A day in Edinburgh

Its all over, after weeks of saving and planning and stressing and fussing, I made it to Edinburgh and back all by my little self, well nearly all by my self, I was lucky enough to bump in to some one I had met several times, on the train heading up so I had some company which distracted me from most of my worries and I got to meet up with another friend who I had not seen in a long time at the other side which was great! It was a nice start to the day. Also meant we all shared a taxi to the venue so I didn't have to faff with buses, which is always a bonus.
As luck would have it, the snow held off, beast from the east part two didn't hit our side of the country much and Edinburgh hardly at all, apart from it being bitterly cold, but hey thats no worry when you are heading to a yarn festival, decked out in your best woolly fineries! I was very glad however when I arrived at the Corn Exchange that there was no queue to get in at all, so I was able to get in to the warmth and not stand about in the cold, wool hat or not! I was also lucky enough to meet several people from one of my facebook groups, always nice to put faces to names and it made me feel like I had friends, never a bad thing
It was time to shop, woo! Its very different wandering round on my own, no one whinging and moaning at me, saying they are hungry or tired or bored, and thats just my husband 😂 I had to tell myself at one point to slow down, there was no rush, I had 5 hours to wander and enjoy. And even then I ended up just sitting in the marquee enjoying the peace for a good hour! Of course I hit up all my favourite stalls, wollmeise being the ultimate one for me, I wanted to take it all home! Yarn is definitely my happy place.

My haul you say? Well those of a nervous disposition should look away now...

Its actually not too bad, all the top row is wollmeise, I was like a kid in a sweet shop, finding all the colours I have lusted after online and just piling them up!
I bought yet more Knitting goddess minis with some black yarn to contrast them, despite the fact I have an almost identical set at home, but there was a new pattern book out and I wanted the ones I had at home to do some from the last pattern book, and now there was a new one.. I couldn't help it, in my defence they are a difference wool blend!
The bright neon yarn on the bottom left is a new yarn to me from Coop Knits, never had their yarn before but that bundle drew me across the stalls, 5 x 50g neon skeins of yarn with special set of stitch markers? Sign me up! I see a shawl in their future..
The green/purple one in the bottom middle is from the ever lovely easyknitter, I am a long time fan of Jon's yarn, and he is always so lovely, as is his husband Roy, I get a hug and a chat, they asked after my kids, we discussed an upcoming club, its always a pleasure to visit that stall.
And last but not least the grey yarn from Mothy and the Squid, I had seen this yarn online, its hard to tell from this picture but it is grey but covered in tiny rainbow neps (little fluff flecks), which just makes this a cute addition to my stash, far too nice for socks tho, will have to think of some thing suitable to make with it.
The not yarn things are some bendy blocking wires to help me block my more curvy shawls instead of having to try and pin out a curve, pattern book from knitting goddess, some nice big buttons for my serged dream coat, and some brass rings to make dorset buttons from, which seems like an odd purchase but they were well priced compared to what I have seen online!

Before long it was time to leave, I made sure I gave my self plenty of time to get back for my train, and I was glad I did considering the maze that Waverley station feels like! I only took a couple of pictures to "prove" I had been there and if you look very closely you can see the snow coming down, thankfully it didn't amount to much, and indeed by the time I arrived back home, Wigan had had far more snow that I had seen all day, makes a change! Will I do it again next year? Perhaps! Although it is yarn dale in September hehe.

And yes, it is meant to be my second hexipuff week, I am doing them already? No, but tomorrow is another day!
Until next time!

Busy bee!

Its none stop here I tell you, first week of march was my first hexipuff week, it was going well...until the outside pipes to our boiler froze solid during the cold snap we had and no amount of hot water from our kettle was going to solve the issues as the pipe in question was 20-30ft long! Argh! Its a good job I like making blankets so we could keep warm, my kids slept in sleeping bags reserved for camping and their quilts, blankets and what ever clothes they wanted it was that cold! Eventually I ended up putting a hole in a section of the pipe so we only had to defrost a small section of pipe and even tho it took all day, it eventually managed to reheat the house and we could go back to living in the house a touch more normally!

42 hexipuff 

But of course as you can expect it took a toll on my hexipuff making and I managed 42 out of 49, which is not bad being only a day down, I can make that up some other time. I've got my next week of making coming up on the 19th of March, lets hope we have no disasters this time!

So, next weekend is Edinburgh yarn festival, I especially like this one, its taken the place of Wonder Wool for me, for a start is a lot nicer to drive to as a passenger, going to Builth Wells on all the windy roads makes me sick to my stomach, and the kids, and I'm normally such a good traveller but its just too much, Edinburgh its a fairly straight forward journey on nice straight motorways! But Edinburgh has some interesting yarn stalls I haven't come across else where, Martins Lab is a fab stall, Stephen West actually goes! And most of all, Wollmeise tends to go (was disappointed last year they didn't get a stand and I said so on a feedback form but they are there again this year!) its like a mecca to me, updates online are still like a mad scramble for yarn and I like being able to browse at my leisure all the lovely colours. I am so excited its sad!
But most of all during these festival, its you get to see lots and lots of hand made items, and its brilliant! I have made a few things this past year and I was struggling to pick some thing I wanted to wear, and for some reason my mind settled on some thing I hadn't finished yet and I didn't even know if I could finish with less than two weeks to go. I wanted to see if I could finish my Serged Dream coat I started last summer, for reasons I have long forgotten, I got as far as making the body of the coat and started a sleeve then I stopped. But I suddenly wanted this item to take with me. No I don't understand my mind either, but I set about giving it ago.

And with just 7 days to go until I board the train bound for Edinburgh alone, going the furthest I have ever been without any one with me, I have finished my coat! Its made from Stylecraft Special Dk, and loosely based on a colour pack from Attic24 called "cosy" but I made a few adjustments to it as I am not a fan of pink so I swapped them out for a plum purple and a nice teal, and I am very happy with the result!
I shortened the sleeves because I have a real thing about cuffs around my wrists, these sleeves come to just below my elbow, and I added a few extra rows to the front panels (I started this before the designer added some extra instructions for plus sizes), an extra 2 rows to the extension panel (6 in total if doing extra according to the table in the pattern), did 7 rows on the main panel instead of 4, and an extra 2 rows either side on the button panels, and it has made for a nicely fitting coat, and the vertical stripes have quite a flattering effect on them which for a person as fluffy as me, thats a good thing!
So on the 17th of March, if you see this coat wandering round Edinburgh yarn fest, come say Hi! I'll be glad of the company I am sure!
Until next time!