Woolfest 2014........part 1

I can't believe it is already a week since Woolfest and I have just about recovered! What a wonderful show but exhausting. As always there were plenty of lovely stalls to look at and lots of "like-minded" people soaking in the fibre fumes!

 

 

Our stall, My Fine Weaving Yarn, was a riot of colour as always and was a hit with a lot of photographers over the weekend.

 

 

There are always plenty of sheep to see at Woolfest and I couldn't resist taking a break and paying them a quick visit.

 

 

Castlemilk Moorit on the Castlemilk Moorit Sheep Society stand.

 

 

A Greyface Dartmoor in mid chew!

 

 

Teeswater sheep also having a chew!

 

 

And of course there were Herdwick sheep too.

 

 

You also get to meet some lovely people at the show. Our stall was next to The Threshing Barn  which has just become a UK agent for the Strauch Fiber Equipment Co. I bought one of their double wide drum carders back in 2008 so imagine my delight to actually meet Otto and Joanne Strauch who had flown over from Virginia especially for Woolfest and were demonstrating their products. I know they were kept very busy and they both looked very tired at the close of the show. More about my purchases etc. in my next post.

Guild Summer School Trade Fair

Last Saturday I headed in a south- westerly direction and across the hills of Mid-Wales to the Guild Summer School at Carmarthen where I joined up with Helen of My Fine Weaving Yarn. This meant a really early start in order to be with Helen before the Trade Fair opened up for business at 9 am sharp. The roads were clear of holiday traffic thank goodness and I had a trouble free trip over the cloud covered hills and came down the other side into sunshine. Business had been good the day before as the students on the various courses had the opportunity to buy from the Trade Fair before members of the public had the chance to buy on Saturday, so we were hoping for another busy day. It was lovely to meet some of our customers from Woolfest who had bought yarn from us specifically for the courses they were doing here. We had a great time chatting with them about their time at Summer School and Helen managed to visit a few of the classes later that day to see some of their work. I did a little bit of shopping too!

 

I bought one of the new Zoom Looms that Schacht make from The Threshing Barn along with some more Gaywool dyes and some wool roving with dyed nepps. As you can see once I got home I had to have a play with the Zoom Loom and I must say it has great potential!

 

 

I also couldn't resist buying a couple more spindles from my favourite spindle maker IST Crafts. The one on the left of the picture is a Tibetan spindle made from Ebony on Sycamore with an African Blackwood shaft with a matching bowl. The spindle on the right is a bottom whorl made from Birds Eye Maple with an Ash shaft. I'm having such fun using my other spindles that I can't believe I haven't spindled before!

Our next outing with My Fine Weaving yarn will be at the end of September when we go to Skipton in Yorkshire and the new show called Yarndale. Before then I will be off to another steam rally and then we are off across the Chanel to Germany in our Mk II Jaguar on the MSA Euroclassic - more about that later!