We’re back from this year’s Edinburgh Yarn Festival with a bumper episode chock full of EYF goodness and gossip. Grab a cheeky wee drink and a wip, and we’ll spill the beans on the best EYF to date!
General Admin
We’ll always be an audio podcast (gives us an air of mystery, don’t you think?!) but we’ll now be uploading our episodes onto YouTube for those of you who prefer catching up on yarny occurrences there. You can find us there as Tipsy Knits Podcast, along with our back catalogue.
If you want to see our lovely faces, you can find us on Instagram and Twitter as @TipsyKnits (as well as our personal accounts of @ramsay_baggins and @miss_ciakate).
What are we drinking?
This month’s alcohol is provided by Kirsty of Grianaig Creations. Kirsty kindly donated a bottle of Sheepdip whisky (and some Holy Grass Vodka which we’ll be trying in a future episode- mixing whisky and vodka doesn’t seem like a responsible idea!) Thank you Kirsty! Check out Kirsty’s podcast over on YouTube– she’s fab!
On and Off the Needles
Pip is still working away on her Hapisk using the yarny remainders from her other projects, whilst Cia has clear needles (bar those pesky hibernating wips!)
We both managed to get some projects finished for EYF- hurrah! Pip made her first pair of fliptop mittens by adapting the Lindgren pattern by Karie Westermann, whilst Cia made a ginormous Find Your Fade (bigger than the one from last year!) using a mixture of Cosmic Strings yarn, and her collection of Canadian yarns.
Love Tipsy Knits Giveaway
We’re delighted to announce the winner of our Love Tipsy Knits giveaway- camperjojo on Ravelry! Please message Pip on Ravelry and she’ll get your prizes sent out to you!
For future giveaways, please note that we aren’t able to see entries from private Instagram and Twitter accounts. To make your entry count, make sure it’s public- thank you!
Pre-EYF Stash Acquisition Mission
Cia is still on a winning streak, and was lucky enough to win 5 skeins of Dovestone DK in the Knitting Outside the Box KAL run by Pom Pom. It was also her birthday recently, and her parents gifted her some Countess Ablaze Tia Merino in the ‘Sh*t Tea and Traybake’ and ‘If I want exposure I’ll get my tits out’ colourways from the Countess’ recent update. To find out more about these patriarchy-smashing colourways, check out Shinybees’ latest episode in which she chats to the Countess- it’s a blimmin’ good one!
Pip acquired some yarn from BritYarn including some Romney yarn for the next round of Knit British’s wool exploration, some Blacker Yarns Brushwork, and J&S Heritage. Brityarn will be closing doors at the end of this month. To get 20% off any purchases, use the code THISISNOTGOODBYE in the check out (only works on desktop- not mobile or tablet) We’d both love to thank Isla for everything she’s done with BritYarn over the last few years- we’ve both been customers and wish her all the best with her future endeavours.
Edinburgh Yarn Festival 2018
The Podcast Lounge
We cannot begin to fully express what a wonderful experience this year’s festival was, or how grateful we are that we were able to be a part of it, and the Blacker Yarns Podcast Lounge. Thank you to Jo and Mica for yet another fantastic festival- this was the best yet, and we appreciate everything you do for the yarny community. Our thanks also to Louise Scollay and Blacker Yarns for organising and allowing us to be part of the podcast lounge. We had an absolute blast meeting other podcasters, as well as you- our listeners! We genuinely couldn’t do this without you. Thank you to everyone who came and said hello, and spent time with us. You all know who you are! This year was truly all about people and friendships, and we still cannot stop smiling!
The Big Knit Night
We attended the Big Knit Night on Thursday, and shared a table with Aileen (littlebushbaby), Hannah (of The Corner of Craft Podcast), Kirsty (of Grianaig Creations), and Carola (of Other Worldly Yarns). We had a lovely time chatting yarn and D&D (among other things!), and soaking up the general atmosphere of the marquee.
The Marketplace and Stash Acquisition
Images- Cia Jackson
Although we spent a lot of time in the podcast lounge, we did explore the marketplace too! The layout was brilliant this year- with plenty of room for browsing and admiring knitty goodies (and knitters’ outfits!). Highlights include our LYS Queen of Purls and her lovely new yarn bases, visiting podcast favourite Rusty Ferret and playing with her Polaroid camera, numerous visits to Stephen and Penelope to admire Undercover Otter and Uschitita, and bumping into lots of pals as we went.
Cia was on a mission to acquire yarn she can’t easily obtain in the UK, and bar one skein, seemed to be in an uncharacteristic hunt for neutral-toned yarns. She left with a modest collection of merino singles yarns. She has 2 skeins of Uschitita (in the moccacino and coral colourways), as well as two separate rose gold-coloured skeins (she’s apparently still in a pink phase, and on the hunt for that perfect colourway), one from La Bien Aimee and one from House of a La Mode. She also acquired a skein of Townhouse Yarn’s Fade St 4ply.
Pip was very well prepared and planned her purchases before the festival (as noted in our pre-EYF blog post!) and she left with some Queen of Purls’ new handdyed sport weight yarn, Easyknits Deeply Wicked and Twinkle, Blacker Yarns Swan Falkland Islands 4ply in various colours for the TTOP Minuscule and Majascule patterns, a sweater quantity of Dovestone DK , Olann Merino DK, Rusty Ferret Doll, two skeins from Mothy and the Squid, some Undercover Otter sock yarn, a skein from Qing Fiber and some lovely BFL Nylon sock yarn from Knitting Goddess.
Exploration Station KAL
It’s KAL time! We’re joining forces with Rosie of PixelAtlantis, and Kirsty of Grianaig Creations for an Exploration Station KAL. We’ll be casting on April 1st, and the KAL will run until June 30th. Stay tuned for news about prizes, as well as chatter and FO threads in our respective Ravelry groups.
Additional News
Queen of Purls has moved from the Saltmarket to her new home at The Hive in Finnieston. She’ll be opening her doors soon, so keep an eye out for more information and go visit her!
Don’t forget about BritYarn closing her doors, and use the code THISISNOTGOODBYE to get 20% off your purchase.
That’s it for this episode! Thank you again to everyone who made our EYF experience this year so magical. We are so happy to be part of this knitty community, and are looking forward to spending more time with everyone in the future!
See you in April, Tipsy Knitters!
Tipsy Knits Podcast 