Yarndale 2015 : a woolly holiday

This year, I chose not to exhibit Tin Can Knits at Yarndale, and went as a visitor instead. Last year, Max was 12 weeks old and it nearly killed me to travel from Edinburgh and work the booth all weekend, despite having mounds of help from my Mom and John. So this year, the weekend after my return from a busy trip to Canada, I decided that a woolly holiday was in order, and left man and bairn to focus on the yarn without any distractions!

Yarndale definitely doesn’t disappoint!  My friend Rosie and I spent the better part of Saturday on our first pass through the market hall.  What were the big themes this year?  There were a LOT of rainbows on display!  Many dyers are doing ombre and rainbow mini-skein kits, and there were quite a variety of self-striping ombre skeins too.  There were a lot of exquisite crochet blankets in rainbow shades, and a lot of UK designers with new collections to enjoy.

There was also a number of stalls with perfectly adorable felted creatures!  It’s not a craft that I’ll ever venture into personally, but I appreciate the work that these artists are doing, and love to look.

My shopping focus this year was in looking at interesting undyed / natural yarns, and British made yarns.  I picked up some really beautiful natural shades of wool, alpaca and a merino/cashmere blend too, and had a chat to the folks at Baa Ram Ewe, John Arbon, Purl Alpacas, and Laxton’s.

Of course, visiting a knitting expo like Yarndale is also a great chance to reconnect with friends in the industry.  I had a chat with Rachel Coopey of Coop Knits and drooled over her new accessory collection Toasty Volume Two, I just love the way she’s created crisp modern and fun fair-isle designs in Baa Ram Ewe’s Titus.

I reconnected with Lydia Gluck at Pom Pom Quarterly, got a great new project bag and admired Alexa’s latest design for Pom Pom, the Hitchcock pullover, in person.

I had the opportunity to lunch and chat knit design with Justyna Lorkowska of Lete’s Knits, who is both talented and so open and friendly!  It was great to swap stories of our design projects and speak about balancing design work with little ones.

At the Ginger Twist booth, I got to hang with some of my favourite ladies!  I had a lovely brunch with Clare Devine of Yarn and Pointy Sticks, a designer and tech editor who I don’t get to see nearly as often as I’d like since she moved south, and a quick chat with Jess of Ginger Twist, and Sylvie of the newly launched Phileas Yarns.

The weekend was a hands-down success, and I cast on immediately in the new buttery soft DK weight alpaca I’d picked up from Vicky at Eden Cottage yarns… it’s a sample for a new book, so I can’t show you the right side…!

I was very glad that I enjoyed a yarn shopping holiday this year, but I’m sure Tin Can Knits will be exhibiting again at Yarndale 2016!  Fall is here, I’m planning more sweaters for #TCK12sweaters2015, and with my stash of new yarns I forsee many swatches and new ideas coming from Tin Can Knits.

Autumn inspirations from TCK: