Edinburgh Yarn Festival 2015

I'm very lucky to be writing this from my bed with a lovely cup of green tea with lemon and I've just polished off 2 crumpets with jam - yum!

I've had a particularly busy weekend which has been so much fun. Yesterday, as it was Mother's Day, I invited my Mum and our friend Janice round for a vegan afternoon tea. I baked tomato and Rosemary scones (which were just divine) along with other goodies. It was a lovely afternoon.

Anyway, I really want to tell you about Saturday and my trip to Edinburgh Yarn Festival.  

Back in January, I just had a look at train prices and discovered I could travel for £11 each way. Of course, I had to book them at that price and it was a great excuse to meet up with my friend Jo (aka Shinybees) as she now lives way up north in Elgin. My friends, Michelle and Debbie, on hearing the bargain price, decided to come to and so the adventure began.

Our train left Wigan at 7:38am so Mr Bunny dropped us off at Starbucks so we could fuel our journey.  

Here we are waiting at the station with rather excited faces fuelled by caffeine!

The train journey was lovely with beautiful views, lots of crochet and chatter about our day ahead. 

It only takes about 2 1/2 hours to get there so we arrived around 10:15, jumped in a taxi and headed to The Corn Exchange.

Lots of yarn addicts where waiting enthusiastically outside. We joined the queue. It moved quickly. We chatted to the security guard about his need for a woolly head. We got inside. We got our wrist bands. We put our coats in the cloakroom. 

First stop, find Jo, hug, catch up and give her her birthday present, my goddaughters and my nephews (I'm a fake northern Aunty!!!) She was in the podcaster lounge along with Louise from Caithness Craft Collective. We entered the free raffle - and Michelle won a prize! 

Then to do what we came for - shop - Wow! What a gorgeous array of stalls. There was just about everything you could want or need and, as ever, I was completely overwhelmed! Gorgeous hand dyed yarns, fibres, buttons, sheep themed goodies, felted items, books, patterns, project bags, stitch markers,. Phew! We walked around, browsing each stall, making mental notes, fondling yarn and getting generally excited.

The first highlight for me was The Crochet Project. Kat Goldin and Joanne Scrace doing it for the crocheters - because crochet is cool! I bought a copy of their new shawl book, The Shawl Project,  which has 6 beautiful shawl patterns in and a section on how to design your own shawls. I had a fan girl moment with Kat Goldin - awesome crochet designer and author of Slugs in the Regfridgerator blog. Michelle also purchased the book and we are planning what to crochet first. (Reviews to come later)

It was great to finally meet Eden Cottage Yarns. Such beautiful colours and fibres. I completely forgot to go back for some DK yarn in bright pink and green - thank goodness for Internet shopping!!!

I bought a scrumptious skein from Easyknits - I love their colours. I picked something I liked but wouldn't normally go for. I even had it wound at The Teapot Trust stand so it's ready to use.

I also purchased this gorgeous yarn cake to but I can't remember the name of the stall.

Aileen Clark Crafts was there with her beautiful felt items. I couldn't resist these gorgeous felt sheep earrings.

I also bought buttons and a shawl pin, a yarn hair clip and a project bag and 5 mini skeins of yarn - I just couldn't resist the cuteness! 

We had also booked onto a crochet bird brooch workshop with Carol Meldrum. This was lots of fun and I learnt how to make linked stitches - I will be using this lots!

The venue was amazing - plenty of seating for eating your lunch, no queueing for toilets, great food and a bar (we may have partaked of a glass of vino!) Everyone was super friendly and it was great to meet Instagram and Ravelry friends. 

The journey home was easy, with lots of admiring of our purchases. 

On Sunday morning, I wished I was going again - my purse certainly wasnt! 

Maybe next year I'll stay for the weekend! 

Yarndale 2013

Just over a week ago, me and Mr Bunny headed over the Pennines to the beautiful market town of Skipton for a new yarn festival - Yarndale.
The festival took place over 2 days and we attended on the Sunday. A few friends of mine went on the Saturday which was super busy. The Sunday was much quieter and pleasant (although when we left it was starting to get busier).
There was a great range of stalls, from yarn, notions and buttons to handmade items such as felt bags and delicate shawls.
The whole venue had been decorated beautifully with various knitted and crocheted delights such as bunting and flowers.  I loved the crocheted houses in the knit and natter area, which was a snug place to sit and have a little rest from shopping. If you check out the Attic 24 blog, you can see photos of the amazing yarnbombing which took place in Skipton (we didn't get chance to see this).
Needless to say, I did purchase a few goodies! A bought a gorgeous handmade project bag from Daisy Bun Boo Designs made from beautiful bunny print fabric, some.angora yarn from Bigwigs Angora  and a small skien of Blue Faced Leicester yarn from Laal Bear amongst other things (take a peek at the photo below to see some of the other goodies I bought!)

I met the lovely Knit.Spin.Cake on Daisy Bun Boo Designs  with her equally lovely mum as well as some alpacas and angora bunnies.
I would have liked to have seen more animals and I know, that for some people, parking was an issue. But, for a festival in it's first year, I felt it was well organised, in a brilliant location and offered lots of goodies for lovers of all things woolly. I`ll definitely be back next year!