Things I learnt from my Festival At Home

Don't get me wrong, whilst I thoroughly enjoyed my #bedinburghyarnfest day I'll be the first to admit that the day didn't go entirely in accordance with my nice neat plan.

• It didn't start well, when immobile DH insisted on coming on the grocery shop with me. I had planned on a quick, military style operation to get the necessary snacks. Shepherding a bear with a sore head(knee) around a crowded Waitrose full of intolerant and grumpy people slowed me down somewhat.

And my quick browse in Ravelry threatened to derail proceedings. Chronic indecision struck and not only could I not decide on a sweater pattern I also couldn't find a single pair of 4mm needle tips in the house. Faced with the choice of pulling the needles out of an existing project (don't judge - we've all done it) or settling down with an existing project I opted for the latter.

I made good progress on my colourwork hot water bottle cosy but then had to search for something easier for rugby watching. My stash search produced 3 skeins of Blacker Yarns Cornish Tin 2 which would have been perfect but on closer inspection one of the skeins had an almighty tangle in it. I decided that untangling it wasn't in the spirit of the day so it went back into the stash.

I did manage to locate a beautiful yarn cake - bought at EYF last year from The Wool Kitchen. A ready to knit gradient yarn from the Urban hints range. This has been cast on into a nice simple shawl. For now I'm just working simple stocking stitch and I'll decide on a border later on.

For next  time my learning points would be to

• Wind yarn ahead of time
• Plan a new cast on properly and amass the necessary materials - don't try to do it on the fly
• Buy more snack - and don't forget the cake!

Beating FOMO: Or "What to do when you can't go to a knitting festival"

FOMO - It is real and can really drag you down.

Fear of Missing Out is so common, especially since so much of our life is online and nowhere is this more apparent than when there is a big yarn show or event that is taking place - and you can’t go. Obviously, it isn’t possible to go to every show and obviously, you hope that everyone there has a wonderful and woolly time, but a tiny part of you wants to curl up with a box of tissues and cry because you can’t be joining them.

And so it is with Edinburgh this year. My favourite ever knitting festival and the one thing I write in my new calendar before anything else. But this year events conspired against us and my husband took the chance to have a world-class surgeon operate on his knee and hopefully restore him back to many years of fell-walking fitness.

So now I find myself with a free day on Saturday 8th March when I had planned to be sky high on yarn fumes instead.

I thought I would come up with a few top tips to help soothe you if you are experiencing similar feelings of FOMO this weekend:

1. Visit your LYS or plan an outing to an LYS near you. The yarn fumes will be there just the same - only maybe not so overpowering.

2. Better still, rope in a few like-minded friends. Add some cake (gin is optional) and you could have the start of a cracking alternative party.

3. Delve deep into your stash in search of treasure.

4. Cast on for a special new project

5. Share in the experience by following your friends online and via social media - a double edged sword this one. But cake (and gin) will help and you will get to experience the stash acquisition without the pain to your credit card.

6. You could even offer a virtual shopper service to your firends who are there - removed from the yarn fumes you are likely to be more rational and thus could advise on crucial yarn related choices.

If you have some time over the weekend why not join us in the #festivalathome fun over on the Everyday Knitter Facebook group or on Instagram/Twitter. Just use the hashtag #festivalathome and let us know how you will be enjoying your festival free weekend.