Yarndale

Well, this post is just a little bit ridiculously late, so I do apologise.

I’ve been rather poorly.  The chest infection I had at the beginning of the year has been back with a vengeance and it’s floored me.  10 days of antibiotics didn’t shift it…I’m currently on a dose of steroids.  Not thrilled by them but at least I can breathe a little easier than I could. Although the cough sounds like I’ve smoked 60 Woodbines a day since I was 3!

I was coughing on the day we went to Yarndale, but, like the trouper I am I put on my big girl panties and set off for a yarny adventure. 😉

The sun shone and whilst we’d heard tales of traffic chaos and huge crowds on the Saturday, for our Sunday visit we swung straight into a lovely parking space and walked into the venue to be greeted by the sweetest woolly faces.

Now at this point I’ll ask you to excuse the crappy smartphone pictures and focus on that wee adorable face.  I tried desperately to get my partners in crime travelling companions to agree to a shared ownership of an alpaca, in much the same way as you’d share a racehorse, but with built in lawn mowing and yarn.

They weren’t buying it.

And as the deeds for our house limit livestock to chickens and goats, neither did I.

Nor did we smuggle this beauty out in our handbags!

But enough of the cute and fluffies…I suspect what you’d like to know is “how good an event was Yarndale?”

I have to tell you it was amazing!  I haven’t been to Woolfest so I can’t compare, but I have been to the Twisted Thread extravaganzas at Harrogate and Alexandra Palace, and I’ve been to The Festival of Quilts.  Yarndale is by far my favourite event.

Yes it’s smaller, but we still managed to spend the whole day meandering in and out of stalls, stroking yarn, coveting spinning wheels and looms, and generally squeaking and swooning at all the loveliness.

I also feel it’s far better curated than the bigger shows.  Less tat!  More of the good stuff.  This is a Very Good Thing.

I cannot tell you how much yarn I nearly bought.  I had set myself a limit of some sock yarn for The Husband, some yarn for Aislinn v2.0 and nothing else.

Yeah…that really worked!  As it was I bought:

Drops Fabel Uni Colour 

Drops Baby Alpaca Silk in Red

Rowan Felted Tweed in Seasalter

And that was restrained.  There were a couple of patterns too.  And maybe some dpns.  But that was the yarn.

It was hard though. The crocheted Alpaca blankets were calling my name.

I could have bought my body weight in beautiful patterns.

And the yarns were, if you’ll excuse the pun, to die for! Titus from Baa Ram Ewe, anyone!

Yarndale is a knitters and crocheters paradise.  I made sure to buy a programme, which has a list of all exhibitors, for future reference. 😉

For sure there needs to be some improvements for next year.  The tea and coffee arrangements were nothing short of hopeless.  It took at least 15 minutes for Lara Croft to buy 3 cups of tea…and, as is always the case at these things, the lack of seating caused some people to lose all sense of how to behave in polite company.

But it was their first rodeo, and they did an amazing job.  I’m not in any hurry to go back to the big shows, but I’m already looking forward to next year’s Yarndale.

And, I’m hoping they’ll keep the bunting and it will become their trademark. Because its really beautiful, and kind of sums up this lovely, homespun but delightfully yarny event.

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