Woolfest 2008: an overview

We had a great day at Woolfest buying, petting the fibre bearing beasts and checking out the various exhibitors.

There were several great displays, including a stand dedicated to the traditions of knitting in Norway:

(I have a personal infatuation with knitting in Northern Europe… those photos were inevitable)

There were also lots of cool fibres to be had. The one which intrigued me was The House of Hemp stand:

There were also many animals being displayed and sheared:

Sheep:

Including my favourite, Wensleydales:

And alpaca:

Of course, one can’t leave a fibre festival without a bit of fibre. And fibre I bought. :)

I bought merino roving:

And some alpaca:

Most of these will be spun up into fingering weight yarn. I have dreams of colourwork mittens. I have a lot of spinning to do…

... so while for the time when I’m not spinning, I bought some laceweight. It’s 1200m of cobweb laceweight from Fyberspates. The range is called Faery Lace and it’s 90% superwash merino and 10% nylon.

I also bought a couple of books:

(I did mention something about liking Northern European knitting, right?) The books are Lizbeth Upitis’ Latvian Mittens also available from Schoolhouse Press and the now out of print Poems of Colour by Wendy Keele

Of course, after a long day of fibre it’s best to relax in the comfort of an English pub, in our case at Twice Brewed Inn which is nestled along the old military road by Hadrian’s Wall.

It was a good day. :)