Looking Back With a Smile - Perth Festival of Yarn 2018

I've had a week now to reflect on my visit to Perth Festival of Yarn 2018 and I still haven't stopped smiling when I think about it!  I was so excited to be attending my first event as a blogger, then someone said to me - what does that actually mean?

Well, this is my personal blog so it offers my personal perspective on the event.  I really want to convey in words and pictures the warm atmosphere at this yarn festival - and I mean in terms of friendliness, not just the rosy glow of my cheeks! 

My blogger badge gave me the confidence to approach vendors in the market place, as well as fellow festival goers, and have a chat about yarn, knitting and knitwear amongst other things.  Some people I met are old friends, some I know through Instagram and some I'd never met before, but everyone took time to stand with me and smile.  I'm grateful to my festival buddy, Caroline, for taking all these pictures of me!

The event venue at Perth contributes to its success and these views over the market place at The Dewars Centre show over 70 vendors accommodated here.  There's plenty of shoppers, yet lots of space to move around freely and ample seating too - see the orange chairs in the right hand photo?

The stalls were a riot of colour... (Featuring Wee County Yarns, The Loveliest Yarn Company, The Fabulous Mr G, Rusty Ferret, Airedale Yarns, Lammermuir Wool, Cookston Crafts, Phileas Yarns, Big Cat Textiles to name but a few)

... with oases of calm neutrals and pastels... (New Leaf Yarns and The Border Mill)

...punctuated by humour! An Caitin Beag

In the podcast lounge, which overlooked the market place, I met some of the people I regularly listen to whilst I'm crafting at home.  I look a bit unsure that my self-timer photo is going to work - but it did!  Can you spot that Julie's top and my shawl are knitted out of the same yarn?

Spotting fabulous handknits is easy at festivals and I took full advantage of chatting to some of the enthusiastic knitters.  Pictured are : Helen's own design cardigan in Birlinn yarn, Wee County Yarns cowl using their mini balls, Lynn's neon striped Go-To Raglan, Silvie's stall sample socks, the yoke of Trish's Lush Cardigan,  a gorgeous shawl all the way from London and Rosie's Exploration Station.

Whilst having a breather in the seating area, I spoke to those around me who were also relaxing mid-shop and asked for a peek in their shopping bags.  Claire, Liz, Hilary and Eveann all shared their purchases and we talked about possible patterns and future knitting projects for these gorgeous skeins.

And what of my own shopping bag?  Well, the one I made specially for the festival (and blogged about here) did its job and held all the lovely things I bought.  I'm already looking forward to new cast-ons, more needle felting, embroidery and crochet too.

The last word on my day out must be to thank Eva, Festival Director, and her team at Perth Festival of Yarn for creating a marvellous event - and inviting me to come to Perth to write about it here.

And I'm still smiling! 

See you at PFY19!!

Festival Ready - Perth Festival of Yarn 2018

Yarn festival survival is a hot topic in the run up to the event itself.  This always makes me laugh and think I'm going to need a Swiss army knife in my knitting bag and Bear Grylls tucked under my left arm as I enter the festival venue!

That being said, there's great advice available online to make the most of your festival experience.  Perth Festival of Yarn has a section on its website entitled Yarn Fest Survival 101 (scroll down after the floor plan)

Knitting expert and Perth festival tutor,  Karie Westermann, has also compiled The Fibre Festival Survival Guide  and crochet guru, Fay Dashper-Hughes, shares her top ten tips for surviving and thriving at yarn shows in her Crochet Circle Podcast Episode 33 (watch at 13 minutes and 41 seconds in) or you can read her Shownotes.

So, with just a short time now until I go to Perth, I thought I'd share my own thoughts on making this a fabulous festival!

Friends

I'm meeting a friend at Perth Festival of Yarn so will have company to peruse all the stands.  Here's her knitting, her very covetable mug, and her gorgeous dog!  She lives in Perthshire so it's a great chance for us to spend the day together.

As I've attended a few yarn festivals before, including Edinburgh, Dornoch and Dingwall, I'd still go even if I was by myself. 

Fibre folk are generally very friendly and there's a feeling of camaraderie amongst festival goers.  Striking up a conversation isn't so difficult when you already know you've got a shared interest and may both be wearing compliment-worthy knitwear!

Feet
Be kind to your feet!

You'll be on your feet for most of the day so leave your stilettos at home and opt for comfy shoes.  Handknit socks are, of course, optional!

Food
I can't let myself get too hungry.  It makes me 'hangry' so I'll be hanging out beside the biscuits from time to time with my portable knitting project and a cuppa, eyeing up what everyone else has bought whilst I re-energise.

