Episode 4: EYF 2018
Hello lovely people!! No, we are still in March so it’s all good.
Last weekend (Thursday & Friday) I was at the Edinburgh Yarn Festival 2018. It was a fantastic event that I’m glad to have been there for 2 days and not more. Want to re-live it? Or come on my journey with me as I talk about it here. Read on.
Thursday
Getting up extra early in the morning to make sure I have some breakfast before driving to Edinburgh was a bit of struggle. I stayed up late the night before packing and deciding what knit wear to take with me. In the end I ended up with 2 cardigans, Anniversaire and Cockatoo Brae. I also took 4 shawls with me to show and tell, exploration station, aisling, royal mile and mystic delight.
I wanted to take those ones to show for the fact that Stephen West was there, let the dyer see how excellent her dye matching skills was and to allow the shawl designers see their work in the wild. That is exactly what Yarn Festivals are for - to see all the knitwear in the wild and to see the indie dyers yarn being used and loved.
Now, I got to Edinburgh around 11.30am which was ok, still plenty of time to look and socialise. Since Thursday was advance tickets only, there wasn’t a queue to get in at all, it was very spacious for everyone to have a proper browse. As soon as I walked into the marketplace, there was Eva, Director of Perth Festival of Yarn. She was working on Cosmic Strings booth. We both agreed that we wanted a drop spindle from Louise of Spin City so we headed over to pick one. I didn’t have a specific one in mind so it was hard to choose one. Eva picked up a lovely golden yellow one with some sparkles in it. Usually, I do a walk around the marketplace to see what is available before doing any damage to the purse. T his was an exception. We then continued round the marketplace and stopped wherever to chat to people.
Eva, returned to Cosmic Strings stand whilst I continued on browsing around casually. I automatically headed for Eden Cottage Yarns to give them hugs and to squish all of their yarn. The racks was just like a rainbow within their own different bases. My perfect sweetie shop but yarn.
Around 12 ish I headed over to the podcast lounge in hope to meet some of my fave podcasters who was already there. All the ones I did meet are on my Instagram feed which you can find me as @kalokshekellen
This was a great time as I made a new friend, Julie of CarotCoriander and Hannah of the corner of craft. Julie is lovely and she encouraged me to just sit in the podcast lounge to eat my lunch. Haha! After lunch, I continued around the market place assessing what I really wanted to get and what I could get. It also seemed that Julie and I were going to Akva for the early slot for the knit night. Great opportunity to meet more people and it’s good to know at least one person that is going so it’s not as awkward.
So by the end of the day, I bought Jamieson and Smiths shade cards, 2 full skeins and 3 minis from Eden Cottage Yarns, 2 skeins from Ginger Twist Studio, set of rainbow mini’s from Knitting Goddess and 2 skeins of Tuku Wool at Ysolda’s booth. I’ve also picked up my EYF merchandise that I pre-ordered.
So by 3.30pm I was ready to leave knowing that I would be back the next day if I wanted to get anything else. I doubted at that point. I then proceeded to go to my B&B to check in and dump some stuff down to get ready for dinner and knit night.
Walked to Akva with it being a few minutes walk away. Met up with Julie and others who were attending the festival by themselves. It was lovely to meet and chat to other knitters. I got their Ravelry names to add as friends as I thought that would be the best as some may not be on Instagram or facebook. It was such a chilled out venue as we saw other knitters gather around the various areas. As the time went by, I noticed someone dumping their stuff on the round table in front of us. I asked myself is that who I think it is. Yes it was. Nathan Taylor of Sockmatician himself. I met him at Perth Festival of Yarn 2017 so it’s nice to see another familiar face. Julie told me that she was at Perth too but too shy to say hello to him. So I went up to greet him and introduced him to our little group and he came to join us. He just arrived in Edinburgh from London so came straight to Akva. It was lovely to spend a little time with him before I had to leave for dinner at 8pm.
Dinner at Miller and Carter was lovely very chilled out place with great food. I had a Calamari, Steak and sticky toffee pudding. I met up with a fellow friend, Michelle and her OH who I speak to through Eden Cottage Yarns FB group and Ravelry.
It’s always nice to be able to spend a bit more time with the knitting friends as we don’t get to meet very often. Right after dinner I headed back to the B&B. I was more than ready to rest up for round 2 the next day.
Friday Day 2
I managed to wake up when my alarm went off as I didn’t want to miss breakfast. I stayed in bed until I felt a little bit more human to face the day ahead.
Walked over to the building next door for the breakfast and it was full. No tables left where I could sit by myself, I thought ok, I could share a table with some people. I saw the ladies who checked in at the same time as me and was at EYF the day before. I scanned round for anywhere else. Right in the middle I saw Eva, Aileen and Kirsty. All my knitty friends from IVKNers, (International Virtual Knit Night). It was meant to be. They already started but mines came very quickly. I offered them a lift over since I had the car and it made sense anyways. It also meant I had Eva as a queue buddy for at the door admission.
After a quick pack up of my stuff for check out, we headed over to the Corn Exchange. It was a simple drive over and parked up on the streets.
We managed to get inside around 1030am and we went straight for another hot drink to warm up a bit as it was bitterly cold that morning. Silly me had forgotten to take a jacket with me. Whilst in the marquee we also bumped into Julie and she came over to join us. She filled me in with the shenanigans from the knit night at Akva.
So I chilled out around the podcast lounge area for a while as I wasn’t really wanting to buy much more. I managed to meet more of the podcasters there who arrived for the Friday. It was lovely to meet them and get all the hugs.
Julie and I decided to have one last round of the marketplace, we were on a mission of some sort but it was fun as we went our separate ways for various reasons. She wanted to go to the blacker yarns meet up for the KAL that they had for EYF. I went on to get a shade card from JC Rennie and 3 balls of yarn for a sweater that I want to knit soon. I did more squishing around the yarn and couldn’t really pick anything up. I was going around in a daze. That is the sign that I’m happy with my purchases and could leave. So I went back to our table that we called base camp to find Eva. She was ready to leave too after saying goodbyes to everyone. I said my goodbyes too.
Friday was a whirlwind day so I can’t talk much about it. It was an amazing day to meet others who weren’t there on the Thursday.
I’m glad I left when I did as I knew I’d get very tired whilst driving.
That’s it folks. All photos are on my Instagram and you will find one of me on the TOFT photo booth if you go to this link
Thank you for your time in reading this if you made it this far. The next post will be an announcement which is already published on social media. So exciting!!
Above is my yarn haul for EYF 2018