[gallery link="file" orderby="rand"] Friday was a great day out. This was my second time to Woolfest and I just love it. There is so much to see that I have decided one day is not enough. We arrived not long after it had opened, and only just finished shopping at 5pm when everyone was packing up for the night.
We had a plan. It was a good plan, apart from nearly running out of time to make our purchases. We started going round the stalls in an orderly fashion. Well, when I mean orderly, we started one end and worked our way up and down the aisles to the other end. What was not very orderly was the 'Oooh's' and 'Ahhh's' as we fondled the yarn, the elbows needed to get near some of the tables and squeels of delight at finding yet another skein that needed to be stroked. The orderly part of us did mean that we put a star against any stall in the brochure that we saw a potential purchase so we could come back later. My idea was that we look round first, have lunch/caffeine fix, deliberate over potential purchases and then go back and buy. It was probably a good idea as I had mentally spent all my money before reaching the end of the first aisle. What I had not realised was that it would take us most of the day to go round the stalls once. The caffeine fix was not had until nearly 3pm! Thank goodness we had stopped at the Tebay services on the way up for a full English breakfast to keep us going. (Best service station in the UK.) I think it was the rare sheep breeds that slowed us down. Who cannot resist stopping to look at the lovely woolly beasts?
Thankfully there was enough time for all purchases. I now own:
- 2 lovely skeins of Angel lace yarn from the Natural Dye Studio to potentially make Laar by Godrun Johnson
- 1 skein of beautiful scrumptious lace from Fyberspates to make With the New Cowl Neck Line by Susan Crawford (who was lovely to meet again)
- The Fyberspates Scrumptious collection book (who were also lovely to chat with)
- A 1939 vintage knitting book with lots of patterns and stitches that I love looking through
- Herdy stitch markers for a Ravelry swap and a Herdy bag for me (I could not resist!)
- 8 balls of undyed 100% 4ply alpaca yarn from Laughing hens - I have plans to dye this myself
- 2 bumblebee coloured rovings from Willo Alpacas to spin
- Some Goatland locks to possibly try spinning art yarn with
- And the item that made me smile the most - a Jacob fleece to wash, card, spin and knit. I have a design idea that I am really excited about for this, but more about that later.
I even managed to not spend ALL my budget - just! That should keep me busy for the next year.