Woolfest 2016

Village Knitters by Dee Nickerson a Green Pebble Greeting Card

I'm definitely mellowing as I get older. 30 years ago I went to Glastonbury festival with a bunch of friends, bunking down in the back of a transit van. This year, on Glastonbury weekend, I went to Woolfest, a festival to show and celebrate the best of British wool as well as the amazing design and creativity of wool crafts. It's a two day event that takes place every year at the livestock center just outside Cockermouth, in the Lake District.

I had booked myself in for two nights at the Manor House Hotel in Cockermouth,

a far cry from the back of a transit van!

Woolfest itself was fabulous. This was my first wool/yarn type of festival and it definitely won't be my last.

As well as the multitude of stall holders covering a large area, there were also examples of the different sheep breeds being exhibited too.

In the middle of the day, there was a very interesting talk and exhibit in the auctioneers ring. This showcased each of the British breeds, explaining their origins, fleeces and in some cases their rarity, with a cheeky alpaca making an appearance at the end.

I knew a couple of the lovely ladies, Fay and Lynne, from Sandbach Woolgathering Group, were going to be there and we arranged to meet up for tea and cake a couple of times in the day (only once with cake...Honest!) and we had a nosy at all the goodies we were buying.

Fay and Lynne are also hosts of The Crochet Circle, you can listen to their wonderfully chatty podcasts here.

So...what did I spend my pennies on....well!!

I made a bit of a bee-line for John Arbon Textiles. I wanted some DK yarn for a cardigan project I have coming up and I bought six skeins of their DK Knit by Numbers.

The Knit by Numbers walls, are most impressive. Who could not resist all those colours?

For all the buttons and a shawl pin that I purchased, I visited and re-visited, throughout the day, Textile Garden. The choice was amazing.

Next door to Textile Garden was The Knitting Shed.

I couldn't resist one of their hand-dyed baby alpaca mix yarns, but couldn't choose between two of the colours. So...I bought them both and a few more buttons to match...

And a hand-dyed skein of 4ply sock yarn from Wild Wood Wool, part of the Wool Clip co-operative, whose members organise Woolfest as well as exhibit their products together.

A final purchase came from Emily Foulds. Two skeins of Shilasdair 4ply, from a bargain basket.

Here, Fay and Lynne caught up with me and we enjoyed a chat with Laili from Emily Foulds and Emma Wright from Emmaknitted, a very talented young knitting designer.

Time for a quick group photo,

before we all said our goodbyes and headed off on our separate ways, tired but very happy.

Till next time...