Wowzers, what a Woolfest. It was the most fabulous weekend, but it has taken me a few days to catch up with sleep and work that were neglected while I was away. There will be a flurry of blog activity now, but then I am expecting to be pretty quiet again while I'm away in France for the show in Lot and some R&R in Marseille afterwards. I hope to get in a lot of knitting time though.
Woolfest was completely non-stop. We set up the Fyberspates stand on Thursday afternoon, and then sold all day Friday and Saturday before packing up and driving back down to Chester. We were so overwhelmed by the reaction to the book, that it's actually quite hard to describe it in words. Check out the slightly stunned look on my face as I open yet another package of books!
Selling on the Fyberspates stand at Woolfest (thanks to Nic for the pic).
We christened the new stand set-up arrangement, and it seemed to make it really easy to keep track of all the different shades of Scrumptious. I must say that it is incredibly hard work to be surrounded by such beautiful yarn and not buy it all for myself!!
Lots of lovely Fyberspates yarn to fondle.
I just end up telling myself that none of it is for sale - it's just for looking at like some type of modern art installation. However, in the little bit of time that I had wandering the other stands with Amanda and Lily (France from the book super-team), I succumbed to a few treats for myself. It wouldn't be a trip to a show if I didn't buy anything would it?
Knit by Numbers from Fibre Harvest.
First up is this irresistible 100% merino DK yarn from John and Juliet Arbon at Fibre Harvest. It's called Knit by Numbers and starting with solid dyed tops, the yarn is spun with increasing amounts of white fibre to give this beautiful graduated effect. I think there are more than 50 shades already, with more planned. I can't wait for the greens... I had to rein myself in from sticking with my usual teal. Everyone has assured me that this yellow palette really suits me, so it's a new dawn here at the A-C household, who knows what might be next. Tea drinking? Or eating sprouts? Eughh no thanks, just knitting with yellow for now.
A little fabric and some silk.
One of the stalls that really sucked me in for a good look was Cocoon. I adore my Japanese knitting pattern books, and love Habu yarns, so it was a great stand for me. I gave in and went back for my cheque book so that I could purchase some Habu silk and these pretty fat quarters. It's probably very good for the bank balance that they didn't take cheques or I might have really fallen down a Habu rabbit hole. I must have enough fabric for a house-sized quilt by now! Better get sewing.
Dazzle sock from The Natural Dye Studio.
Lastly for the photos is some squishy Dazzle Sock from The Natural Dye Studio. Along with a group of friends we are knitting a blanket for another friend. I'm quite certain she doesn't read the blog, but just in case I'm going to leave it pretty vague. I already had 6 hanks of this lovely Bluefaced Leicester yarn in my stash, so I just wanted to top it up with another couple of hanks to ensure we had enough for a lovely big, snuggly blanket. Hmmm, the yellow reminds me of trousers.
My final purchase was some handspun faux-cashmere from Daniela Klopmann. This is all wrapped and ready for a SnB friend. She wasn't at knitting on Tuesday, so I'm hoping I might bump into her at the pub tomorrow.
Phew - a long post. Congratulations on getting to the bottom. Tomorrow's won't be quite as long, but I have got a few lovelies stored up to share with you...
