Sunday, 28 April 2013

Wonderwool 2013 - a small glimpse

 The Saint and I travelled to a lovely sunny Wales for a delightful visit to Wonderwool.


Queues formed before the doors opened and we were able to stand and enjoy the sunshine.


Let the fun begin... some stall holders making the final tweaks to their wonderful displays


and colour abounds.


Olwen's felted banner is drew me in to her space immediately


and the Natural Dye Studio's stand is always a feast for the eyes. I want to buy all their kits just for the gorgeous colours.


I spent a great deal of time looking at the beautiful fibre in Sara's Texture Crafts.



One of my favourite stalls last year was Rag Art Studios. The artist recycles all kinds of every day things to create amazing pieces of art.


A beautiful rag art chair


and the Saint quite liked this ensemble...


At Fire and Fibre I bought a lovely adaptable tapestry loom. It has 2 sizes, the largest is photographed. I am looking forward to playing.



In Shearer Girl Yarns I fell in love with these shawl pins. What's not to love about sheep and spinning wheels!


The The National Wool Museum stand had this lovely lady weaving on an exquisite old loom.

The weaver weaves by pedalling rapidly to make the machinery work. Look how she has to hold herself only the bench on the lefthand side!


Close by, Curlew Weavers Woollen Mill had gorgeous woven fabrics that I just had to touch.



Big knitting seems to be all the rage currently and here it displays pretty shawl pins at Abergwenllan's stall.


No fibre festival is complete without the sheep.


I found a beautiful denim spinning apron and gorgeous knitting bags. The stall holder has a Folksy shop which is in the process of being set up.




I met the lovely Ursula from LaalBear 


and bought one of her little shawl patterns called Arbon. It is not on Ravelry.


At the Woolyknit stall there was plenty to examine and fondle


especially the beautiful samples of knitwear.


The lady on the left is responsible


for the knitted garden which is on the cover of the brochure this year. It is a full size garden.


When she heard that I write a blog, she offered to photograph me in her precious garden. It was a real delight for me.


I met Barbara of Felt Extravagant who was dry felting this piece and she told me that she wet felts them too once they are complete.  Her work is truly beautiful.




I have fivemoons yarn that I have knitted with and I have some awaiting a project in my stash. This did not stop me from going to fondle new yarn.


I loved this shawl which was up on the display and I cannot remember the name.


I met the fibre artist, another talented lady, at Textiles to Treasure who made me promise to take good care of my beast of burden, The Saint, and to see that he was well watered and fed.



A board of textured crochet pieces that were at the Thread of Life stall.


I love meeting all the people behind the online shops I support. I chatted at Skeins


and at Mandacrafts where some of the fibre on the top of the blue shelf may have come home with me. It is space dyed yak and silk and sooooooo soft and delicious. It makes me want to abandon all other current spinning projects.


Of course, I chatted to Katie at Hill Top Cloud, Jen at Fyberspates, Daniela at Feltstudiouk and I was at the Freyalyn stall too and some bits from their stalls may have a found new home with me.

At Artists Palette Yarns I met this young lass who was fondling the fibre hanging between us. It is a merino/tencel blend and she enabled me into buying some as she does not spin and needed someone else to love it as much as she did. I really felt that I had to buy it, to help a fellow fibre lover. It was my good deed for the day.

Of course, The Saint caught me doing the deed...


Once again, no fibre festival is complete without sheep. This handsome pair promote the beautiful organic yarn at Garthenor Organic Pure Wool.


 On the way out I saw these sweet cheerful baby jumpers.


All too soon our time was up. We only had a morning but I had two bags full! Many beautiful stalls are unrecorded. There are just too many for the time I had.

For me the best part of any fibre experience is the wonderful interesting people I meet who are so kind and so passionate about their crafts and wares. It makes for a truly delightful day out.

I am off to spin.



Sunday, 7 April 2013

A walk to Swanage and project news

Yesterday we walked across the cliffs to Swanage. It is a truly beautiful walk. We did little photography at the start but on the way back the sun was angled to light the gorgeous scenery. These are my favourite photos of the day.

The sun on the white cliffs at The Needles on the Isle of Wight.


Walking along the cliff edge towards Old Harry.


The view back over Poole harbour from the top of the hill.


Old Harry.


Caves in the chalk cliffs, eroded by a millennia of water action.



The back of Old Harry, a view I have seldom seen with the tide out.


On the journey I worked on the third clue from Romi's Mysterious Shawl KAL. It is a knit that I am thoroughly enjoying. Her patterns are always a joy to knit as they are so professionally presented.


I finished Cat Bordhi's Sweet Coriolis socks a while ago and they are a comfy wear. I loved both the toe-up start and the sweet tomato heel, both are pure genius and I have cast on another pair of socks to use these techniques again.


Lastly, I am plying BFL/silk blend from MandaCrafts with a Camel/silk blend from FeltStudio and looking forward to a new spinning project.