Woolfest 2010

Finally I got to go to Woolfest yesterday.

What a day!!!  It was incredibly hot and by the time I arrived at the showground in Cockermouth it was already sweltering.  I staggered in with the spinning wheel (the Ashford Traditional) and took it straight to its new owner.  So now with some spending money in my pocket I headed straight for The Yarn Yard stall - of course!  I grabbed the red that I was buying for a friend and some yellow for her too and some red for me....

So now with the essentials sold and bought I could browse at will.  Wow - what an amazing show.  Stalls oozing with yarn and fibre of every colour and variety.  Spinning wheels in use all over the place.  Oh my - it was such fun.  There were sheep and llamas and angora rabbits and the cutest lambs.  So many familiar names from Ravelry, online stores and bloggers.  Lots of Ravelry badges to peep at as I brushed past people.

I was intrigued by a lovely Russian lady who was making the most amazing shawls and spinning super-fine yarn on a drop spindle.  I bought some cobweb lace yarn from her in the deepest of purples:

I got a bit carried away with the fibre and fell in love with a HUGE batt at the Wingham stall.  I have named it Jupiter because it sort of looks like the colour of Jupiter - hee.  See how big it is?  It's 80% Merino, 20% Silk.

I also bought some sock blockers - been thinking about getting some for a while - and now I am doing the 12 pairs in 12 months challenge I want a better way to display the socks.  Here they are with this months finished socks on:

I bought some plain white merino/silk - to ply with the large batt and some small felted brooches for the boys to give to their teachers tomorrow on their last day of term.  I got some sparkly fibre to play with too.  Then I sneaked back to the Yarn Yard stall and bought a skein of the new yummy sock yarn in a gorgeous dark blue/green - I think it looks like Black Watch.

After the show some of us met up in a pub in Cockermouth for a lovely meal and lots of hilarity and chat.  I'm definitely up for it again next year - but will have to stay over as it was exhausting doing it in a day.  I'll have to see if I can get someone to come with me next year.

Woolfestival - St Abbs

At the weekend my friend Louise hosted a Woolfestival in St.Abbs. As I am sure you are all aware she runs the wonderful Woolfish shop based at St. Abbs Head. A real Aladdin's cave. The festival is held in the local village hall, formerly the school and is wonderful.

This time there were stalls from Woolfish, Yarn Yard, The Border Tart and the gorgeous Cairndinnis Alpacas. I didn't get chance to go out and spend time with the alpaca like I did last time - they are so sweet.

I came away with a smal stash of lovely yarn. This is some hand-spun from The Border Tart:


I bought three skeins of Caber from The Yarn Yard in the most gorgeous metal-toned colours:



I also got some gorgeous hand-dyed yarn with a matching plain small skein to make contrasting heel and toes on socks:



So two days before the festival I contacted Natalie from The Yarn Yard and asked if she wanted a hand on the stall. I turned up at just before 10 and sat down, I think four hours later, having never stopped talking and selling on her lovely stall. It was an absolute dream. In the afternoon it was a little quieter and we had the chance to get to know each other a little (we have never met before) and Natalie taught me how to spin on a drop spindle.

Well - I loved it - and here are some pictures of it all. Please bear in mind this is the first time I have ever spun and I am thrilled with the results - even if it does look a little uneven.

This is the first yarn I made - it is hand spun on a drop spindle from a mixture of merino silk and shetland roving and plied together using Andean plying:





This is what I have on my spindle at the moment - this is the merino silk roving which is wonderfully smooth. 80% merino wool and 20% silk.



I absolutely love working with this fibre and have another 100g in one of the other colourways to also spin. This is available from the Yarn Yard in five colours and is gorgeous - I may have to get some of the other colourways too..

A surprising buy

I went over to Woolfish today and had a lovely time with Louise and a couple of her friends catching up on news and knitting on my baby blanket - almost finished it - and will blog about it soon.

One of the main reasons for going - apart from getting a little free-time - was to look for some black yarn to make a hat for Morgan - he wants a pointy Wizard's Hat as seen in 'The Philosopher's Stone'. So I bought some lovely Noro Cash Iroha which I haven't seen before. It's plain black and slightly shimmery - and looking at the ingredients I can see why - it is 40% silk, 30% lambs wool, 20% cashmere and 10% nylon - maybe a bit luxorious for a child's hat - but I guess I love him!

The other thing that caught my eye amongst the Aladdin's cave was some weird nobbly wool. Now I normally detest novelty yarn - but for some obscure reason I really liked it. It's Adriafil's Retro Trends and looking at their site it's new out this year - I looked because I couldn't find it on the Ravelry database which is unusual. I borrowed a pair of needles from Louise and knitted up a quick sample to see what it was like. Well it was horrible to cast on and the first two rows were horrific - but then as my guage settled it started to really look amazing. The nobbles all settled down and gave the most amazing mottled effect. So I frogged it back so I could give the needles back to Louise and I have got three in my stash now. Not sure what to do with it - I'm thinking tea cosy or a weird hat for Orla. Again - looking at the ingredients it's not surprising I found it so lovely - 96% lambswool and 4% nylon. Lovely

A nice afternoon away from the mayhem - I even found out about a knitting group I may start sneaking off to on Saturdays.

Catching Up

I've been knitting a fair bit - well compared to normal - but still not enough.

I was at Woolfish on Saturday. Louise has started a knitting group on the second and fourth Saturdays of each month up until Easter (10:30-12:30). I knew about it because I had popped in the week before when Martin and the boys had gone swimming in Eyemouth. Louise had placed an ad in the local paper but had forgotten to put the time and the place! So funnily enough I was the only one who showed. It was lovely though. I supped my tea, ate my lovely home-baked scone and knitted - undisturbed!

I have finished a couple of things since I last posted. Another umbilical hat - which is under wraps until it has been sent out to the new (very small yet to arrive) owner. I have also knitted Orla a Noro hat to match mine. What do you think?
















I finished the left hand glove of fetching for the second time - the first one was awful. I've also been building my stash up a little - but will detail that when I have photos...