Edinburgh Yarn Festival 2016

I had the briefest, fleetingest, shortest imagineable encounter with the Edinburgh Yarn Festival 2016 on Friday, and I was utterly charmed. 

I wandered around the yarn market for an hour or so, with a stop for tea and most delicious cake part way through. It wasn't really long enough to do the place justice, or really have a good rummage and browse for the things I wanted.

I spied a few well-known faces from knitterati: Tom, but no Kate, from Kate Davies Designs, Ysolda, Stephen West - who was impossible to miss in his extraordinary outfit. I was trying to describe it to the jelly bean (age 6). She didn't believe me!

I stayed mostly on-message - with some rich blue DK yarn from Wollmeise to make myself a hat. That was definitely part of the plan. 

I also picked up some gorgeous DK weight yarn from Skein Queen - also part of my me-made plans. Stupidly I convinced myself that 2 skeins would be enough! It might be close, but I doubt I'll manage either of the two patterns I have at the top of my queue.  And, as you can see in this photo, the two skeins I picked seem to be subtly different in tone/colour. That is probably the fault of the 'show' lighting in the Corn Exchange - I did have 4 skeins to choose from! But it's not insurmountable. 

The extra thing I brought home was this little haul from Ysolda - two patterns and some of her kitten-soft silvery grey undyed yarn. 

The other pattern is her blank slate sweater. I had to pet the yarn a little bit yesterday, and hand wound it whilst drinking tea and chatting to the little bean. It's seriously nice. Silky and soft, and a lovely pale grey. I'll be casting on for that hat as soon as I can find the right needle, and, I can see a blue version coming along just behind it. 

Stash. Bust.

Howdy folks. 

Some kind of crazy tidying and organising bug got me over the holidays, and even before the New Year bells rang, I began whittling away at the accumulations of things around me, those little drifts of stuff that collect here and there, in a drawer, on a window ledge, above a fire. Then when the rain stopped long enough for me to sprint across the garden to the shed, I tackled a stash. 

[Side note: not The stash, but A stash - more specifically my stash of yarn.]

Last year, we remodelled our bedroom and substituted a gargantuan built-in wardrobe for something slightly smaller. While all of that was happening, my stash of yarn - organised into 4 clear plastic boxes - was sent to the shed to await repatriation. Over the summer my knitting mojo has been fairly elusive and not much has happened (see this if you don't believe me), but with Christmas and all, I picked up my needles again and the mojo was back. 

Kondo's approach to tidying/decluttering is to discard first and then organise. She advocates gathering things into one place, and handling everything as you decide whether to keep or not. Her test involves asking yourself if something gives you joy. For the stash I used a 'do I want to knit with this?' test. 

It was surprisingly easy to part with a lot of stuff: novelty bobbly yarns; squeaky acrylic; single balls of chunky yarn; half a pack of green wool yarn - I used the other half to knit a nice cardigan, but couldn't imagine making anything else in that colour; a whole pile of slubbed cotton yarn in bright pink, and something similar in black which I've had since the 1990s, Habu paper yarn which I've had for about 5 years but never worked out what I would do with...

I also let go of two very lovely handknit Aran sweaters that my maternal grandmother made. They were made for my dad, and I have had them for at least 10 years. I tried them on (again). They still made me look like a lumpy sausage. My husband tried them on too. They made him look like a badly dressed schoolboy, wearing a too small hand me down. I hope they find good new homes with people that they fit.  

Other things were definitely on the keep pile - all of my nice hand dyed sock yarn, and plain 4 ply for baby things, small piles of nice DK yarn, some odds and ends of mohair, and some cones of grey and teal yarn that I have distant plans for. I managed to hunt out all the little project bags concealed around the house and gather them together. 

The end result was a big pile of things 

To 

Go

Away.

We donated it to a local charity shop later that day (the Bethany Shop next to Summerhall in case you are interested). 

And, the rest of the yarn was organised into 2 clear plastic boxes, and stowed without drama in the wardrobe. Tada! 

One box is mostly DK or heavier weight yarn, and the other is 4 ply, sock yarn, lace weight and other special skeins. 

