Woolfest haul
A somewhat belated Woolfest entry! It was a glorious day - almost too hot, as I'd vowed to wear Minnie for recognisability!
As well as the expected knitting, there was a lot of felting at the show - and Mum got quite enthused. I was particularly taken by some hand-dyed silk scarves with applied felt, the texture of which was amazing:
and a close-
and the felted fairy slippers were just so cute!
I was very disciplined; we went round the whole fair without buying anything the first time round, and then stopped for lunch and to plan what to go back for.... I have plenty of yarn right now (including some in 'deep storage' in the loft, so I really mean it!), so I wasn't looking for any new knitting projects, but I did decide I *really* wanted lots of fibre samples to spin. Here is an overview of the Entire Haul:
That breaks down as follows:
1) Books! I bought 'Dyeing to knit', 'Yarns to dye for' and 'Weaving without a loom' (because I'm yearning to try weaving, but trying to be good about kit accumulation!) Stu, however, thwarted my Goodness by giving me a belated birthday present of 'Learning to Weave' Mmmmmm!!
2) Historical Stuff... There was a wonderful guy there who mostly does re-enactment shows and things; I bought off him a lucetting kit, a recreation of a Viking drop spindle excavated from the Coppergate dig in York, and a gorgeous hank of wool from a sheep called Minnie; how appropriate! It's been dyed a lovely greeny-yellowy colour, really beautiful. He does a lot of natural dye supplies, but I resisted. Just:
3) Fibre samples - I got packets of natural Gotland wool, alpaca (in five natural colours), baby yak and baby camel:
a bag of wool nepps, merino and silk blend, possum fur, mohair :
...and just for the exotic, bamboo fibre and soybean fibre:
I also got three kinds of silk - tussah, mulberry and a bag of silk coccoons, to try unravelling my own!
4) A pair of hand carders - nothing special, but they're MINE! :)
5) Weaving stuff - a set of weaving sticks and a butterfly loom.
6) Sock yarn. Because we all know sock yarn doesn't count, right?
The crowning glory of the day was getting to play with an Ashford traveller wheel. I'll definitely be getting one of these next; it was very comfortable to work at, ran extremely quietly and is very flexible, with lots of extra accessories available.
...and I wasn't the only one to make a purchase or two! Mum came away with these two gorgeous skeins to make a YO-drop YO scarf (we have her now... Muahahahahahaaaaaa!):
Before I tell you what fibre they are, anyone care to hazard a guess? There will be a prize for the first person (if any!) who gets it right!
Of course, the scenery never hurts. This is a view of the ruined castle at Barnard Castle, taken from the car as we passed by:
and a close-
and the felted fairy slippers were just so cute!
I was very disciplined; we went round the whole fair without buying anything the first time round, and then stopped for lunch and to plan what to go back for.... I have plenty of yarn right now (including some in 'deep storage' in the loft, so I really mean it!), so I wasn't looking for any new knitting projects, but I did decide I *really* wanted lots of fibre samples to spin. Here is an overview of the Entire Haul:
That breaks down as follows:
1) Books! I bought 'Dyeing to knit', 'Yarns to dye for' and 'Weaving without a loom' (because I'm yearning to try weaving, but trying to be good about kit accumulation!) Stu, however, thwarted my Goodness by giving me a belated birthday present of 'Learning to Weave' Mmmmmm!!
2) Historical Stuff... There was a wonderful guy there who mostly does re-enactment shows and things; I bought off him a lucetting kit, a recreation of a Viking drop spindle excavated from the Coppergate dig in York, and a gorgeous hank of wool from a sheep called Minnie; how appropriate! It's been dyed a lovely greeny-yellowy colour, really beautiful. He does a lot of natural dye supplies, but I resisted. Just:
3) Fibre samples - I got packets of natural Gotland wool, alpaca (in five natural colours), baby yak and baby camel:
a bag of wool nepps, merino and silk blend, possum fur, mohair :
...and just for the exotic, bamboo fibre and soybean fibre:
I also got three kinds of silk - tussah, mulberry and a bag of silk coccoons, to try unravelling my own!
4) A pair of hand carders - nothing special, but they're MINE! :)
5) Weaving stuff - a set of weaving sticks and a butterfly loom.
6) Sock yarn. Because we all know sock yarn doesn't count, right?
The crowning glory of the day was getting to play with an Ashford traveller wheel. I'll definitely be getting one of these next; it was very comfortable to work at, ran extremely quietly and is very flexible, with lots of extra accessories available.
...and I wasn't the only one to make a purchase or two! Mum came away with these two gorgeous skeins to make a YO-drop YO scarf (we have her now... Muahahahahahaaaaaa!):
Before I tell you what fibre they are, anyone care to hazard a guess? There will be a prize for the first person (if any!) who gets it right!
Of course, the scenery never hurts. This is a view of the ruined castle at Barnard Castle, taken from the car as we passed by:
posted by Alison at 7/05/2006 02:06:00 PM
4 Comments:
Hi - my guess is either recycled sari yarn, or banana fibre, which looks amazingly like the sari stuff. Don't know how you managed to resist that traveller...
Can't remember if I said this in a previous comment or not, but we come to Cambridgthe last weekend in September for a college reunion - maybe we could meet up for a knit'n'kantter?
India
I'd vote recycled silk, too. That looks like a great haul!
Sorry I didn't make it yesterday, but I was overwhelmed with house stuff, and who am I to stop Arthur if he wants to spend time scrubbing the bathtub?
Oh, great fibre samples, I've never spun yak and camel, bamboo or soybean - interesting to hear your progress report. And you're right: sock yarn doesn't count ;-)
Have a lovely weekend!
Ooooo, looks like you had great fun! If sock yarn counted I'd be screwed.
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