Nash Yarn Fest 2025

 I remember when I first found out about Nash Yarn Fest and how stoked I was to be back living on the East Coast, closer to Amber, so we could go to more events together.  

 

(Unsurprisingly) everyone at DWW hated on it and couldn't understand why I would ever want to leave VA and go to a brand new fiber arts festival in Nashville.  FUCK 'EM!

Well, NYF was 100% exactly what we needed, especially after all of the false advertisement at Squam.

 

We stayed at the Bobby Hotel.  They were so kind and welcoming!

We loved our room.  We had a cute little balcony.

We had a Ripple Halter orgy.

On our first night, we went to a rooftop bar/restaurant at a hotel a few blocks away from ours. 

 I can't remember the name but it was decent.

 

I hadn't been to Nashville for years and it was interesting to see how much the city has evolved and changed over the past few decades.

The weather was so delightful!

It ended up raining half the weekend but at least we had a couple sunny days.

 

Amber's 12 yrs younger than me and like the young buck that she is, she went out on the town after dinner.  Meanwhile, I did what I enjoy most, knitting in bed, in a hotel room, watching NCAAMB - ALONE.

We woke up early and went to the gym every morning!

When I go to a fiber arts festival, my only goal is to live my best life...

...which includes knitting by a pool.

I finished my Poison Grrls Beauty School DK top just in the knick of time.

I used the Indie Untangled 2019 Heritage Wool that I grabbed from Misti's yarn swap.  It was donated by my friend, Athena, in Toano and she was pleased to see it immediately being put to use.

It's 60% merino/40% Romney, spun in Greenwich, dyed by Moondrake.  One colorway was called Ebb Tide but the other doesn't say.  I held this rustic handspun fingering weight yarn double.

Technically speaking, the fairgrounds where the fest was being held was walking distance from our hotel.  

It was actually an hour long walk and it was extremely windy but we brown bagged it and made the best of it.

It was rather surreal to see Arne and Carlos IRL.

Their talk was very sweet and funny.

I love Norwegians!  I love Norway!

Here's Amber and I in our pattern matching Midcoast sweaters.

The fest gave me a lot of Stitches XRX feels.  There were 90 vendors and the vibe was so positive!

 

Sally Holt and Lorilee Beltman also had terrific talks.  It was my first time seeing Lorilee IRL since I took her Continental Knitting best practices knitting class about 8 years ago.

Sure, my flight home was majorly delayed but that never bothers a knitter.

All and all, an excellent trip!  No complaints and I will definitely be back next year!

Swag-wise, I grabbed a bunch of yarn from Adella, sweater quantity from Camellia (Nashville) and a few other Southern belles.

Finished WIPs - Big Square Baby Blanket, Professor Meow #3 and Vanilla Socks

I really want to write a review of my trip to Nash Yarn Fest with Amber but I want to document all of these finished WIPs first.  I started this Big Square Baby Blanket for Jenny's daughter, April, over the summer.

 

I finished in November 2025 but am only blogging about it now.  That's how chaotic my life is!

 

I used all Mad Tosh OOAK hanks that I grabbed from a trunk show at Atelier ages ago.

 

I've been trying to make a point of taking a photo of every new project I cast on, the day that I start it.

It's fun to look at back at my progress photos.  This was taken the first time Xena and I attended the VA State Fair.  

Here's me knitting at the Canal Club before the Terror show.  This show kind of changed my life.  It reminded me of what I have always loved but had also forgotten about HC and also introduced me to the scene here in RVA.

I love how well both seed stitch and garter work so well with OOAK hand-dyed yarn.

My gift was very well received.  Jenny uses it all of the time!

Very few people are blanket-knit-worthy in my life.

The connection that Jenny and I have through her brother Bob's death will always be bittersweet.

It has taken me years to come out of the deep depression that I was plagued with right before/during/immediately after Bob's death.  Oddly, I didn't realized it until recently but it really hasn't been since I started going to HC shows again that I realized how sorrow-filled my life had become because I kept (most) of my pain inside for so long and how truly, genuinely happy I now am for the first time in YEARS.  

Knitting gives me time to think.  I thought about Bob a lot while knitting this blanket.  I resolved much of my pain and frustration and I intentionally knit through my rage.  Although I love dwelling in the past, I've had to force myself to move on. There isn't a single day that passes that I don't laugh to myself about what Bob would've done or said about this or that and actually, it is those mental "conversations" that keep me persevering and remind me to stay focused and keep it simple.  We would laugh and make jokes about any and everything and there is no reason to stop, even if he can't physically be here anymore.

When you make something, make it with meaning.  Make it with purpose and regardless of time, in your heart, it will last forever.

I knit my 3rd Professor Meow Pullover for my boss.

I knit size 4 and used a Knitpicks Wonderfluff kit.

This is the best quick intarsia project.

Previously I've knit the smallest size for Jenny and myself but I just had to try this on.

This wool/acrylic blown yarn blend is so soft and fluffy; it's like wearing a cloud.

This is me knitting at my weekly knitting meet up.  A group of us broke off from the racists that regularly meet at DWW and we now have our own vibrant, liberal, open-minded, free-spirited meet up at Corner Rock every Tuesday morning.

When you knit this sweater, you just make two matching front and back panels and then mattress seam them together.

This is me knitting at The Warehouse.  I am probably the only person who has regularly knit here!

That being said, almost every time I've been to a show recently, I've talked to other girls about fiber arts and they've agreed that knitting at shows is a great form of multi-tasking although I've yet to see anyone else doing it yet.  

I have probably knit this pattern more than any other sock pattern because it's the pattern that I followed when I first learned to knit socks.

This past winter/spring, it was brutally cold working in the grocery store.  I realize that they have to keep some of the groceries refrigerated but between the automatic doors constantly opening and closing and sending in freezing cold gusts of air, I was dying.  I ended up bringing my Vornado from home almost every shift for what seemed like months on end.

One thing that repeatedly saved my feet from freezing was all of the thick wool socks I knit.

So in preparation for next winter, I've decided to start knitting a few more pairs.

I love to use Galway or Lanas, or anything rustic and grabby with this pattern because when you wash the socks, they felt and become more like slipper socks.

I finally decided to frog the stupid ugly-ass  DWW YLKA Hana sweater and use the Lanas for the heels and toes of these socks.  I knit an entire cable panel but every time I looked at it, it just reminded me of how much I despise the white fragility of those wack bitches at DWW.  Ripping that yarn out for repurposing was majorly validating.