Finally I have managed to sort out my pictures from Wonderwool Wales. I’m afraid I was over-come by the excitement and failed to take any pictures actually at the show. So you will have to imagine a couple of alpaca, a couple of Teeswater sheep, assorted other sheep, a lot of stands with fibre and yarn and knitting and spinning equipment, a slighly smaller number of stands of local food, and lots and lots of happy shoppers.
My plan for the show was to try lots and lots of spinning wheels, and to pick up some fibre that I hadn’t tried before. And of course to have a good look at what was out there.
For my first purchase we really need squishy-vision. This stuff is so soft you wouldn’t believe it.
It is superfine (19.5 micron) superwash merino from Bluefaced. Each bag contains 200g. I am going to dye it but I haven’t thought about what colour yet.
Some more undyed fibre in types I haven’t tried before. First New Zealand Corriedale.
Next Falkland.
These are both from DT Craft and Design, and are going to be dyed at some point. 100g of each.
I’m not planning on spinning all the yarn I knit with from now on, so I also bought some yarn 🙂 Time for the squishy-vision again. This is Cash Sock from Bluefaced. 4ply weight, 80% superwash merino, 10% nylon, 10% cashmere. You have to feel this stuff to believe it! And at the top of the picture, Anniversary Aran also from Bluefaced. This is superwash UK merino. Not quite as super soft as the Cash Sock, but still very soft.
Back to some more spinning fibre. Here is 100g of Baby Camel from Scottish Fibres. Then at the bottom, a sample bag of cashmere, and a sample bag of dehaired yak, both from Wingham Woolworks. I love the idea of these sample bags. A great opportunity to try out new things, without buying a huge bag full, which in this case would be quite expensive!
I am obviously going through a camel phase. This is 200g of 50% baby camel, 50% silk from P & M. It reminds me of hair.
The next fibre is some natural black shetland from Hedgehog. I tried some of this when I was having a go on the wheels at Wonderwool and really enjoyed spinning with it. In fact I have been using this as my practice fibre on Suzie. It isn’t quite as soft as some of the other fibres, but is very pleasant to spin with. I got 300g so that should allow me a nice lot of practising 🙂
The next two were bought from a stand which had brought two of their alpacas to the show! The fibre I bought wasn’t actually from either of the animals at the show, but I had to buy it because I loved the colour. On the left is 100g from an animal called Kofie, it is actually a dark brown rather than black. Then on the right is 50g from an animal called Blush. It is rather fun knowing the name of the animal the fibre came from. These are from Black Mountain Alpacas, I don’t think they have a website.
In case you thought I had become subtle in my old age I also bought a couple of scary coloured bits and pieces. These are both the same colour, which on the label is called Fuchsienbeet. On the left are 2, 50g balls of pencil roving, 40m on each. These are 100% merino. On the right is one 100g ball, this is 4ply weight, 75% wool, 25% nylon. Both bought from the High Weald Fibre Factory. I am looking forward to seeing how the colours come out on these.
Lastly here are a couple of pairs of socks from Coldharbour Mill that were part of Paul’s birthday present.
I had a lovely time. It was great to catch up with loads of people I knew (a surprising number of people from my knitting group went), and meet lots of new people too. Lots of lovely yarn and fibre, and a great opportunity to try out a wide range of different wheels one after the other which aided in making a comparison. We stayed in Wales for the rest of the week and had a lovely time even though it was a bit wet.