Focus
Printing out the Floor Plan is a must.  Mine's now liberally annotated with highlighter to make sure I don't miss out on the stands I really want to visit and the people I really want to meet.  I've got my notebook from Popcorn and Crocodiles that I blogged about here and I've assembled patterns, swatches and buttons to take with me to remind me of knitting projects in my future. 

I know there's still a chance this might go completely out the window once I get there and see all the pretty yarn and knitting paraphernalia (and get chatting) - that's why I need to focus!

Fibre
Finally... it's all about enjoying the event, the company of friends, making new connections and filling my shopping bag with happy purchases. 

I've even got a wee surprise up my sleeve (well, pinned to my chest!) so look out for me, say hello and I'll give you a neveratalooseend button badge!

It's in the bag - Perth Festival of Yarn 2018

When I saw an advert for the ultimate festival shopper I knew I needed this!

The ad was for a crochet workshop to make a clever stowaway bag - perfect for festival yarn shopping!  The workshop was to be held at Baa, a (relatively-local-to-me) yarn shop in Stonehaven which opened its doors to Aberdeenshire's fibre aficionados at the start of this year.  

I'm going to Perth Festival of Yarn shortly.  (I may have mentioned this already.)  I needed a(nother) shopping bag.  I signed up straight away.

So last Friday I spent a productive afternoon at Baa in the company of lovely ladies, including Dorothy, our patient tutor pictured here, who also designed the crochet clam shell bag.  It's no accident I'm positioned between the kettle and the cake!

Fortified by plentiful cups of tea, here's how my wee bag took shape.  I learned some new crochet stitches and construction techniques along the way.  It's always a pleasure to be creative in the company of others and chat with those who share your interests.

All the best workshops include home made cake.  Chocolate and pear sponge?  Don't mind if I do.

And look how much yarn will fit into my finished bag...  Lots!!

Thank you Baa for a great class, delightful company, new skills and a really useful finished project.  I see more of these in my future, possibly as gifts.

Earlier this summer I met Janice Anderson for the first time.  Janice is the owner of Baa.  'Owner' doesn't really convey the super-powers required to run a local yarn store as a successful small business - knitter extraordinaire, designer, teacher, yarn curator, events manager, accountant, hostess... I suspect the list goes on.  Janice will be taking a selection of her woolly wares to Perth Festival Of Yarn on Saturday 8th and Sunday 9th September 2018 - including kits to make Dorothy's Clam Shell Shopper!  

Janice is also a tutor at the festival, teaching Brioche Basics on the Sunday afternoon.  

So look out for Janice at Perth - and me with my brand new shopper, stuffing it full of gorgeous goodies!

All about colour - Perth Festival of Yarn 2018

I love bright colours.  I love pastel colours.  I love neutrals.  I love ALL colours!

Especially when it comes to yarn.  And yarn festivals are a feast for the eyes - especially if you love colour.

But I can't carry colours in my head.  It turns out I'm not the only one as this scientific article explains -  how the brain remembers colour.

So when I bought this souvenir skein by Greta and the Fibres in Barcelona in April, I thought it'd be great with my mini skeins from My Mama Knits I purchased at last year's Perth Festival of Yarn.  But the pinks just don't complement each other.  Too peach.  Too blue. Too  wrong.

But help is at hand - I bought an Adventures in Yarn notebook from Emily at Popcorn and Crocodiles in January after seeing it featured on Instagram.  I've already personalised mine!

Specially designed for knitters, crocheters and fibre crafters, it has lots of space to make notes and plastic pockets to store patterns, business cards etc.  But the most thoughtful features as far as I'm concerned are these yarn loops on several pages allowing me to take my colours with me!

So I don't have to try to hold colours in my head!  Years ago, when I studied mapping, I had to learn colour theory.  It's a complex subject so I really like the inclusion of these colour wheels in the notebook.  So helpful when putting colours together.

I'll be taking my notebook with me to Perth Festival of Yarn next month and visiting the stalls of Greta and The Fibres and My Mama Knits who are both vending there, along with over 70 others. 

I've got some pretty colourful projects in mind for my future knitting such as this gorgeous wrap - Lead The Way by Megan Doherty (photo used with permission)

Find out who else I'll be visiting and what else I'm planning to do at Perth Festival of Yarn in my next post.

Looking forward and back - Perth Festival of Yarn 2018

I'm really looking forward to  Perth Festival of Yarn.

This year's event will be held at The Dewars Centre in Glover Street in Perth on Saturday 8th and Sunday 9th September 2018 from 10am to 5 pm each day.

 As if spending the day in the company of like-minded friends surrounded by yarn, yarn and more glorious yarn wasn't exciting enough - it's my first official outing as a blogger!  I wrote this post after last year's outing to  Perth Festival of Yarn.  Eva , the organiser and all round festival champion, kindly asked me back again this year so I can blether about it some more.

