Had a Blast at Glasgow School of Yarn 2013

A few weekends ago I was back up in Glasgow for GSoY! Last year was its first year, and the second year was even better.

I do love Glasgow - I got to go back to the Botanic Gardens which I saw last year (though no woolly graffiti this time), and I also visited the Kelvingrove Gallery, a massive museum that covers both art and history. I saw some Egyptian weaving tools...

Took in some of Glasgow's native Mackintosh art...

...and, at the church, even got to see the Mackintoshes themselves!

I took Liz Lovick's spinning finer class, which was a wonderful experience and taught me a lot. You can see a few photos over at Liz's blog (you might even be able to find me in one of them!). Since the class I've been working hard on my frog-hair - mostly as a challenge to myself, though I'm hoping that I will be able to put all my practice yarns together into a shawl (I know that sampling and practice spinning is important, but I just can't bear to see "wasted" yarn!).

Here is what I brought back with me...
Two braids from Hilltop Cloud - the green is Southdown which I have already begun spinning for socks, and the natural is a heavenly blend of BFL and camel. One skein of delicious merino silk from Old Maiden Aunt, the book A Legacy of Shetland Lace from Ripples Crafts, and a bit of Shetland fleece from the fine spinning workshop. And my GSOY mug and goodies! (I was quite honoured to get 2nd place in GSOY's design competition this year -- but that's another blog post for another time ;)

I met so many great people up in Glasgow - some I had met last year, like the amazing Yarn Cake team, and some for the first time, like Liz Lovick and Woolly Wormhead.

Before catching my train back, I also got to have a fascinating chat with fellow designer Karina Westermann, also known as Karie Bookish. Karie was quite understandably wiped out from a very busy Wool Week, but we had a great discussion about knitting culture, the design process, and various other stuff. She's blogged about knitting as identity, the challenges of social media, and the crafting marketplace - they are well worth a read.

After that, I had to dash back to Reading. It's funny, though - even the train ride was enjoyable. Rolling on through loads of countryside, mountains and tons of sheep (I mean tons). It was quiet and I got to sit and knit and tweet (ok, maybe mostly tweet)...

~Joyuna