Friday 27 June 2008

Woolfest



Hundreds made the now annual pilgrimage to Cockermouth for Woolfest this weekend. I was very happy to meet up with friends and put faces to names as I joined fellow Shetland Sheep Society members to man the stall at this celebration of all things woolly. Thanks so much to everyone who fed me with their extensive knowledge of all things Shetland: and particularly for help understanding the mysterious world of wool type, quality, spinning, felting and selling.

I decided that I'd really like to be able to use some of the fleeces from my girls myself and so, after a crash course in needle felting, I purchased some needles and some of Lenice's beautiful ready washed and carded wool. At home that evening I set about making a felt bead as I had been shown. That didn't go too badly at all and so I tried my hand at making a bracelet like the ones that I had bought at Woolfest last year. The result was quite pleasing, though admittedly not totally even! I used the bead as a needle holder so that I could easily use two needles together. That's one of Fox's blankets that I borrowed as a cushion by the way!

I rather enjoyed doing something creative, hopefully I'll get better with practice.
Here are some more photos of the day. Captions welcome!


1 comment:

Tammy W. said...

Looks like a good time was had by all Jenny. My dream is to come back to England - and go to some of the shows and wool festivals. I really liked your wool bracelet - what a great idea.