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. :)

(Warning: minor rant)

They finally arrived this morning. Seriously, the time it took to get them was absolutely ridiculous. I was disappointed when I received the wrong bobbins, but I understand that mix-ups happen. But to wait an entire week after receiving the returned bobbins before sending out the right bobbins? Totally uncalled for.

Joey and I oiled up the wheel, put on a new drive band and fixed the scotch tension (after I decided I didn’t like double drive). It took some work and frustration (and some searching on Ravelry for help) to get everything to spin right, but it’s now working.

I’m really happy to be able to spin again, but I’m still not a happy bunny. I’m going to have to spend a few hours sanding the bobbins smooth as the wood has lots of little splinters that are catching the fibers. And just for the record the time it took from ordering the catalogue to receiving the (correct) bobbins was nearly 5 weeks.

My mitts are finished and dry:

and I’m quite chuffed with how they turned out.

Although they do fit, I’m thinking about felting them ever so slightly to get a nice snug fit and close up the spaces between the knit stitches. A nice hot bath (while wearing the mitts so they don’t over felt) might do the trick just nicely.

Pattern: Plaid mittens by Alison Hansel
Yarn: My handspun, 2 ply bulky in merino from Violet Green in the Valentine colourway
Needles: 6.5mm

I got some lovely rovings from Violet Green in the post today and I decided they’d make great photos.

Just over 200g of Bluefaced Leicester in the colourway Dusty Answer:

And just under 300g of merino pencil roving in the Valentine colourway:

The Valentine colourway will be my next spinning project and it just happens to fall nicely into the Project Spectrum theme of fire.