Looking back, the Edinburgh Yarn Festival was a memorable event in many ways. I had been taking my son on business trips both domestically and internationally since three months after he was born, but this Edinburgh trip was the last one I would take him on. He had just turned two, and it was so hard that I was exhausted.
For some reason, everyone is worried about whether it's safe to fly with an infant on an overseas business trip, but I've never had any trouble on an airplane. My baby doesn't have trouble breathing, doesn't have any ear problems, and sleeps almost every day in the bassinet. I think the best time to fly is up to 2 years old, when it doesn't cost much.
However, what's hard is jet lag. When a baby is born, he sleeps most of the time, so he doesn't get jet lag, but when he turns two years old, he does! And yet, he doesn't understand what a time difference is, and he has no intention of trying to fix it. During the trip and for almost two weeks after we came back, I had to deal with my two-year-old waking up at around 2am every day, and it was extremely painful.
Putting aside the difficulties the child faced, what was impressive about this yarn festival was that it was such a wonderful event, so popular and crowded, and yet it was the last one. Not only did it bring together popular brands from all over the world, but it also had a lot of yarn from small mills in the UK, and there was a lot of great yarn. It was a popular event, but it seems the people who planned it got burned out, and with the coronavirus outbreak it will no longer be held. It's such a shame.
What I'd like to introduce today is a treasured yarn I bought there. It's a beautiful yarn you won't find anywhere else, made using only natural-colored raw wool with an adjusted blend. It was very popular at the event, and I think this was the only place where stock was nearly depleted by the afternoon of the first day. I've been wanting to get it in my store ever since, but the manufacturer only makes so little that I couldn't buy anything at all, so I gave up. If you come across it somewhere, please give it a try.
Yarns featured: Uist Wool DK, cheviot & zwartbles mix