From the purple dyeshed...

This time next week I'll be setting up the stand for the Edinburgh Yarn Festival.   I am more than excited about this.  This event is going to be HUGE!  There are visitors, vendors and teachers coming from all over the world.  And I am going to be there too.   I can't tell you how much it thrills me to be part of the yarn community both in Scotland, and worldwide.   I was working out in my head the other day that I have now done this "job" for longer than any other job I've had.   "Job" feels like the wrong term as, to me, it has negative connotations, but "career" implies careful planning, which doesn't really apply to me either.  But whatever you call it, I love it.

Many of you will remember the inaugural Edinburgh Yarn Festival back in 2013.  The snow, rain, and wind could not keep folk away, and an excellent, if slightly crushed, time was had by all.  And despite being one team member down Jo and Mica decided to do it all over again this year.  This time it is to be housed at the Corn Exchange in Edinburgh - more space, and even more vendors.

At the moment I can barely move in the dye shed - it is stuffed to the gunnels with yarn:



 

While it looks fairly chaotic there is actually method in there, with some boxes neatly arranged:



I am very pleased to tell you that there will be a couple of special additions to my stand at Edinburgh Yarn Festival.  First of all there will be three new patterns available, two will be from Clare Devine using the exclusive Edinburgh Yarn Festival colourway and another yarn dyed in the Assynt Storms technique, and the third pattern will be a hat pattern designed by Jo Kelly and using the Na Dannsairean Aran (as seen above).   All 3 designs (and the Edinburgh Yarn Festival Colourway) are under wraps until the festival, so do come along and see what these talented designers have done with the yarn I sent them.

There will be new yarns to see - a pure merino double knit yarn.  A friend, Fiona,  has knitted a beautiful sample in this - Wee Melia from Ysolda Teague,   She said she really enjoyed working with the yarn.  I'm currently knitting up a shawl in this yarn too, and I am enjoying it too.  So come along and have a look at it yourself.

[caption id="attachment_8073" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Photograph courtesy Fiona Tulloch[/caption]

I will also have a very limited supply of the Hebredian/Shetland sport weight mix which will be available in 50g hanks.  And if you're after some very, VERY fine laceweight silk, I have hank-lets of these which are approximately 10g / 300m each.  While this lace weight can be used for knitting, it could also be used for stitching or sewing.



And finally, I'll have the handiwork of a Father/Daughter duo.   From Les Smith I'll have a very limited number of Yarn Pals, but I will also have Les's beautiful wooden shawl pins.  I don't have any photographs of his current range of shawl pins, but here is one of one of the designs I stocked a couple of years ago:



And from his daughter, Libby, I'll have packs of pretty snag free stitch holders.  Each pack contains 20 stitch markers in a variety of sizes and colours.



I'll have my two wonderfully glamorous assistants, Lizzi and Dorothy, with me too, so there will be plenty of us to help you on the stand.  There will be lots of samples for you to look at too.

I'm rather excited ..... can you tell?

 

NEWSFLASH!  Ripples Crafts will be on stand H2.