Wednesday 18 September 2013

A summer of brightly coloured wool

Lots and lots of wool.
 
I decided that having done one small wool festival that it might be fun to take my little yarn shop to a five day massive festival (not wool focussed). It was quite an experience.
 
First there was the stock, because I didn't have anywhere near enough to start with. Deciding how much to take was a challenge, never having done a big show before, coupled with the fact there might not be many knitters there meant it was a double whammy of indecision.
 
After deciding how much undyed yarn and fibre I needed I had to dye it all, which kept me busy for most of the summer.




The stand at the show

The large British flag was to emphasise the fact that the wool used in my products is British and it was all hand dyed in Britain. There were quite a few stalls selling imported goods.
 
I spent most of my time demonstrating spinning while my partner, who has no interest in knitting or spinning, did a fantastic job as salesman. Obviously quite a bit of my going on about fibre has sunk in over the years.
 
 
 
The wheel fascinated a lot of people, many of them had never seen one. One smallish girl did make me despair slightly when she walked past and said "oh look a sewing machine"! We set up a sheep to FO display in front of the wheel showing the stages, it was very useful for talking to people about the different processes.

Lots of ideas for if we go again next year, and more idea of what a five day show involves. Next year I would start planning and dyeing much earlier in preparation.

It was definitely a good experience and we met lots of super people, exhausting though.

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