Perth Festival of Yarn - What happened to my haul?

According to the Urban Dictionary, the top definition of the word 'haul' is shopping spree and there's nothing quite like a yarn festival for indulging in a spot of retail therapy if you're as fond of yarn as I am.

So here's my haul from last year's Perth Festival of Yarn - but what has become of this pile of wonderful wool, crafty kits and knitterly notions, one year on?

Let's start with the Adventures In Yarn mini notebook and pencil from Popcorn and Crocodiles.  These were a present for a local knitting friend who wasn't able to make it to Perth last September.  She was very happy with her gift!

Emily (left) is the lady behind Popcorn and Crocodiles - Katherine (right) provides support and endless smiles!

I'm happy too, surrounded by all this fibre.  Here's me smiling as I clutch three jewel-toned balls of lambswool I bought at the J C Rennie stand at PYF.  And here's an even happier me in the Korat sweater I knitted from Carol Feller's pattern with them in January.  I wrote a blog post about this jumper here.

I bought four skeins from Northern Ireland's Giddy Aunt Yarns of multicoloured BFL sport weight wool.  These became the Islay cardigan by Gudrun Johnston over the course of several week's knitting in May and June.  My chosen colourway of Giddy Aunt's beautiful hand dyed yarn is 'Woodstock'and I love it!  

It's not had much wear over the summer but yesterday in Aberdeenshire felt decidedly autumnal and I was glad of my new woolly cardy with its wooden heart buttons.

A further purchase was a needle felting kit from Little Gem Felts for a glasses case.  I made a start on this over the summer but it's still a work in progress (and possibly the subject of a future blog post!)  

I have yet to decide what to do with my treasured skein of yarn from Stranded Dyeworks.  This was the special colourway dyed by Amy of Stranded for Perth Festival of Yarn 2018 and I'm happy to wait for the right project, and perhaps the right accompanying yarn, to inspire me.  Meanwhile, I like pairing it up with possible companions in the craft room.

Finally, Helen of Dundee based Giddy Yarns (not to be confused with the aforementioned Giddy Aunt Yarns from over the Irish Sea) gave me a stitch marker when we were chatting at the festival.  It's helpfully keeping my place for me as I work on my current crochet shawl.

Reviewing the goodies from the haul I brought home from Perth has reminded me what a fun day out I enjoyed a year ago just now.  It's also reminded me of the enjoyment my purchases have brought me, and others, over the past 12 months, as well as the future joy I'll derive from wearing my hand-knits.

I hope you'll have a great time too if you're attending Perth Festival of Yarn 2019 on 7th and 8th September - Little Gem Felts, Giddy Yarns and Giddy Aunt Yarns will be vending again this year.  

Let's hope you return home with a great haul too!