Woolfest Leicestershire style

Today was a very exciting day- my first ever Woolfest!

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Beacon Hill near Loughborough decided to hold a mini woolfest this year, it was a good turn out with spinning demos, knitting lessons, refreshments, peg looms, feltmaking and weaving.

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For me the highlight was a walk up to where they keep their sheep and two guard alpacas. The sheep were not feeling overly sociable, but these two stayed around to investigate. The sheep are used to graze the grassland, the alpacas look after them and stop them being hassled by dogs. I even got to hand feed the brown one a few sheep nuts, it was very much cupboard love on his part- as soon as the food was gone he lost interest and there was to be none of that head rubbing or anything!

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Of course there was the opportunity to buy things, I just resisted buying a fleece from one the park's sheep (only because I could not think what to do with a fleece worth of manx yarn), but sucumbed to the fibre stall. I went for a handful of every different type of fibre they had, ranging from alpaca to crab. Only a little of each, just to try them out, once I get started I will post pictures and reviews of each type.

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The show was kept quite small this year as it was the first year, but it sounds like it will grow so one to put in the diary for next year.