Time flies when you're having fun! ( part 1)

Well, after the flurry of excitement that was Edinburgh Yarn Fest, along came spring and....it's almost over already! We've been so busy here at Midwinter - we're doing many more shows than last year and have already attended another two since, with a third one just around the corner!

First up was Wonderwool - a show very close to my heart. Situated in the Brecon Beacons just over an hour from Caerphilly, it is our "home" show: one of the very first I ever attended as a customer and, of course, the one that started us off trading last year. Yes, Midwinter Yarns is already a year old!

We've grown a little, of course, carrying a wider range and more colours, and I was so flattered when, this year, we had a whole rush of customers come to us first thing in the morning, telling us that we were on their list of stalls to visit. Compared to last year when we literally were complete unknowns, that meant an awful lot.
Some shopping, as always, did occur. This is me, pretending I haven't just spent a three figure sum on a ball winder from The Threshing Barn ...

but what a ball winder it is...

Solid wood, no skipping cogs, so smooth to use, and it looks so pretty with the industrial red accents!

There was a little yarn, too:

My mother's haul: space dyed blanket pieces for embroidery, the obligatory threads from Oliver Twists, a hank of delicious something from Knitwitches, a gradient ball in Silk and Camel and Angel tears (or something) from Natali Stewart and some chunky art yarn that I hope to make her a hat with...I just love the colour!

My restrained lot looked like this:

Left to right: rainbow bright pure camel yarn for some very fine fingerless mitts, aran weight yarn from Little Owl Crafts from their own sheep reared on Dartmoor, to be combined with the lovely neutral from Five Moons to make a New Caesar Shawl . I spotted this pattern on a customer and it's just so unusual and apparently deceptively simple: it looks like complex colour work but apparently this is all made up of slipped stitches, so now tangling and no carrying yarn! I haven't had a chance to cast it on yet, but I am really really looking forward to it. 

picture by Susan Ashcroft

And whilst I agonised and counted the pennies over the ball winder, there was one thing I dropped everything to go and buy, including possibly a couple of customers: this little sheep brooch from Coastal Colours .

I spotted it on a visitor and just had to have it!

At the end of the weekend, we were exhausted but so thrilled to have come back to where we started, caught up with some of our incredible supporters that have rooted for us from that very first day and met lots of new fans and introduced them to our yarns. There are still many shows to come this year, but I'm already looking forward to next year...when I will hopefully manage to eat something more than just birthday cake during the day...

Winter pansies hat

After seeing all the beautiful colour work paraded around at the Edinburgh Yarn Festival, I was itching to come home and cast on a little project of my own, especially to try out our brand new solid colours in the Ullcentrum 2ply wool. 
Aware of that spring was coming and the hearty, double-layered wool probably (hopefully) won't be much use in a couple of months, I chose something small and quick, and Karie Westermann's Gillean Hat was just the thing : a very well written, straight forward pattern which features some really nifty decreases on the crown and simple motifs to ease you into colour work if you haven't done it before. 
And I just love this yarn, the rich velvety colours, the soft sheepiness, the way it blooms after a soak. I particularly love the fabric it makes in colour work, stiffer and more solid than just plain knit - I really can't wait to make myself a little jacket in this for the autumn!

Pattern: Gillean Hat by Karie Westermann
Yarn: Ullcentrum 2ply Solids - Plum and Lion, one of each
Needles: 3mm for the ribbing, 3.5 for the hat

Wonderful Edinburgh!

Edinburgh Yarn Festival.
What can I say?
What an amazing, exciting, vibrant, tiring event to have been a part of!

The rental company spoilt me with their newest, shiniest van, MP3 player and all, and we thundered through the country in great comfort on Friday morning, although I struggled to keep it on the road once I started gawping at the snow covered hills in the Lake District, and the bouncing spring lambs in the Borders.

After many many coffee stops, we eventually arrived to set up at the Corn Exchange mid-afternoon. We off-loaded all the boxes and then sort of stood there and stared at them for a bit. By then I was far too busy trying to find out what pattern sweater one of the organisers was wearing because I NEEDED one like it RIGHT NOW , and snooping around at what everyone else was unpacking.

