Yarndale!!!!!!

Massive apologies for the atrocious state of play around here recently. I've been gearing up in a BIG way for all the Amy Singer lessons, I'm so excited I feel constantly sick. Lovely Kate Bolin won a free lesson through the competition from last week and she's chosen the Silk Spinning - a noble choice! For the rest of you, all I'll say is, make sure that you sign up to the mailing list for something most most most most exciting coming your way on Tuesday.... There are currently spaces on every event but it's starting to look a bit hairy so if you're umming and ahhing just bloody get on with it - it's a once in a life time opportunity and it's really something very special to be part of. :)

Now, with that out of the way I need to talk about YARNDALE! What an incredible day! I must admit, I was terribly stressy nervous beforehand. I get horrid anxiety about things like this which is why we haven't done anything like it before. I just knew that I had to go to this and that if I was going I wanted you lovely lot there too. Tickets sold out in no time at all so I knew everybody was as keen as me.

On the day we were leaving at half past eight on Mount Street. I met a few people beforehand and we ambled up at around eight there were already at least ten people waiting. Colourful people! We looked so much happier than the other lot who were waiting to go on holiday, naturally. I was a bit worried when the bus was five minutes late or so but it turns out Abdul, our fabulous driver, had gone to the other side of Mount Street (over Maid Marian Way) which is, I think where a lot of us thought we'd be going from too.

The day before I'd realised as I was walking out of the door that I hadn't printed the list of attendees so I hastily hand wrote a list and luckily everyone was on there. Phew! I ticked people off and they got on the coach and we were off!

I got to sit on the pull down seat at the front of the bus so I got the best view. :)

We picked up Rachel and Katherine from Sheffield and Vezza ran to the loo - I'm glad she didn't pop whilst we were there! I am not a trained midwife.

Beforehand I was most excited about using the microphone but when it came to it it made me feel a bit weird so, believe it or not, it barely used it. About half way through the journey there were roadworks on the motorway so we had to take a detour through Bradford which I thoroughly enjoyed - beautiful architecture. And then when we were making the final approach to the Auction Mart we were stuck in a massive amount of traffic. Apparently there were some rumblings further back in the coach about how long it took so Lindsey told me to get on the mic and explain which felt a bit awkward.

Lindsey took pictures of the traffic. Because that's normal... I tried to make eye contact with everybody and ask them if they were knitters and every time somebody said 'yes' the front of the coach exploded in applause. 

So we queued for AGES and then when we finally got there they told us that there might not be room for us! I didn't know what to say but lovely Abdul sweet talked the beardy man at the entrance and we were in. We trundled off the coach, I wanted a photo but people were just. mad. to. get. in. So we forewent the group photo and piled in. I think they liked having such a massive group. :) To be frank there was a distinct lack of photos from my end because I was really conscious of my phone battery and having some in the case of emergency. 

I hung around with Dee and Verity most of the day and people attached and unattached themselves to our little group. There was so much to see and too many bloody people which always puts me on edge but the stall holders were fabulous and there were so many beautiful products. I went with a budget of £0 precisely and ended up spending a good £50. Ugh. But, like Lynsey at Novice Crafter says, you need to go with artisan items in mind, stuff you can't get elsewhere, and if you can't get it elsewhere then it needs to be got now. 

My best purchase was two skeins of cashmere laceweight for £10 each! £10!!!! That is a stunning price and the colours are brill. I think one will end up being a gift. There's more too but I'm still knackered so I'm going to leave you with a load of stolen photos from my lovely customers and try and get some sleep. I'll photograph my haul at some point and show you.

 Lovely Lindsey and a wabbit. For what it's worth, Lindsey's partner, I think she deffo deserves to own one. 

Lynsey's fab photo of us all queuing up, I was at the front shouting about when and where we were meeting. 

 Lynsey's photo of the For the Love of Yarn stall. I adored this stall! All the beautiful sparkly hooks! But by the time I got to it I'd spent as much as I could spend without wanting to die so I'm going to order on the facebook at some point...

Lynsey's photos of the angora wabbits. Ahhhh.

And the alpacas. I avoided them.

Verity looking bloody marvelous at eight months or so. Makes me sick.

 And her hall. Can you tell her favourite colours?

And finally, she made this on the bus didn't she!? Sickening.

Right, I can barely keep my eyes open. I'm going to bed and if I have time I might flesh this out a bit. Remember Amy's coming and this could be your chance to meet her and bask in her amazing talent. < 3

Love Eleanor. xxxx