So I thought I'd start my personal festival build up with a little look back at my 2017 purchases - and what has become of them.

Let's begin with the turquoise skein...

I began knitting a replacement shawl for my sister with the turquoise skein from Kingfishersblue, a haberdashery and yarn store in Leith which was vending at Perth.  She loves turquoise!

(The tale of woe about the first shawl I knitted her, also turquoise, is detailed here.  I'm clearly NOT over this yet.)

I knitted another On The Edge Shawl for her by The Knitting Goddess.   One skein projects make great holiday knitting so I took it on holiday to Lisbon last October and presented the finished shawl in person to my sis when she came to visit me in November.  This is a lovely shawl pattern and you can see I'm wearing mine here too (and in my profile picture) as I love it so much!

My biggest purchase of the day, the beautiful 400g skein of Blue Moon Indigo Eclipse, dyed expertly by Lindsay Roberts aka The Border Tart, became my first finished object of  2018.  During January, I knitted the flecked sky blue double knitting wool into my second Peppered Top as I really like this pattern by Katya Frankel. 

I'm quite unable to behave seriously whilst taking a selfie!

My wee fabric pot from Wool-n-Wood was crafted in Malawi and sold in Scotland by community nurse, Lesley, to support artisan workers in that part of Africa.  It started off as a place to keep knitting notions but has found its true calling in the living room as home to our TV remotes!

I do use my pretty shawl pin from Couthie Designs to secure this shawl but have to admit I've yet to make my Dorset button decoration from the kit I bought from Tanya, TJ Frog.  Perhaps writing this blog post is just the nudge I need to get started!

Though I haven't made anything yet with this beautiful rainbow of mini-skeins from My Mama Knits, I have found a pattern I like for this wrap.  I need a self colour to go with my minis and am sure I'll find something suitable at this year's Perth Festival of Yarn as there are so many lovely yarn vendors attending.

So that's a round-up of all of my purchases from Perth Festival of Yarn in 2017.

Now I need to focus on what I wish to buy this year - and that'll be the subject of my next blog post!

Fusing (not con-fusing)

It's no secret that I like coloured glass.  This wee selection is on display in the bedroom and I've blogged here about the stained glass piece I made last year which hangs in our hall.  There's a rainbow sun catcher in the lounge window and other decorative glass bits and bobs around the house.

When the opportunity to take a fused glass workshop with renowned Aberdeen glass artist Shelagh Swanson arose, I jumped at the chance.  Shelagh has produced beautiful artwork for Aberdeen's Duthie Park and I was able to see first hand her commission for The Silver Darling Restaurant on a recent lunch date.  Check out the photos of her glass herring shoal sweeping majestically up the spiral staircase in Shelagh's own blog - my pictures just didn't do it justice.

 

So, on the evening of the workshop, Shelagh welcomed me to her bright studio in Market Street in Aberdeen which overlooks the quay with its ever-changing array of colourful harbour traffic - and the occasional window ledge seagull!  

I took my pal Carol with me - she's a dab hand at stained glass so I knew this'd be right up her street.  Three other experienced glass workers joined us in the studio making our two hour workshop a sociable and creative experience.

 

First we had the opportunity to explore the studio and look at finished pieces to see what might be achieved.  We'd the choice of making four coasters or one larger panel of fused glass, and both chose to make the latter. For a little extra, the panel could be moulded to make a tea light holder but we both chose to create a flat piece for our first attempt.

Shelagh made sure everyone was working safely with the tools and materials as we got to grips with the cutting equipment and special glass.  This has to be able to withstand the high kiln temperatures required for fusing.  There's some crossover with the skills required to make stained glass so I felt reasonably confident handling the glass cutter and nippers.  However, the fusing powders and granular frits were quite new to me as were the tiny glass rods called stringers.
.

I made a rough pencil sketch of the landscape I hoped to create and then got on with cutting my pieces and assembling my 'sandwich' of coloured bullseye glass, frits, powder and stringers.
   

Meanwhile, across the table, Carol was creating these lovely daisies.

Our precious panels had to be very carefully carried to the kiln once completed as most of the glass bits aren't stuck down or attached in any way.  No one sneeze please!  

With our very enjoyable evening at an end, we thanked Shelagh and left her to contact us once our panels had been fused in her kiln.

I was pretty excited when Carol told me she'd been to collect them.



Carol sent me these pictures so I could see how they looked and what mine looked like at her window with the light behind it.  Once I had my own panel home, I tried hanging it in several places before I was happy with its permanent spot.  This skinny end wall faces our inner front door so it's one of the first things you see on entering our house.



I'm really pleased with my first ever attempt to make something using the fused glass technique.

And it won't be my last as I'm going back this week to have another go!