It's nice having my yarn nearby again, so I can squish it whenever I want. It feels like a good to be clearing out and clarifying like this. 

My next target is books, and then after that I will have to take on 

the 
fabric 
stash. 

Cue scary music.  

LYS

Ooh, look what has just arrived in my neighbourhood: a new yarn shop.
I have only peered through the window so far, but could see lots of pretty skeins hanging up...
I might just have to nip in and buy myself a birthday present.

Knitting Gods

The knitting gods smiled on me yesterday and I found an extra ball of the blue yarn I needed.

The most miraculous part of this is that it is the same dye lot as the other balls I have. Yippeeee!

However, despite walking round Edinburgh for several hours, the baby has not yet taken the hint about moving towards the exit. So, today's list of things to do includes a quick hike up nearby Blackford hill...

Projects a-gogo

Much is happening in these parts,and there are oodles of finished and in progress projects stacked up.

The sewing machine has come out of the cupboard again, so I've been whipping up a few things for the children....

This morning I'm off into town to get a few things (thread, ribbon, elastic) including an extra ball of that sparkly blue yarn - if I can find some. Phoebe is coming on nicely, but I think I'll run out of yarn....

Still no sign of the baby.

De-stashing

Whilst I have been working hard on the stash busting over the last couple of years, there are some corners of the stash which look decidedly dodgy. There is some really awful acrylic and wildly coloured yarns which came either from charity shop raids, or from my grandmothers knitting basket. I think I inherited her thrifty ways, as well as her bag of yarn unravelled from long forgotten jumpers. 

But, I have a plan. It is cunning, and a bit daring and probably also rather mad. And I'm hoping it might look a bit like this...

 

Apparently highly coloured acrylic yarn is just the thing cos it lasts for ever .... who knew?

Knitters place

Tomorrow I'm involved in a meeting about some research we have been doing. We are meeting beforehand in a local cafe and gallery.

It's a knitters sort of place with cones of bright yarn lined up in the window, and textiles in the galleries.

As if that wasn't enough, hot drinks come with their own knitted cosies - which are really cute. And, there are scrummy cakes with and without gluten.

Do try it if you are in town: the dovecot cafe and gallery, infirmary street, Edinburgh.

Drama....

There has been something of a post illness lull in this house. I have taken up one or two little projects to keep myself occupied - some weeny jackets for those twins I mentioned - but for the last couple of days I have been enjoying myself enormously making endless pompoms and watching the Killing (series 1). [If you dont know it, its a Danish crime thriller/drama series which moves very slowly over 20 episodes and which has the enigmatic Anna Lund as the main character. Anna is of course famous for her knitwear - witness last week's discussion on BBC R4's woman's hour...]

We have been easing ourselves into the Killing over the last few weeks. After episode one, DH said he wasn't too bothered about it, and I watched the next few on my own. Somehow DH managed to be in the room when I watched episodes 5 and 6. Can you see what is coming next? When I got back from pilates last week, there he was watching episode 7 on his own. His face was suitably guilty...

Trouble is, what with the Danish and the subtitles and all, you have to really concentrate on the screen lest you miss a significant comment or detail. It is not the time to be knitting anything with charts, or rows that needs counting. I even found it hard to increase every other row when knitting weeny jacket no 1. It all looked tickety boo until I looked at it carefully in daylight and had to rip back a few rows to fix the increases I had missed.

Last night I managed a double bill of the Killing, and switched to pompoms. They are a lot more forgiving - although I do of course have to put them down now and again to really concentrate on the drama.

Can you tell what it is yet? I've come over all Martha Stewart, and I'm making a christmas wreath with pompoms. It's eating into my stash very nicely, and using up some of the dodgier balls of yarn in an entirely pleasing way, as well as some of the less dodgy things. Dont you just love how pompoms made with mohair turn out? Gorgeous.

I made the base for my wreath out of a coat hanger, bent into a suitable shape and padded with some strips of fabric topped with toy stuffing. This was secured with yarn. Lots of yarn. I used up some peach coloured yarn underneath, and then topped this with white yarn, as the pompoms are mainly white/cream. DH approves of the stashbusting - and it's using up quite a lot of yarn. The bean inspected the half finished wreath this morning, and declared it gorgeous. I promise to show it off when it's finished...

