Fantastic Woolfest

Woolfest was fantastic. We drove up to Cumbria on Wednesday and arrived about tea-time after a 7.5 hour drive. We didn't do much Wednesday  evening as we were both very tired but on Thursday we got up to do some sightseeing. We drove around several lakes and did a couple of short walks but I'll talk more about that next time and share some fantastic pictures.

Then on thursday evening we headed to the Woolfest grounds. the show is held in a livestock market and we were allocated a cattle stall. It looked like this when we arrived:

We covered the sides with fabric and put up shawls and organised the yarn and the final look was this:

We put the sock yarn on one side

and the lace yarn on the other side

and hung up as many shawls as possible

The lace yarn was very popular:

Sock yarn didn't seem so popular this year and I heard some other indie dyers say the same thing, but that means there will be a lot of sock yarn in today's update. I'm in the middle of updating the website now and will continue today and tomorrow until I get through everything.

It was great to meet so many customers too, both old and new ones. And also great to meet several knitters who've knitted my magazine designs. some even brough me their knits to show me. I saw a great version of Lilia (from Yarn Forward) and I wish I'd taken a photo of it but I didn't think about it at the time. I also had some lovely comments from knitters. On Friday one knitter told her friend as she came into our booth that I was 'knitting royalty'. Not quite sure i agree with that one but it did make me laugh.  On Saturday I was even asked for my autograph which shocked me quite a bit. The girls laughed last night when I told them I was 'famous'. I find it quite funny really but also very flattering. Whatever my so-called 'celebrity status' is I'm very happy that knitters are enjoying my designs.

All in all, it was a very successful first Woolfest and I'm already looking forward to next year. I've also been thinking about which other shows to do next year.

We leaft Cumbria yesterday morning and had a long and hot drive home. It was incredibly hot yesterday even with the air con on all the way and we encountered a couple of traftic jams too but finally made it home. Inspired by all hte lovely fibre I saw at Woolfest I pulled my spinning wheel out last night and finished spinning the Touch Yarns mohair/merino fibre I had on the bobbin. I'm planning to navajo ply it.

I then started spinning some merino/tencel fibre I dyed ages ago and finished spinning half of it last night. I'd planned to try and spin something close to a laceweight yarn but it was so slippery and challenging to spin I've ended up with a much thicker singles.

Here's some of the yarns in today's yarn update which can be found here.
Merino Plus:

  

Ocean silk:

Ocean Silk:

Merino Plus:

Oganic Cotton Sock - which is back in stock for the summer

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