Woolfest 2013

Had the day off work on Friday to attend Woolfest with my friend Lynne and we had a  fabulous, fabulous time there.  It is over two hours by car from SEWYLD mansions to Cockermouth where Woolfest is held and this meant extra chatting time and much silliness, including the singing of songs unsuited to women of our vocal talents, and indeed supposed maturity.  It rained all the way there, because it always does.  However, I love the Lakes with a passion so I was quite happy driving along in the rain, looking at mountains... or what could be seen of them below the clouds anyway.

The event is held at a livestock centre and it was wet and muddy and overlaid with the odour of wet sheep and damp waterproofs throughout and filled with the sounds of excited people pawing through all things wool related.  There were animals too; the most darling alpaca's and rare breed sheep, and lovely, lovely wool everywhere. 

And over four hours of heavenly wandering and squooshing of yarn, discussion of the various merits of yarns and colourways; serious consideration of this and that, and maybe some of those too, and having to walk around the entire place once before we bought anything, once more to buy things, and twice more to see if we'd missed anything then spending the time in the car home wondering if we should maybe have bought something else as well, and maybe we might make this not that with what we did buy. 

All of which resulted in the following purchases.

The large skein of navy blue double knitting upon which all else is resting, was the most bargainous find.  Its pure merino, and there is 500 grams there; sufficient for a sweater, for the huge sum of £10.  I was well pleased.  I would perhaps have bought more except that they were all overdyes from various other colours so none of the skeins matched properly.  I need a navy sweater, and that is what this will become.
The cone of black on the left is alpaca merino mix, four ply weight.  There is 100g of that, and I must admit I am not totally sure what that will become. 
The cone of cream on the right is alpaca and silk mix, and there is 370 grammes, enough for a sweater or cardigan.  I've not totally decided if this will be knitted up as it is, or dyed to some colour to be decided later. 
Finally, the two skeins at the front are pure silk laceweight, and are my birthday present (which I am allowed to have very early).  This was from Oliver Twists and will become part of a swirl cardigan, which is why I have so much lace in one colour.  I am going to try and make a Rubies and Ribbons swirl, which needs both lace and sock weight yarns.  I still need to find the right sock yarn to go with it, so I'm allowed to keep the yarn with me for matching purposes. 
  
I also bought some rubber point protectors to stop my knitting falling off the needles whilst it is sat in the basket, and an extra set of Knit Pro sock DPN's in my favourite size, because when I knit socks, sometimes I want to have more than one pair on the go at once.  I'm greedy like that. 

Also in the car on the way home but not belonging to me were; a full set of Knit Pro circular needles, some black cashmere for a shawl, some red cashmere (also for the same shawl), three knitting patterns (two shawls, one cardigan), a further giant skein of navy double knitting wool, and some undyed laceweight (Lynne), and a  further cone of the silk and alpaca in cream, double the size of mine, which I brought back for my mum who hadn't been able to attend.  I gather this is to become a cardigan or possibly a cardigan and a sweater (there was quite a bit of it on the cone).   This won't be dyed as she isn't messy like me and can own cream items for more than five minutes without spilling her dinner down them or getting her elbow into something.  :) 

And, I still came home without the sock yarn I needed to make the socks for the person who is allergic to wool.