Yarndale!

This last weekend brought Yarndale, a yarn / sheep / spinning / knitting / crocheting / crafting festival in Skipton.  As I only live 25 miles away, it seemed rude not to go.

I had the most excellent news that I got a job and started yesterday, so felt that I was able to go and treat myself a little as it means that I'll have money coming in now.  Yay! 

I went with the intention of buying a swift, as the homemade one I had got damaged in the move, plus I left some bits behind.  I thought that I might buy some fibre and some buttons as well.

I got there at about 11:30, after queueing for half an hour on the A59 and trying to find a parking space.  It was absolutely packed out.  The walk from where I'd parked was lovely, decorated with crocheted bunting, which was beautiful.  I didn't know they had been collecting any, otherwise I'd have crocheted a few triangles. 

It was very very busy inside, so I decided that I was going to do a circuit of all the stalls before buying anything and spotted a few bits.

I stopped to admire the animals.  Lookit it's adorable face!!!

Then after a break, I got down to some shopping.  My first buy was some fivemoons sock yarn with stelina in it.  It's called Artemis, but I can't remember what the colourway was, however, it spoke to me! I blame my cat, who is a yarn snob.  He will sometimes sleep on the cat bed I knitted within the first year that I learned to knit.  Problem is, it's acrylic and fun fur and he has a habit of pulling it out of his basket and snoozing in his basket instead.  Plank of a cat.

Next up was a Sunflower Swift bought from Purlescence.  My Welsh accent got recognised - to within 5 miles of where I was brought up :)

Then some alpaca from John Arbon Textiles.  I got 200g, but he gave me a teeny bit more. It's so gorgeous!  I keep on petting it!

Then I got some bargain merino and silk from Winghams.  I just adore the colours on these - I got 100g in each colour.

I decided that would do me, as I have plenty to be getting on with!  I came out gasping for a cuppa - I was too lazy to queue for a brew as it was so busy; I wish I'd taken my own. 

Everyone seemed so happy and cheerful and it was great to chat to a few people.  I did get a bit overcome with yarn fumes and debated pestering the Mr. to let me get an alpaca!  They are so gorgeous, plus they make awesome guards.

I didn't get any buttons as it was so busy and I couldn't get to the stall I wanted to, but it's no biggie, as I can get them again. 

I only went on the Saturday and was a bit gutted that I didn't go on the Sunday as apparently it was a bit quieter and a bit more chilled.  Plus a few people that I knew were going.  All in all, a great day out and good fun.  I wish I'd taken coffee and sarnies and gone a bit earlier, but other than that, it was ace!

Funny how time flies...

I can't believe that it's April.  April!!!

I've not had a huge amount of time for knitting and spinning recently, because I am spending about 12 hours a day out of the house 4 days a week, and 8 hours out of the house 2 days a week.  Add college work into the mix and a bit of housework and I'm stressing.

It's not been easy lately; the fella is out of work so the pressure is on me to bring enough in to pay the bills.  He was a student nurse, but had to give up the course because of money issues and he was struggling to do the actual course.  He's had 6 job interviews in 6 months, which is pretty good.  Especially when there were 1700 applications for 8 jobs in a new branch of Costa just up the road from me.

I really hate my flat.  It's small and messy.  We have been struggling to heat the flat because of money so when the boiler packed in at Easter, it was annoying.  Yesterday, the guy from the boiler repair place came out and condemned the boiler as the flue is leaking exhaust gases into the flat, which means there was carbon monoxide leaking into the flat.  Fuck!  Luckily, I don't think the boiler itself was hugely faulty when it was actually lit, we just couldn't get it lit.  As the flat is damp, our windows are open a teeny bit to allow the air to circulate (we think it's condensation more than anything), so thankfully, neither of us has any symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning.

I saw my family on the weekend as it was my nephew's 21st birthday party. It was great to see the family and I got to dress up in rockabilly style clothes as it was a rock and roll theme. I felt rough though so didn't feel up to much and was a bit anti social :s

On the way back, I persuaded the fella to take a diversion to The Threshing Barn and I got some really nice yarn and fibre. First up was some 70/20/5 merino/nylon/sparkle hand dyed yarn

Then 100g of Corriedale in purple, green and red. To match the Corriedale, I got 100g purple merino to ply with it.

That was gonna be it but then I saw a 500g bump of a blend of alpaca, llama and merino for £25! All natural colours. Yay!

I've not spun with alpaca or llama before. This should be entertaining!

I'm really looking forward to getting involved with that, but I've just started spinning for my celestarium so it'll have to wait. I have no idea what I want to do with any of it, other than the yarn, might do some socks with that. I can never have enough socks :)

I'm also working through a bit of old stash to make room for new. I'm also working on wips as well, seeing as though I have 2 blankets, 1 sweater, 1 shawl, 1 pair of socks and a hat on the go. I would like to get 1 old project finished for every new project that I start. Having said that, my blankets are a long term project so I'm not worried about rushing to get those finished. Perhaps I could spend a couple of weeks working on one of them for every new project I start :)

I have finished the sock pattern I've been wittering on about for ages, but it probably only makes sense to me. I am not brilliant at writing sock patterns it seems, mostly because I can knit a sock from memory, so when writing out a pattern I leave out the really important stuff that's obvious to me that wouldn't be for a newbie sock knitter and I feel a bit uncomfortable about releasing a pattern that's going to annoy some people. We shall see :)

Back to the knitting methinks :)