Are you familiar with that feeling of agreeing to do something far away in time because you’re sure Future You will deal with it with grace and organisation? Since you’re sure Future You is much better at things than Present You, it’ll be a breeze when time comes. No? Just me?

As you can tell, I fell into this trap. I had already said yes to doing The Scottish Yarn Festival at the end of August, and when an invitation showed up in my inbox for Summer School mid-August, I thought, “easy breezy, I’ll be prepping for one show already, what’s the problem with another?” Famous last words.
(By the way, I wasn’t the only one flying by the seat of my pants, the Summer School roster doesn’t even include me in the website!)

For those who don’t know me, I am an indie dyer of yarns and fibres going by Eleanor Shadow. I run everything on my own, from admin to web design, to aaaall the hand dyeing of gorgeous fluff for the pleasure of the spinner and knitter. I do love what I do, but it’s hard work.

The passion I have for hand dyeing often makes me underestimate how much work something is; pair that with a neurospicy brain and there might be trouble!

The months of July and August were spent in a frenzy of planning, dyeing, sewing and art-batting (I know, not a word, but it represents the nervous energy spent at the drum carder extremely well). I never had enough time.

The end results, however, were wonderful. I had the most stock I ever had for any show, and consequently sold the most I ever had in a month.

Another fun thing about yarn festivals is meeting lots of different people. I was out-coloured by a lovely yarn-loving truck driver! Behold.

I didn’t have much time to peruse other people’s stalls, but I was sorely tempted by this prize-winning black fleece by BeautifulFleece.

Finally, click here if you’d like to watch a video of my stall (which I’m not uploading directly here because it would be a chunky file!)

All in all, it was a blur of activity and also fun, and I wish I’d taken more photos… neurospicy brain, remember? I’m just glad I got all the yarn dyed and could put two sentences together during the events.

Tell me all about your own festival experiences, whether as a seller or buyer. Got suggestions? Leave them in the comments section, I’d love to know. Thanks for reading!