Eventually we did manage to turn the stall into something a bit more professional-looking and retired to our very comfortable and quiet hotel room and didn't make it any further than the downstairs restaurant for dinner, once more falling asleep in our pints by 9pm!

A good night's sleep later though, we were ready to face Saturday. We arrived early for some last minute tweaks and to check out the car boot sale next door. And then the doors opened....
This was pretty much the view I had of our stall for the duration of the day:

So much excitement, so many wonderful comments from lovely people! Having mostly done shows in the south of England so far, I noticed a real difference in people's tastes in Scotland, much closer, in fact, to Scandinavian ones. People were hugely excited about our "proper" wools, the once that are a bit crisp and smell of sheep and ideally have some twigs spun into them. I also noticed that the visitors to the festival were wearing vastly more colour work than I've seen down south, which was hugely inspiring.

Sunday was still very busy, but more mellow than Saturday. Leaving the stall in Mark's capable hands (he was far more photographed over than weekend than I was, including by Stephen West as he was wearing a Boneyard Shawl in our linen yarn), I got a chance to explore the festival myself (although I still missed loads!) and catch up with some friends and meet some new ones too (none of which I had the presence of mind to take pictures of, sorry!). Eden Cottage Yarns were there on their huuuuge stand, ready to share their show experience...and tools. Juliet and John from John Arbon were cheerful as always and either had the exact same conversation twice with both Mark and myself, or Mark and I were too tired to remember that we were standing right next to each other when the conversation took place....frankly by the end of the weekend we didn't quite know our own names anymore.
We also had a visit from Enrico from Parisian yarn shop Les Tricoteurs Volants, showing off his shawl in our gradient lace weight Ullcentrum that he bought in Brighton last summer.

My two favourite new discoveries were the wonderfully cheerful Siidegarte - sumptuous silk heavy blends from Switzerland in glorious, shiny colours

picture by Siidegarte

and the gorgeous, soft Alpaca Tweed from The Border Mill with the best illustrations ever. I wanted to buy most of their stall just to collect the labels!

In the end, this was my reasonably restrained haul (so many shows still to come this year, I had to try to be good!):

Springy pastel green Alpaca Tweed for my mother, along with the Aisling kit from Eden Cottage yarns, and a couple of naturally dyed silk/wool mini hanks from Shilasdair.
His and Hers hanks of indigo dyed yarn from The Border Tart - DK for a hat for Mark, sock yarn for actual socks for me.
A last minute ball of Alpaca Tweed for myself too, although Mark seems to think that it's a much more "him" sort of colour and won't suit me at all and shouldn't be taking up space in my stash and he 'll gladly take it off my hands. He is so selfless like that.
One thing I'm not sharing is the ball of liquid gold - I will take a better picture at some stage - my real, unnecessary yarn splurge of the weekend: Handmaiden Mini Maiden - silk/wool singles in the most glorious, shiny colour way, brought over all the way from Canada by La Maison Tricotee and expertly wound by the Teapot Trust who were operating a charity winding station at the show.
And finally, in lieu of tartan-everything from the Royal Mile, a "couthy" Blanket from the Knockando woollen mill - soft and light in beautiful warm mustards and reds.

picture by Knockando Mill

And of course, on order, 5 hanks of custom dyed silk and linen from Siidegarte for a very special project of mine still to come :)

Monday morning we still had a quick visit of Edinburgh. Neither of us had ever been, but even after just a quick whistlestop taking in the views, a little bagpipe busking and a veggie full Scottish, we were rather smitten and are already more excited than Christmas that the organisers have announced plans for the next one next year!

Gearing up for Edinburgh

We've been looking forward to it all winter, and it seemed so far away, but now Edinburgh Yarn Festival is nearly upon us!

Only two more sleeps and then it's time for our epic road trip to Scotland....where I've never been!
I'm genuinely excited about the journey itself - I love driving and especially driving vans, and my Scottish friend has given me instructions for the most scenic routes and best services so providing we survive the crack of dawn start and don't get stuck in Bristol*, it should be a good trip.

