It was a long time coming, but this past weekend I finally got to go to an in-person yarn show. My first in over three years, since Covid intervened and overturned everything.
And oh my goodness, was it worth it. A really well organised show - thanks to Laura (aka The Lonely Knitter) - the East Anglia Yarn Festival, Norwich was a real treat to attend. There was plenty of space, stalls were thoughtfully set out and loads of seating too.
I did set out with a bit of a shopping list - the grey yarns from The Little Grey Girl are for a Love Note sweater, and the set of browns/speckles from Lay Family Yarn is destined for a colourwork sweater. The rest were all pure impulse purchases - and very happy ones at that.
Whilst the shopping and yarn squishing was fun by far the best bit was being able to chat to people. Real live people.
It was lovely to catch up with old friends but I was also able to talk to people who previously I had only ever chatted to online. It’s quite bizarre really when you think of it. Some of these people I feel as though I know really well, we chat online most days, certainly most weeks and I share things with them that I probably might not even tell my family. But until now our entire relationship had been via my phone.
Very odd. But the perfect testament to the positive, powerful upside of social media. It’s easy to focus on the negatives, but without social media I wouldn’t have known any of these people at all - I wouldn’t even have known there was a yarn show going on in the first place!.
And there’s the energy! I had quote forgotten the buzz and the excitement of a yarn show. So many yarny folk packed into one space creates their very own hum of activity. It’s impossible not to survey the hall, stuffed full of woolly goodness and not smile.
It’s such a joyful experience. Chatting to vendors it seemed that for a lot of the visitors it was their first ever yarn show experience - partly a reflection of the fact that many people either took up knitting or returned to it during the pandemic.
If you haven’t yet been to a yarn show I would urge you to have a go. There is a comprehensive list here - do have a look and see if there is one near you.
Start small - maybe leave the huge shows until you are a bit more confident - and also check out my top tips for attending a yarn show that I shared over on my Instagram account. And if you are hesitant maybe rope in a friend to come with you, that way you’ll always have someone to chat to and to help with those all important yarny decisions.
