Friday Favorites, Not at EYF Edition

Hi friends, and happy Friday!

I don’t know about you, but my Instagram feed is currently full of Edinburgh Yarn Festival excitement at the moment.  And while I feel very lucky to be planning to go to EYF for the first time next year (yay!) … that’s a year away.  So I thought I’d do an extra long, fiber-only Friday Favorites today for those of us who can’t be living it in up in Scotland this weekend to click through and enjoy.

• Since today’s theme is wishing I was at EYF, it seems appropriate to start the list off with the newly releasd Bousta Beanie, designed by this year’s patron of Shetland Wool Week, Gudrun Johnston.  The folks behind Shetland Wool Week have an annual patron who designs a lovely hat (previous years patrons and hats: Hazel Tindall’s stunning Shwook, Donna Smith’s wonderful Baa-ble Hat and Ella Gordon’s delightful Crofthoose Hat) and they announce the year’s patron and design at EYF each year. I love the simple geometric quality of this year’s hat (and love Gudrun’s patterns in general) — I’m definitely looking forward to knitting it!  You can get the hat pattern for free here.
• I spied these lovely new bags from Kettle Yarn Company over on Instagram — they’re available at EYF this weekend if you’re lucky enough to be there and are going up in her shop sometime next week … that lobster!
• There have been so many patterns released for EYF it’s hard to keep up, but one I particularly love is Spruce, an adult version of this popular baby sweater.  I love those colorwork trees!
• Even though I don’t use straight needles, these gorgeous, ceramic needle vases have me swooning. I’m really into muted spring pastels at the moment … and I see no reason you couldn’t use it as a vase for regular flowers, lacking needles.  Or perhaps I should pick up one of the adorable mugs or pour overs (or one of each? if only ….)
• The lovely US yarn shop Woolly Thistle is holding a not at EYF commiseration sale for thos of us left behind … there seem to be some really great deals.  This newly arrived yarn isn’t part of the sale (though it’s really reasonably priced), but wow, that natural Wensleydale wool …. Also not part of the sale, but at the top of my want to buy list: In the Footsteps of Sheep — how awesome does that book look?
• And to round things out with a few more pattern releases: I love Thea Colman’s new sweater Angostura, knit out of Blacker Yarns Classic DK (which IS on sale at Woolly Thistle!).  I love the saddle shoulder, the simple front, and the surprsie of the back cabling … and I’ve wanted to knit wiht Blacker yarns for ages!
• Last but not least: check out this new Melanie Berg shawl, another pattern that “premiered” at EYF … beautiful!

Let’s face it … no amount of link clicking is going to take the place of a glorious yarn festival, but I hope you enjoyed today’s little round up.  Thanks, as always, for stopping by and lending my ramblings an ear.  Hope wherever you are, you have a lovely weekend, filled with lots of knitting, planned!

xo K