 

Home is a hive of activity right now, we've had re-stocking deliveries in from all our suppliers to make sure our shelves are full and inviting: batches of worsted weight Pirkkalanka ready to become sweaters, beautiful Gotland wool, a couple of new Linen colours including a fantastic red....and these:

These are solid colours Ullcentrum 2-ply. Same as our gradient 2-ply, same beautiful Swedish wool, just in solid colours...and I'm a bit in love. The yarn feels soft but still characteristically woolly, and the colours are rich and velvety. I can see these working beautifully in traditional fairisle patterns, or as a contrast to a gradient in stripes. Every time I walk past the box I pick up a hank and give it a little squish and a pet...

Mark will be labelling all those today while I continue working up a new sample in the laceweight Ullcentrum: I had an urge to show off the very popular Cerise-Orange gradient so hopefully I will have it ready in time for Saturday!

Looking forward to seeing you there :)

*having now looked at an actual map, I ve realised we're not even supposed to go through Bristol. good start...

Unravel rewind

Gosh, I can't believe it's Thursday already! Maybe it was all the excitement of the weekend, or I'm getting old but I don't feel quite recovered yet...

That is not to say that it wasn't a lovely weekend, because it certainly was. Friday felt a little frantic as we'd come down from Wales, set up and started trading all on the same day - by the evening we barely had enough energy to stumble across the hotel car park for dinner and were in bed by 9.30, but Saturday brought a very solid breakfast with endless coffee refills and we arrived at the Maltings to find our stall bathed in sunshine.

We met so many wonderful and enthusiastic people and really enjoyed hearing the response to our yarns. The Linus shawl was a big hit again, as was the Gotland wool which left us by the armfuls.

Maddy stopped by to show off her carefully coordinated Harvest cardigan in thick Pirkkalanka:

and Mark got a lot of admiration and encouragement for being a Man Who Knits:

For me, by far the hardest part of yarn shows is watching everyone parade their beautiful knits in front of me all day long! I have a project list as long as my arm and then some, but I just kept seeing wonderful ideas that I want to cast on immediately...
I tried really hard to contain myself, but eventually succumbed to John Arbon's bargain basket which was right under my nose tempting me all weekend.
I snaffled up all their beautiful Viola yarn in underweight hanks, unintentionally replicating a colour combination that seemed to be the theme of the event: blues and teals with mustard

and then, in a fit of madness, I picked up 4 bags of broken Superfine Merino tops because what I really need right now is to start spinning a whole new sweater project. In black, midnight blue and anthracite. yup.

I blame the lady in the hand spun Vitamin D. This is her doing.
Were you at Unravel? Did you pick up anything fun for a new project? Or maybe just planned one from home?

Easy like Sunday morning...

Pattern: Kynance Cove by Isabell Kraemer

Yarn: Filcolana Gotland Wool in Cocoa, Deep Sea Green and Vibrant Green

Needles: 4mm

The perfect, perfect lounge sweater! I am so very pleased with it!
The yarn is light as air, only 550gr for a loose, long sweater in 53inch bust size, and the hairy mohair aspect typical of the Gotland sheep makes it feel completely different from all my other woolly garments. It's just loose and lovely and comfy and warm.

The pattern is very well written too, and clever: the sleeves look set in but the sweater is actually worked top-down, which means there is some utter witchcraft going on at the beginning, but keep with it because it eventually starts to make sense.

Can't wait to show it off at Unravel next weekend now :)

Giant Granny (no grannies were injured in the making of this post)

Pattern: Half Granny Square Shawl
Yarn: Thin Pirkkalanka, one skein each Raspberry, Denim and Moss
Hook size: 4mm

After playing with the Pirkkalanka colours last week, I decided to make a new show sample to show off the brighter, springier side of the range. I also wanted to try using the Pirkkalanka's generous meterage for crochet rather than knitting and I must say I'm delighted with the result. The yarn is really easy to work with a hook and gives a nice crisp result, and once blocked, the fabric relaxes and drapes nicely, making for a huge, warm shawl!

The pattern is essentially half of a giant granny square - I added an extra chain on the 3 chains at the row ends to keep the edges loose, and a little shell border as a finishing touch.