Edinburgh Yarn Festival 2013

Well it's Monday morning after the fantastic weekend at Edinburgh Yarn Festival down in Leith.  Myself and Cairngorm Bags had a fantastic time and it was so lovely to meet so many amazing people.  We headed down the A9 to Edinburgh after school had finished and made good time arriving about half five.

I headed straight out to Vittoria's on Leith Walk for a marvellous dinner with the three organisers, Sigi, Kerry from Knitting For All, Louise from Woolfish, Emily of Tin Can Knits, and two other lovely ladies who I can't remember the names of.  Please forgive me girls but I was a tad overwhelmed and startstuck by this point!!

Headed back to the hotel nice and early to get a good nights sleep but of course that didn't happen as I was full of nerves and was up at 6.30am and ready to go at 7.15am.  The organisation and volunteers were fantastic when we got to the drill hall and we were soon in full flow setting up:

Seeing as we were ready to go at about half past eight and I was starving, I headed off to hunt down some food and take a look at what else was going on.  It was a great chance to get some photos of the other stalls so here they are :):

Those at the front of the Drill Hall setting up.

Knitting For All Stand, who I will hopefully be working with shortly!

The fabulous banner.

Ysolda Teagues Stand

Ysolda Teague and Friend

Alpaca Loft stall.  This stuff was gorgeous and I really wanted a pair of slippers but Mum pointed out Stanley would 'kill' them :(

Susan Crawford's stand.  This was full of so much beautiful knitting!!

The Skein Queen stand.  I didn't manage to acquire any this time but it was gorgeous stuff.

The queue inside at 10am.  Apparently it stretched right the way round the corner outside which was fantastic for us stallholders to hear.

The crowds and some knitted bunting.

Visitors relaxing in the cafe.

The lovely Louise of Caithness Craft Collective Podcast looking thoughtful.  We all met up for a podcaster meet up organised by Louise who was a pleasure to meet in 'person'.  Felt like i'd known her all my life!!

I have to admit we did start to flag about 3pm through lack of coffee and sugar so I hunted down a chocolate brownie and the world was good again.  At 5pm it was time to pack up and after having such a lovely day and meeting so many wonderful folk we didn't really want to leave!!

But this was a great experience and has taught me many things:

• always take chocolate
• and coffee
• lots of it!!
• wear lots of wool layers (we were warned how cold it would be but I didn't pay attention and was freezing!!)
• craftspersons are the most lovely, warm, funny, friendly and pleasant people in the world!!
• & finally it cemented in my mind that I am definitely going to work in this  industry from now on as it's where my heart and passion fully exists.

I can't wait till next years events and both myself and Cairngorm Bags want to say a massive thank you to the organisers for their tireless hard work and their great planning.  Not only leading up to the day but on the day they were constantly checking the stallholders were okay and had everything they needed and we couldn't have got very far without the help of the wonderful volunteers and their trolleys also :o)

See you all there next year?  I'll be the one hunting down the chocolate brownie again :o)