#TURBOEYF

I am delightedly packing for the Edinburgh Yarn Festival and have some news and announcements before I head off.

Firstly, congratulations to Florapie whose name was randomly drawn to win a PDF copy of Spilly Jane’s magnificent tome, SPILLY JANE KNITS MITTENS.

Florapie says…

SpillyJane has so many amazing mitten patterns that I could work her patterns exclusively for a couple of years and still not work my way through all of my favourites!

…with which we at KNITSONIK wholeheartedly agree. Cooperative Press will soon be in touch with you to deliver your PDF prize.

Next I’d like to say a HUGE thank you to my friend Gordon Anderson, whom many of you will know as the tourguide to Buachaille Etive Mòr in Kate Davies’s magnificent tome Buachaille. I’ve stayed with Gordon and Mel in Edinburgh on several joyous occasions and in those visits I’ve fallen in love with Arthur’s Seat, which we have climbed together. For this reason, I wished it to be the main inspiration source for my Colours of Edinburgh class. Gordon very kindly went up the mountain and took many photos of its glorious aspects for us to use in the Colours of Edinburgh classes. I can’t wait to show you the palette of yarns devised through looking at these images.

I’d also like to give a big shout out to Sarah and Jonathan of Purlescence. I’m travelling to Edinburgh on the train this year and, because of my teaching commitments, I’ll not be selling copies of the KNITSONIK Stranded Colourwork Sourcebook directly at the festival. However Sarah and Jonathan will be carrying the book on the Purlescence stand so if you are intending to buy my book at the Edinburgh Yarn Festival, they are the folks to find.

I can highly recommend visiting my friends from Shetland on the Shetland Wool Week stand and finding out about another truly wondrous woolly event in the calendar. Congratulations to Ella Gordon, who is this year’s patron for Wool Week!

This year’s EYF is also going to see the unveiling of Rachel Atkinson’s Daughter of a Shepherd yarn; I have watched this unfolding story with increasing glee and we wrote about it for Wovember; I am so excited to squoosh that Hebridean wonderment for myself.

I cannot be the only knitter who is thrilled at the prospect, too, of the Kate Davies Designs stall and two glorious new designs by Kate that are launching at the festival. Kate’s posts charting the route from inspiration to finished design for Miss Rachel’s Yoke and Gauntlets and Funyin (with its backstory in Hornsea pottery) have been some of my most joyous reading so far this year; it’s going to be just lovely to see those designs in real life and of course to see KATE!

My buddies from Tall Yarns’n Tales will also be there this year which is a huge temptation if, like me, you are a fan of beautifully made epic work-wear with deep pockets. You can hear Linda and Andrea talking about their amazing work with textiles here.

There will be many buddies at the Edinburgh Yarn Festival and Jo and Mica have done an incredible job of making this event a joyous one in which the forces of wool can warmly converge for one weekend. I am stuffing as many hugs and smiles into the KNITSONIK luggage as will fit, as these are the main necessities when heading to a glorious congregation of fibre and friends. When I am not teaching, it is most likely that I will be found in the Podcast Lounge with Louise Scollay, AKA my woolly comrade.

I am looking forward to seeing you there: it’s going to be TURBO.