Edinburgh Yarn Festival

Let me start by saying this: Woooooooooool!
...um, and some other fibres too, ha ha!

The first Edinburgh Yarn Festival was a grand day out for fibre fans, that much is certain. It was a properly dreich day but we still patiently queued in the rain - this very much set the tone for the day. Not in the respect of the damp weather, but more in the respect that people were generally very good-natured, considerate and patient.

...Which is just as well really, because by the time I got there (very late morning) it was mobbed! Though after a bit, me & my friends decided to grab a spot of lunch at a nearby quirky and - I think - recently opened bar on Leith Walk, a good choice as it turned out both in terms of timing and food! On our return things at the festival had thankfully calmed down a little and it was much easier to get around and see more of the stalls up close.

It was really great to see yarn spun, supplied and hand-dyed from all over Scotland (and a few from further afield). I am pleased to say that I have noticed a real upturn in the availability of Scottish wool [and other fibres] - something I am personally quite passionate about and I try to support whenever possible.

I was also intrigued to discover that Yarn Pony not only offers beautiful hand-dyed yarns but courses on how to kettle-dye your own too!

I was very restrained in my purchases on the day but I did see a lot of lovely things on the day - I could have happily gone on a giant fibre-y shopping spree! Instead I chose a few choice pieces and used the opportunity to do a little research on suppliers I can (and likely will) purchase from in the future.

This Pac-Man woven ribbon is so, so amazing! I also love the Space Invader one from the same shop (Textile Garden) shown below. There's no way I was leaving without a little of each of them :D Their stall had lots of interesting trims and buttons for your every need.

I loved this stall's selection of pretty wooden buttons, many different designs too. I think they are done as some kind of transfer. (I just wish I could remember what the name of the business was so I could visit their website, argh!)

[EDIT: I have since discovered the buttons are from Skybluepink-Designs! Yay!]

(I also got some fab things for a yarn swap, but I don't want to spoil the surprise for my swap partner so no pics here of that stuff, sorry!)

Resources
Tin Can Knits - pretty patterns for adults, kids & accessories
Textile Garden - notions galore
The Thread Room - hand-dyed yarn in fabulous colours from Oz
Yarn Pony - scrummy yarn hand-dyed in Edinburgh & yarn-dyeing workshops
Avery Homestore - Edinburgh shop selling craft materials & homewares
Skybluepink-Designs - specialist supplier of unique yarns: rare breed wool, plant dyed, recycled, handspun
Strathearn Fleece & Fibre - raw fleece, batts, rovings and spun yarn from this Perthshire farm
Porcini & Button - handmade crafty things from Edinburgh
OwlPrintPanda - THE cutest little knitted fox purses, a fanastic selection of stitchmakers and earrings for the crafter in your life!
The Yarn Yard - yarns and fibre hand-dyed in Midlothian
The Border Mill - small-scale mill in the Scottish Borders, mainly processing alpaca fleece (I recommend visiting this site for the wonderful illustrations and "meet the herd" page!)
Alpaca Loft - lovely alpaca yarn and alpaca products
Ripples Crafts - yummy hand-dyed yarn from the Highlands
Shilasdair - yarn shop, dye house & exhibition on the Isle of Skye
Crafty Ally - knitting project & notion bags handmade from pretty fabrics
Cairngorm Bags - knitting bags made from fabulous fabrics
Fibre Forager - wonderful dyed fibres for spinning & felting

More info about the event here.

Celebrating all things Scottish!

Support your local poet: In Memoriam

In memory of Edwin Morgan who died earlier this week, I would like to share with you Scottish Fiction. He was appointed as Glasgow's first Poet Laureate (1999) and Scotland's first Makar in 2004 (Makar means Scottish national poet).

The song "In Remote Part/Scottish Fiction" from the album "The Remote Part" by Edinburgh band Idlewild features a recording of the poet reciting his poem.




Scottish Fiction

It isn't in the mirror
It isn't on the page
It's a red-hearted vibration
Pushing through the walls
Of dark imagination
Finding no equation
There's a Red Road rage
But it's not road rage
It's asylum seekers engulfed by a grudge
Scottish friction
Scottish fiction

It isn't in the castle
It isn't in the mist
It's a calling of the waters
As they break to show
The new Black Death
With reactors aglow
Do you think your security
Can keep you in purity
You will not shake us off above or below
Scottish friction
Scottish fiction


R.I.P. Edwin Morgan 1920 - 2010, a great Scottish Poet.

Oh to be a Scot

I thought as it's Saint Andrew's Day today, I would do a little reflecting on what it means to me to be Scottish. It means a lot to me to be able to say that I come from such a beautiful little country. I often wish (due to the fact that I am, and remain, fiercely Scottish, and never feel especially 'British') that I could put 'Scottish' as my nationality, however, I was dismayed to discover that my passport says I am from 'Great Britain.' I also sometimes feel that because of having to put 'UK' as the 'country' I live in (though strictly speaking - if I'm going to be pedantic - I suppose it is, in actuality, a group of countries), that I have been stripped of being able to say that I'm in, or from, Scotland.

[edit: I would also like to add that Scotland is often classed as a 'region' in the UK or 'Great Britain' and that frankly, this is a bit of an insult!]

Still, today is about celebrating my heritage, not negativity. The things I love about Scotland are far too numerous to list completely, but here are a few: wonderful scenery, nessie, lochs, skiing, bens, celtic art, the history, knitwear, tartan, the wildlife, heiland coos, haggis, red cheddar, shortbread, tunnocks teacakes, raspberries, crannachan, the beano, the broons, oor wullie, wonderful soft Scottish water, tattie scones, fudge, tablet, toffee, hogmanay, burns night, smoked salmon, Aberdeen angus beef, men in kilts, Gaelic, the Scots language - and the people too, with their cheeky banter :) oh, yes: last but certainly never least: the magic hangover-curing rocket fuel that is irn-bru! And lucky us, we have two flags to choose from - the Lion Rampant and the Saltire, or St. Andrew's Cross. I love both, because of the decorative quality of the lion, and the fact that nobody can ever quite agree on the exact shade of 'sky blue' your Saltire should be!

As a child, I lived abroad for a while, and in some ways, it made me feel more Scottish than ever... When not in our home country, we hold onto what makes us Scots. It was things like celebrating Hogmanay in our usual style complete with fireworks, lovely shortbread and (if we were really lucky, and had actually managed to track some down!) maybe some irn-bru, which were important traditions that reminded us of home.