In other news, we have had our first snow of the season. Not enough to make snowmen or throw snowballs, but just enough to dust the grass and verges with white and to freeze the earth to stone (good job I dug most of the spuds up last week).

DH is further north at the moment - near to Loch Fyne - in a lot more snow. He set off very early yesterday and arrived safely - waiting for the road at Rest and Be Thankful to open, rather than taking the long diversion. But the weather meant that they did no work because it took all day to get their equipment up 5 miles of snowy track to their site. So, it looks like he will be there most of the week. Best get cracking on his Christmas socks then....

Birthday Bling

After 40 years on this earth, I seem (finally) to have got my dearest and nearest into the groove in terms of gifts. My husband gave me some splendid jewellery - pearls (my birthstone) and diamonds - from the rather nice Lime Blue in Edinburgh.

My mother and mother-in-law both gave me sock yarn. Mum gave me some more of Jenny Cook's yarn from Hay-on-Wye - this time a blue yarn with a silver sparkle; my mother-in-law gave me two differnet yarns - a hank of purpley blue Malabrigo, and a ball of pinky Berocco, also with a sparkle. My mother-in-law also gave me Jane Brocket's latest book - the Gentle Art of Knitting. I foresee several tea cosies in the near future.

There were other gifts too, notably, a copy of Ysolda Teague's 'little red in the city' (which hasn't quite arrived yet) and several bottles of wine... It's nice to be of an age where people give you lovely wine and good books.

Simple pleasures

Knitting is such a simple pleasure isnt it? I love the process AND the end result - especially when it is worn and loved and appreciated. There seems to be so much to catch up on, so I'll be short and to the point here.

Much Christmas knitting has gone unblogged, and worse, unphotographed. I sent a pair of mittens and a lacey scarf to friends in Denmark. I also made socks for my dear father - maybe I'll be able to catch them in use next time we see him.

I did however, manage to make myself another pair of socks with the leftovers from Dad's socks. I combined the plain blue from his socks with some of the self patterning yarn from 2008's christmas socks, and used a grumperina stripe (one round plain, one round patterned yarn). I really like the end result, comfy, machine washable, stash-busting and pretty!

At Christmas I was lucky enough to be on the receiving end of some fine knitterly gifts.

My dear husband not only got me a copy of EZ's knitters almanac, but also added membership of Rowan for the year.

I like getting things in the post, so regular instalments of Rowan loveliness via their newsletter and magazine is a great treat. The free gift is a kit to make a bag from 6 balls of rowan denim. As I dont really need any more bags, I'll probably knit something for the bean instead.

I also received this lovely skein of sock yarn from my parents (thanks mum!). I'm itching to cast on, but there are other. things. to. do. first.

One of those other things is finish this: the bobble cardigan (sans bobbles). I need to reknit the collar/neckband as it's a bit flabby, and then finish the seaming and find some buttons. I like the way's it's turning out though...

Meanwhile the first birthday is looming and Lottie is still on the needles. Yikes! Better get on....

Catch up #3: socks again

Despite the disappointment of the yarn shopping in Denmark, a couple of weeks ago I went to see my parents. Because of building works at home, the bean and I spent a week in the Marches where I grew up. While we were there, we nipped over to Hay-on-Wye - a small market town, nestling high on the banks of the river, and just across the border in Wales. Hay is most famous for its numerous second hand bookshops, and latterly its literary festival. I just know it for its crooked lanes and stone cottages - the same today as 30 years ago.


While we were there I stopped in at bedecked - which not only has scrumptious buttons, but also has Rowan, Colinette and other delicious yarns. I fondled quite a few things, but nothing asked to be carried away home. Just across the way on the other side of Back Fold, I stopped in at another shop - a cooperative of weavers, spinners and knitters, which has many wonderful things inside. Some handpainted sock yarn - an alpaca merino mix - looked rather good, was well priced and just had to come home with me.


Its from Jenny Cook in Gladestry, and feels lovely. I couldnt wait to wind the skeins. I'm itching to cast on for some new socks, but I must finish Other Things. humph.