Friday 18 May 2012

Wild, wet and windy.

 On the trip to Wales, friday evening, everywhere and everything was dripping wet. Tiny lambs, which we saw as we neared our destination, disappeared overnight. Obviously taken into shelter by their shepherds, it meant I was not able to get any of the 'aah'-value photos I was hoping for. Better they were warm.
 So excited were we to be going to WonderWool, that all of us were ready to leave the hotel by just after nine. Ten o' clock saw us in the queue for tickets. I keep saying'we'. Four of us, all members of Close knit, went together.
Wonderwool Wales is held at the Welsh National Showground. In my opinion, a sensible venue. Our local show, Fibrefest, is lovely, but has been held in several different places. None of them truly suitable. Good basic facilities are of great importance at this sort of show, and they have been sadly lacking, so far. The facilities at WW Wales were busy, so imagine the chaos where they were not up to scratch, and worse, not signed!
I digress. Back to WonderWool Wales.
There were not as many stalls as the last time I went, but still more than enough to see, buy, do. The Welsh Guilds of Spinners, Weavers and Dyers were there. Stalls selling fleece and fibre of all sorts. Prepared or not. Dyed, or natural. Or the dyes to do it yourself. Every kind of equiptment for spinning, or weaving. Beautiful yarns. Some hand-spun, some commercial. Hand-dyed yarns  that were almost edible. Every conceivable type of needle to knit with.
The various sheep-breed societies were there, too. Some were selling fleece au naturel. Whole fleeces, or small bags. And the small producers, who keep a flock of something, then have the fleeces spun to their own specifications.
There were a number of stalls selling hot beveredges. My own favourite was Preseli Coffee. Two lovely people, who smiled all of both days. When in need of a drink, that is where I went.
The four of us went to the show with the intention of attending both days. Which we did. The Sunday, however, was extremelly cold. How the stall-holders kept warm, I do not know. G had taken a hat with her. The rest of us ended up buying hats. Over lunch, we decided to call it a day. On the journey back, we saw snow on the Brecon Beacons. Along with the torrential rain cascading down the hillsides.

 So, what did I buy? Well, there was the Wonderwool Wales bag, ordered a week or so in advance. Just as well, as they sold out! Once I had the bag, there had to be something in it, didn't there?

 So, diagonally up from the left....50 grams of first-clip alpaca from Fleecewitch. I have bought yarn from Jean in the past. Lovely.
300 grams of Merino/Tussah silk sliver from John Arbon. This has to be felt to be believed.
100 gram of Moorit Shetland, from a lady called Judy. I think that was the Shetland Sheep stand.
The red is 20 grams of hand-dyed wensleydale locks/fleece. The green is the same, both from Adelaide Walker.
The tweed is an of-cut (approx a quarter of a yard) of shetland tweed. But I can't remember where from.


A better view of the Merino/Tussah silk. Divine!

Four  20 gram balls of Angora mix, from Bigwigs. I have had this before, and love it. I made the Puderosa neck warmer from it. This will be for a sleeveless sweater. It will be as light as thistledown to wear.This was one of the few 'must buy's on my list.

Two 50 gram skeins of cashmere mix 4-ply, from Fivemoons. The colour does not look much, in the photo, but it is a soft bronze, which gleams gently in the light. Really squooshy to handle. It's beautiful, Sharon.

There was also enough leaf-green wensleydale 4-ply, bought from Sheep shop, to make a lovely sweater. Their own pattern. Some extra knit-pro cables.Two Addi lace circulars. Some lovely stitch markers from psychodeliceliphants. At last, some on nylon threads. They don't catch on the lace knitting like others do! And an extra bobbin for my Ashford traveller.


This hat, bought because I really needed one, but chosen because I love it. It came from a lady, I think called Jean Jones. She was spinning on the Ceredigion Guild stand. All spun, dyed, then knitted, by her. It has re-awakened my interest in natural dying.
Sometimes I wonder....am I interested in too many things?