Last weekend I spent a lovely few days with my Mum in Edinburgh and we had a wonderful time completely immersing ourselves in all things woolly! We went out to a Knit Night at a Swedish bar, visited the Edinburgh Yarn Festival and explored lots of yarn and fabric shops on what became a walking tour of the city!
I have recorded a short Vlog that you can view here and see photos and videos of our trip.
Travelling up by train allowed us plenty of time to sit and knit and we arrived at Haymarket station feeling really excited about spending time in Edinburgh. Our hotel (the Leonardo Royal Edinburgh) was only a short walk from the station and was perfectly located for walking both to Akva, the Swedish bar, where we spent a fantastic evening amongst wonderfully talented knitters, and for catching the bus the following morning to the Edinburgh Yarn Festival.
Akva provided a lovely atmosphere to sit and knit (or crochet – I was making another Hexie Handbag) and the food was delicious. Everywhere you looked in the upstairs bar people were sitting, knitting and chatting. Most people were travelling on their own or with a friend and this meant people struck up conversations with others from all over the world, sharing what they were making or what they were looking forward to seeing at the yarn festival.
I hadn’t managed to buy advance tickets to the Edinburgh Yarn Festival, so knew that Mum and I would have to queue, and for that reason, we decided to have a leisurely morning and head over to the Corn Exchange for about 11.30am. The queue wasn’t actually that bad and it only took about 20 minutes to get in to the wool show, but wow, it was so busy once we were inside!!!
I think Mum and I both felt totally overwhelmed by how many people were there. It was really difficult to see some stalls for the crowds of people and although the organisers had tried hard to provide areas for people to sit, every seat was taken and people had to resort to sitting on the floor. However, saying that, it did get quieter as the day went on and we stayed almost to the end of the day when the show closed at 5.30pm.
I think one of the highlights of the show was seeing everyone wearing what they had made. There were some amazing fair isle yoked sweaters and cardigans and cleverly constructed shawls on display.
What I also loved about the show was the emphasis on wool, it was a real celebration of this fantastic fibre. In the main room there were a lot of hand dyed yarn companies and exquisite skeins of every shade of colour that you could imagine. I really don’t know how anyone could choose what to buy! For me, I wasn’t looking to purchase wool, but was really inspired by the colours on display, I was however, much more interested in the breed specific wool that was on offer in the Baron room, a smaller exhibition space with a café area and a Wool Research Station! This special area was something new for the Edinburgh Yarn Festival, highlighting smaller wool producers alongside a display created by Dr Zoe Fletcher, aka The Woolist, who brought with her a fantastic display of yarn spun from the many different British sheep breeds.
Mum bought a skein of Triskelion Yarn and cast on a cowl straight away when we got back to the hotel. I bought the most beautiful booklet (or Zine) of illustrations called More Than Yarn by the very talented Katie Green, the Pom Pom magazine and some circular needles to make socks with from Wee County Yarns.
The following day we got up to bright blue skies and sunshine (although it was also very windy) and set off on a walking tour of some of Edinburgh’s yarn and fabric shops. It was lovely to spend the whole day at a leisurely pace exploring some of the less touristy areas of the city and discovering some truly wonderful little shops selling gorgeous wool and beautiful fabric. I will list the addresses of the places we visited below and if ever you are in Edinburgh, I can definitely recommend checking them out!
- Mybearpaw – a lovely shop selling fabric, fat quarters for patchwork and wool with a large space at the back for workshops – 50 Lochrin Buildings, Edinburgh EH3 9ND
- Pins & Needles – a traditional wool shop with a large selection of mainly acrylic yarn – 28 Lochrin Buildings, Gilmore Pl, Edinburgh EH3 9NB
- The Dress Fabric Company – So much wonderful beautiful fabric to choose from – 38 Bruntsfield Pl, Edinburgh EH10 4HJ
- Be Inspired Fibres – this yarn shop had a stall at the Edinburgh Yarn Festival so was closed when we visited, but looking through the window it looked like an Aladdin’s cave of beautiful and unusual yarn – 30 Marchmont Rd, Edinburgh EH9 1HZ
- Edinburgh Fabrics – a really large fabric shop with a huge selection of Harris tweed and a great variety of haberdashery – 12-14 St Patrick Square, Edinburgh EH8 9EZ
- Kathy’s Knits – a lovely little yarn shop specialising in British wool with lots of local Scottish wool available too. There was also an inspiring exhibition of Lucy Hague’s latest knitwear designs in the back room – 64A Broughton St, Edinburgh EH1 3SA
- The Treasure Trove – this is a charity shop like no other! It truly is a treasure trove selling beautiful handmade gifts. The charity, the Royal Edinburgh Repository and Self Aid Society, has a clear aim to provide relief for those in need by reason of age, illness, health, disability, financial hardship or other hardship to help them gain an independent livelihood through the sale of their own handiwork. The Treasure Trove shop is the outlet for these sales and is maintained solely for this purpose with no profit – 23A Castle St, Edinburgh EH2 3DN
Our route around the yarn and fabric shops in Edinburgh!
So with my head full of ideas and inspiration, I am now starting to plan my stall at Wonderwool Wales, which is now just 4 weeks away. It was so nice to be a visitor at the Edinburgh Yarn Festival but now I have to concentrate on being an exhibitor at Wonderwool Wales….