Woolfest part 2 the stash enhancement & gifts.

Woolfest wasn't just about having fun and meeting friends . There was some stash enhancement and some gifts.
Firstly from Artis-Anne 5 skeins of hand dyed hand spun yarn for the 5 elements. Anne and I had agreed a trade, 5 skeins in exchange for a cone of mohair to dye. Look what she came up with, aren't they gorgeous?
They will work beautifully with my femmes:)
I have wanted a shawl pin for a while now to compliment my shawls when I wear them. This is sycamore and was purchased from Kevin.
I love the shape of it.
Then I purchased some yarn and received a free shawl pattern from the Laal Bear. The pattern is written out which is better for me as I can't read lace charts. We will see how I get on, more later on that.
I chose these colours especially. When I was little I went to a boarding school for delicate children . I was there for almost 2 years aged 7 to 9. One of the crafts I remember doing was weaving and I made my nan a scarf using bright turquoise and bright orange yarn. It was extremely garish but she wore it with pride many times:) This blue yarn is called seaside and has some small flashes of orange in it so it seemed appropriate to add orange as a contrast.

I met up with so many online friends it was unbelievable. There were dozens of them and I enjoyed it greatly. One of these friends is Jan and she does the most superb crochet. I've several items in my wardrobe made by Jan and I now have 2 more:)
Jan gave me this along with some extra yarn so I can fringe or bead it to lengthen a little.

Isn't it gorgeous? I have the beads lined up ready to start tomorrow and watch this space:)
Not content with silencing me with the top Jan gave me this:-
Isn't it incredible? I'd seen the pictures on the blog and was tempted to ask her to make me one, I don't need to now. It is mine, all mine:)))
Jan I love the things you made for me and will love wearing them, thank you so much for them.

I also received 2 bags of yarn for my hospice knitting from Lisa and Vicky which is much appreciated:)
Wye Sue presented me with a huge bag of yarn to do with as I will, mainly Colinette. Guess I'll have to force myself to knit it then;) I love Colinette colours.
So a great time, very tired still today but it was worth it.
My thanks go to the Wool Clip for organising such a brilliant festival and to all the people I met who made me glad to be part of the online blogging community.

Woolfest 2009, very long and lots of pictures #1

Woolfest 2009 was incredible. Very very busy and very very hot. We really enjoyed it despite the heat:)
I'm going to let the photos(mainly) tell the story. 2nd post will be stash enhancement and gifts.
We should have known what the weekend was going to be like when we travelled up as it was very misty with a heat haze everywhere.

The colours on the stands were so inspiring and I could have taken most of it home.
There were also plants for dyeing your fibres
finished items to wear and to hang
cones for your knitting machine


5 years since Woolfest came into being. I've now been to 3 of them

Part of Oliver Twists stand
Basket making, you need somewhere to store the stash
more of Oliver Twists colours
and yet more. Can you tell I liked their stand?
You don't just need bright colours to impress.
Knitwitches
All busy on the Krafty Koala stand and it wasn't even opening time yet.


You could buy spinning wheels
sock blockers from the Laal Bear alongside her gorgeous yarns. I purchased 4ply for a shawl and received a free pattern, see next post for colours.
Cones and skeins to dye from Bluefaced.com
Natural Dye Studios blankets were beautiful
Mobair


Just look at that top
More spinning wheels
Winghams

yet more spinning wheels and other spinning accoutrements

Spindles and nostepinnes, I purchased a shawl pin here, pictures next post.
Helen came down from Scotland with her yummy yarn:)
Jon sent his yarn but was unable to attend himself.

Buttons anyone?
Bet they were glad they had been shorn with the hot weather
lots of animals to see
and lots of their fleece to purchase





These were some of the sheep that people had made for the auction to raise funds for charity.
You didn't just have to knit, crochet or spin you could also weave.
Nancy Bush was here leading classes
as was Donna
There were all sizes of spinning wheels.
This was the kindred knitters stand for bloggers and ravellers to meet up along with anyone else who wanted to just sit and chat. We were also offering help with various knitting techniques, and had various patterns on offer for donations to our fundraising. We managed to raise the grand total of £150 for the three charities we had decided on. These were p/hop MSF, Sheep for Africa and St Johns Hospice. The money was raised in various ways including guess the weight of the teddy, wool winding service. Wye Sue modelling her shadow scarf that has a sheep design knit in to it.
Our stand looked quite bright and welcoming. Have you seen the various items Sue knitted including regulation school kni@kers, a th0ng and some gorgeous shawls?
We had so many people come along and help us that it was just one great big social event.
Roll on next year.