what I wanted (cats), but have since bought some bird buttons from Textile Garden, and they are lovely.

My lovely purchases

Did you go to Edinburgh Yarn Festival? What did you buy? Will you be going next year?

Two steps forwards, one and a half back...

This week hasn't been great for knitting; while I did finish a cardigan on Tuesday (minus the buttons), I did have several days where progress was definiely in the wrong direction.

My Dotted Rays shawl that I cast on before going to Joeli's retreat wasn't perfect - the i-cord tab at the start was a little messy (possibly twisted?), and the i-cord edging had the odd error, but nothing too untoward, so I merrily added a few more rows one evening, then did a stitch count and it was all wrong! I had totally forgotten to do the increases. Normally I would have carefully unravelled the work to get to the last point that I knew was correct, then rework what had been unravelled. I tried the careful unravelling, but the short rows made it impossible, and before I knew it the shawl had been returned to a ball of yarn. Ah well, at least it was free of errors!

I started the Dotted Rays again and my second attempt is much tidier. And I'm paying a lot more attention to the pattern, so there shouldn't be any more mistakes (probably tempting fate there). It's growing a lot faster now as I understand the pattern, and have started using markers to work out where to turn the work. I think it might now get knitted quite quickly as the yarn is lovely and I'm certain I am going to love the final shawl.

The pink socks I showed you last week are also no more. The lace pattern was perfect for the leg, but required a lot more work on the foot section. I've unravelled them and will put them back on the needles this weekend once I've rewritten the pattern.

Thank goodness I've had some lovely plain vanilla socks on the go. My SockmaticianSockalong socks are progressing really nicely. I have just finished the first sock and it looks great. I decided to make them a bit 'Sockmatician-y' by working 2 x 1 rib for the cuff, which is what Nathan said he uses. I am trying to make the second one match, but this yarn has a lot of short colour changes, so it might not happen...

I am off to Edinburgh for the yarn festival this weekend. While I'm there I'll be trying to keep up with a special photo an hour (#EYFphotoanhour) on Instagram (I don't think it's the official date for March, but I thought it might be fun), and I'm certain I'll have lots to post here next week. This week has been a tiring one, so while I am giddy excited about going to a yarn festival, a huge part of me is looking forward to being able to sleep on the train! I do have a shopping list so I avoid getting carried away: 200g red semi-solid to make a huge squishy garter stitch shawl (I need one, I decided yesterday), some dark wood buttons (and some featuring cats; the request of a small child), and a second Portuguese knitting pin so I can do colourwork. If you see me there, feel free to say hello. I'll be the tired-looking one!

And while I remember, anyone waiting for the books read in February post, it's not happening; I read one Famous Five parody in February, and that's not really worth a whole post - I'll tag it on to March's.