The Edinburgh Yarn Festival

The knitting internet has been abuzz with reports from the Edinburgh Yarn Festival these past two weeks. You may well already have read about the amazing atmosphere, the inspiring classes and the wonderful products on offer.  But we just had to add our own voices to the chiming chorus of praise for a truly spectacular event and, of course, to let you all know a little bit about some exciting new things that will be coming to TIK as a result of our research trip! While we took lots of photos of the stands and pretty knits, this one of Jenny seems to sum up the weekend the best... Walking in to the marketplace on Friday was literally a jaw dropping experience. It's difficult to describe in words the impact of so many beautiful yarns in one place, alongside the buzz of the (massive) crowds of knitters and the energy of the many enthusiastic stallholders. We dove right in to the melee and spent a wonderful afternoon immersed in colour, texture and creativity.  Frequently our eyes were caught by a stunning garment or accessory passing by. Many hardy knitters disregarded the rising heat levels among the crowds and continued to proudly display their wares. My own Cameo was packed away after the first hour, but those wonderful knitters have placed "Breathing Space", "Enchanted Mesa", "Epistrophy" firmly at the top of my queue. This gorgeous Carpino also made me delighted about my choice of project for our Spring KAL! Speaking of Carpino, Carol Feller was just one of the many familiar faces we spotted. She was at EYF to exhibit her own exclusive yarn line, called "Nua".  If you haven't had a chance to check it out yet then pop on in to the shop for a peek when you can!  We also got the chance to catch up with some of our previous guest tutors, including Woolly Wormhead and Justnya Lorkowska. Justnya will be back at TIK this coming July (details very soon) and we're hoping to nab Woolly for a return trip to Dublin later in the year too. So back to the pretties then. If you've been following our social media these last few days you will know we have already had a delivery of yarns from The Fibre Co. Their stand was really special, filled with truly stunning yarns, fresh flowers and fabulous samples. Among them was Tsumuzikaze, which I had been eyeing since it's release and just had to try on. It is wrong to order a whole line of yarn based on a love for one project? If so, I don't want to be right... ;) Keep an eye out for more fabulous new lines coming to our shelves in the coming months, and not just yarns either. How about these quirky cards from Tilly Flop? Top picks from her range for me were: "Casting on Means You Believe in Tomorrow" and "Congratulations on your new yarn storage facility home".   These will be in stock very soon, so you'll be sorted the next time there's a special occasion for the other knitters in your life. Beyond the research and the networking, EYF was also a really fun weekend away. Edinburgh is a stunning city, and somewhere I'd very much like to go back and explore further some day.  There was knitting, prosecco, dancing, selfies, silliness and lots and lots of wonderful people under one roof. Thanks to Jo and Mica for making it all possible, and congratulations to you both on an absolutely stellar event.