Sunday, November 08, 2009

Woolfest!

Towards St Abbs Head

Yesterday got off to a very good start. We made good time down the A1 (we had borrowed Mum and Dad's car for the day). J does not love driving, but it was one of those bright crisp autumn days and there was no traffic to speak of.

St Abbs is not a big place and even with my less than reliable sense of direction, we had no trouble finding the community hall. However, there were no alpacas (or angora goats) outside this time. C'est la vie. I suppose autumn isn't really baby goat season.

We had slightly more difficulty getting into the hall for some reason - the door should have been perfectly obvious, but we ended up circumnavigating the hall completely before we could get in. Oops. But once we were in, we were greeted with tables covered as far as the eye could see in lovely colours:

A sea of yarn

It wasn't very long before I encountered Ysolda (Edinburgh's local superstar designer) and Jeni of Fyberspates, who I hadn't met before, but who dyes some of my favourite yarns. I bought my first skein of Fyberspates yarn at the last Woolfest in March, and several more have followed - it's all so pretty and lovely to knit with.

I said I would look at all the yarn before investing in any, but I became entrapped by a lovely skein of chunky green twirly yarn in the Fyberspates bargain tub and had to buy it before anyone else did.

Tea and yarn

It was only £2! Major bargain. It's very, very soft. After this triumph J and I fortified ourselves with tea and scones before looking at the rest of the stalls.

Pretty pretty skeins

At most of them, something like the following conversation took place:

Me: Feel this: isn't it soft? It's got cashmere in it. And look what a lovely colour!
J: Very nice. What could you make with that?
Me: Oh, socks. Or a little shawl. Or some fingerless gloves, maybe.
J: Mmmm.
Me: I suppose £12 is a bit expensive for socks. Hmmm, look, this one's pretty too. It might be harder-wearing. Maybe I should get this one.
J: Yes, it's nice too.

And so on. The boy deserves a medal.

In the end, I bought two skeins of sock yarn (a bright springy green from The Yarn Yard, and a green/blue/purple Sheila's Sock Yarn from Fyberspates) and the blue skein in the photo above. I think this was very restrained.

Then J and I went for a little scenic walk around St Abbs.

St Abb's Head

St Abb's Village

I don't know if you can read this (click for bigger), but the sign says "Harbourmaster's Office".

Harbourmaster's office

"It looks suspiciously like a shed" - J.

Harbour

Unlike when I was there in March and nearly froze and blew away over the North Sea, the weather was calm and still. There were some people at the harbour preparing to go scuba diving.

Twilight terrace

By now it was mid-afternoon and already starting to look a little evening-ish. The light goes early in Scotland after the equinox. We headed back up the hill and drove off to a country pub - unfortunately arriving after they had finished serving lunch. Oops again. They did us a very nice lemonade and packet of crisps each, though, and we may go back for their beer festival next week - J undoubtedly deserves an outing of his choosing after his patience with my wool-gathering!

6 comments:

Littlelou said...

Oh St.Abbs looks lovely..Im hoping to attend one of woolfish's knit retreats one day. Thanks for sharing the pics xx
Fellow Nablopomo & Raveller

K said...

Oh, hi there Lou! I recognise that name all right from Rav.

It was a lovely day all right - and the knit retreats look like fun, though I've never been to one either.

Thimbleanna said...

Oh, it looks like you had a perfect day! Your pictures are beautiful and I can't wait to see your new socks -- the yarn sound wonderful!

Loth said...

I can't knit for toffee and have no idea what I am looking at, but your photos are lovely. That shed might be the same one that used to hang out on Arran, masquerading as "Brodick Ferry Terminal"

Mildawg said...

Mmm! Those yarns look heavenly.

beanz said...

Lovely yarns
Lovely pics
I really mus try and go some time, it looks wonderful