Tuesday, August 31, 2010

St. Abbs Wool Festival

I headed along to the Woolfish festival in St. Abbs yesterday. It was a gorgeous day - lovely and sunny. I took Orla along with me and we had fun.

I met up with people from the Woolfish knitting group who I hadn't seen for ages - was lovely.

Natalie from the Yarn Yard was there too with Jane. I sat and knitted with them for a while and finished off my August socks - Orla was thrilled and wanted to be in the photo:



I was a bit disappointed that at the end of the Flying Saucer yarn it looked like the yarn hadn't been dyed properly. Do you see what I mean?



I was very good and just bought one skein of Crannog (The Yarn Yard's lovely new yarn). Can't wait to cast it on.



This was my view of Natalie's stall - yummy...



Friday, August 20, 2010

Flying Saucer Socks

I had a knitting weekend last week. It was rather nice. On the Saturday my lovely friend had a house-warming barbecue in Perth and Kinross which was a convenient 20 minute drive from Knit Camp in Stirling. So, after a slow start, I dropped off the kids and husband at the party and headed off to knitting-ville.I won't dwell on the negative sides of Knit Camp as, to be honest, I knew I couldn't make any of the classes with the summer holidays on, so I just concentrated on the Market Place ;-) Although - my one (small) issue was that I paid in advance and was supposed to get a Goody Bag. I arrived late and there were none left. A disappointing start.

So the Market Place was lovely and I loved looking round the stalls. I picked up a yummy parcel from Natalie at The Yarn Yard. I also got to squish her lovely new lace yarn - crannog. (Also discussed here.) Boy is it squishy! I am looking forward to getting my hands on some when she has dyed up some more.

Also at the Market Place was Shilasdair - The Skye Yarn Company. I have looked at their site so many times and love it - but have never bought anything so it was lovely to see it in real life and I couldn't help but buy a lovely skein of their aran yarn in a deep red.

The lovely Vicki from Wild Fire Fibres was there. I have bought from her in the past and love her yarn. When I got to her stall she only seemed to have lilac left (I was there very late) so I just bought a couple of packs of DPNs from her.

What else did I buy? Oh bother - struggling to remember - I finally subscribed to Yarn Forward Magazine. I also bought a whole heap of buttons.

Oh - I know what else I bought - I went to the Knit 'n' Caboodle stall. I didn't realise it has recently been taken over by new people - and good luck to them. I bought some DPN tubes for sock projects which has come in very handy with my flying saucer - also bought from them. What on earth is a flying saucer? Well - it is a new sock yarn from Schoppel Wolle that is dyed as two threads so you get *identical* socks. The two threads are wound onto a core which spins - like a flying saucer... Check out this video to see it being unwound.

I have it in a pink/red/purple colourway. But - I am not winding mine in two balls and knitting from them. I am knitting two pairs of socks at the same time. Remember those needles I bought from Wild Fire and the DPN tubes I got - well they are all coming in very handy. I am basically knitting on 9 needles at the moment with one spare. It's fun - unwind a bit, knit a lot, swap sets, knit more, unwind a bit and so on.... I am loving it - just a plain vanilla sock (well two.) This means I may get my August socks done after all...

Oh - and then the other bit of the weekend. Well I went with Natalie (of Yarn Yard fame) to Glasgow to a lovely PicKnit organised by Antje from The Yarn Cake (a shop soon to open in Glasgow - squeeee). It was at the Botanics and it was a gloriously hot day. I was absolutely in awe as Ysolda was there (who I have seen a couple of times before) but also Ravelry's Jess and Casey. I was too shy to approach them but did have a quick conversation about Irn Bru with Casey. Hee. Seriously I was so shy in their presence. I had a ball!