Well another year has rolled by and it was time to immerse myself once again into the wondrous spectacle that is Woolfest here in the UK, held at Mitchell’s Lakeland Livestock Centre, Cockermouth Cumbria. I know, tough job but someone has to do it…….
A fabulous day was had spent amongst fellow crafters, fibre enthusiasts and livestock folk. There were 158 exhibitors this year, I think there has been over 200 in previous shows. There seemed to be many new demonstrations going on such as silk papermaking with found and gathered materials, lino cutting and printing on fabric and stitching on felt, braiding with a Manx loom, cutting hand woven fabric for garment construction, quick threading on the rigid heddle loom, broomstick crochet, speedy warping and Tunisian crochet. A lot going on, and a lot of things I have not the first idea what they are!!
I know how we all like photos so here they are, no real explanations, I just took what I thought would grab your interest.
The first picture is the show ring, where each breeder gives a talk about their particular livestock. I was particularly taken with the magnificent sheep that the lady on the left in blue was showing, a close up in pic two, and even better in pic three. Star of the show for me.
He was a huge gorgeous chap! The breeder Joanne very kindly told me he is a coloured Ryeland, a five year old tup that they use for their main breeding.
Joanne has said that the fleece is better for needle felting rather than wet felting, and here are some of her wonderful pieces.
Now we have a few more fibre providers!!
This next beauty had four horns, two on the top of the head and two curling around the face.
There was also some home grown, ethically produce angora rabbit fibre for spinning and felting, and here are the bunnies.
There seemed to be more beautiful garments and clothing on display this year, here are some pics.
Some beauties amongst those don’t you think?
I thought you may like to see this folklore spinning song I saw.
A few more goodies, yarns and some beautiful knitting bowls.
Fabulous fibres.
And of course the fleece crèche where you can buy your raw fleece and collect it at the end of the day.
This next lady is from the Eden Valley Guild of Spinners, Cumbria, demonstrating weaving.
So the time flew by as it always does when you are having fun, and before we knew it from arrival at 10.00, the clock had whizzed around to 5.30 without us noticing. However in this time I had ample opportunity to adequately purchase feed for the hungry beast that is my Stash Monster, we all know how they are happier with regular tops ups………! The offerings this time include Shetland, Gotland, Jacob, Suffolk and Cheviot tops, lovely buttons, Merino, Jacob x and Teeswater locks, silk boucle, silk laps, hand painted paper, nepps, small piece of tweed, pot of fabric dye and a wooden stamp, little sample packs of sari silk yarn and carded sari silk, big block of olive oil soap and white scrim….I think that is everything…….Believe it or not that was the epitome of restraint ! Stash fed and I can continue being a happy crafter!
I hope you have enjoyed reading about my day at the show. It was over too soon but it will return to delight again next year.