Phew, what a day! I think I will remember yesterday for a long time to come. The first day of the inaugural Yarningham festival, that is. A long day but a fun day of meeting new people, teaching my first sock workshop, chatting with friends, feeding a carrot to a very cute baby alpaca, and buying some colourful and very squishable new yarns.

This is Stirchley baths, a community centre transformed from a former Edwardian public baths. The impressive facade was adorned with a Yarningham poster which gave little away of the colourful feast for the eyes that was to be found in this weekend. Once through the front doors and along a short corridor, I was met with this amazing sight!

The main hall used to house a swimming pool. This weekend it accommodates stands and stalls from a variety of vendors selling yarn and spinning fibres in pretty much any colour you could name. Personally I like the bright colours, the multicoloured sock yarns and the dramatic colour-on-black variegateds. My friend who came with me prefers more muted colours, greys and soft blues. We were both able to find a fantastic choice to suit our tastes.

If you needed a break from the colour overload indoors, there were the two cute faces of Cookies and Cream, two baby alpacas in the garden outside. Very sweet! And speaking of sweet, did I mention cake was available too?!

My main reason for attending was to teach the sock workshop. It was a small group but all keen to learn, and friendly too, and we had a good chat while we worked through what were probably the smallest socks in the world! The time ran away with us somewhat, but everyone left having worked through all the skills needed to produce a top-down sock, and a pretty comprehensive worksheet to allow them to make more at home at their own pace.
The workshop itself took place in a smaller room, with a rather in-keeping Deep End sign on the wall! Not surprising when you discover the floor covers one of the former public baths, and a window in the floor reveals the steps down to the original tiled pool floor still six feet below.

Of course I came away having purchased just a few skeins of fun new sock yarn. 
From left to right, Happy Owl Sock in Garnets and Sparkle Owl in Anna, both from Owl About Yarn, a Yarn Angels yarn called Pirates of the Sea, merino nylon sock in Blue Blood from Hand Dyed by Kate, and a self-striping sock yarn from Mothy and the Squid in Midnight Rainbow Brite. The shawl pin is from Textile Garden.

Massive thanks have to go to Sara and Helen and the others at Stitches and Hos for organising such a marvellous event. The amount of work they must have done to put this all together is astonishing. I had an amazing day and sincerely hope they'll put it on again next year, and the year after, and the year after that!

...till Yarningham!!!
Yes, I'm a bit excited. I think I'm all ready. My workshop notes are all written. I have my own needles and a couple of spare sets, yarn, darning needles, and a project to knit on the train there and back. I have my return train ticket, and I have my business cards.
I'm also lucky enough to have seen this advance copy of the show brochure, which includes one of my sock patterns. I'm keeping it under wraps for now, but it's a toe-up design which won't be released on Ravelry until the end of August so it will exclusive to Yarningham visitors until then.
The brochure also includes a map of the venue showing which vendors are positioned where. I plan to arrive a good two hours before my workshop begins which will give me plenty of time to have a look at everyone's offerings and get some souvenirs to take home with me.
I'm going to be meeting up with some knitting friends there (I'm travelling up to Birmingham from London on the train with one of them, which will be fun. I'm looking forward to getting some knitting and nattering in on the journey!) and hoping to make some new friends too.
I knew I'd been thinking about Yarningham a lot when I woke up this morning, though. I spent what felt like all night dreaming about turning sock heels!!

My latest pattern release is Ice River Road socks. They're worked cuff-down and use a German short-row heel with a gusset. It's the first time I've used this style of heel but it definitely won't be the last. I love the fit, it's so comfortable, and it's really quick and easy to work.
I often find it difficult thinking up names for my designs, but this one was easy. The socks have a texture pattern of a garter stitch river running between borders formed from twisted stitches, and the whole thing was inspired by an episode of Ice Road Truckers. For those unfamiliar with the TV show, it's a documentary series about lorry drivers in Alaska and Canada who drive supplies to extremely remote villages and towns along ice roads. Some of the roads are snow covered solid ground but many are formed by routes over frozen lakes and rivers, only passable for a few weeks each year in the depths of winter. Once the spring thaw begins, the "roads" melt and the communities served by them are cut off by road until the following winter. 
One episode included a delivery to the remote Alaskan town of Bettles, which could only be reached by driving along an ice road which included driving along a frozen river. As soon as I saw it I knew I had to knit socks representing the frozen river. The river runs down the front and back of the leg before melting into the heel, continuing down the top of the foot to a plain knit toe.
The pattern is written for two sizes - Small/Medium to fit an 8" foot circumference, and Medium/Large to fit a 9" foot circumference. Click the photograph or the link above to go to my Ravelry store and download the pattern.