Higham Hall

I've had to organise the workshops for Woolfest at Higham Hall this year. The lady that used to do it decided she didn't want to be involved any more so was a bit of a rush to get some tutors together, but am really pleased with what I've managed to arrange, they're all day courses, so really reasonably priced;

On Wednesday 20th June, we've got;

Janet Renouf-Miller teaching Spindle Spinning

And

Susan Crawford of Susan Crawford Vintage, teaching "Interpreting & Working from Vintage Patterns."

Then on Thursday, 21st June we've

Sue Allan of SewSister teaching "3D Sculpture - Fantasy Needle Felted Birds"

And also

Rachael Matthews of "Prick Your Finger" teaching "Crochet As Still Life"

Personally I'd love to do them all, but I know I'll be otherwise engaged!

Woolfest 2011

My stand with all the shawls, scarves & kits out
This was the 10th birthday stand, with my Indulgence stole/scarf, Marion's Decadence, Jean's 10 shawl pin & Ellie's needle felting cow kit.

Well, we had a fantastic time, 5,000 people over 2 days in the little Cumbrian town of Cockermouth! That's a 1,000 more than last year, phew, I feel like I spoke to all of them!

This is what our stand looked like at about 10.30am on Sat, mad, mad mad...........

Hopefully everyone enjoyed themselves, the feedback from stallholders & visitors alike seems to be very positive, we certainly really had a great time. Nothing nicer than talking to like minded people about topics you enjoy, ie wool & all things woolly!!

The Woolclip stand was incredibly busy but happy! Well done us!

Woolfest Tomorrow!

Still needs a bit of tweaking in the morning.
Nearly there.... This is our Woolclip aisle.....

We've been at Mitchells Agricultural Mart at Cockermouth setting up The Woolclip stall this afternoon, thankfully 1 of our members, Linda, had made the most wonderful cupcakes to keep us going, I don't know how she had time to do it, so hats off to Linda!

Only 2 days until Woolfest....

Oh my goodness, only 2 days until we set up the stalls for Woolfest! AAAAh.... I'm in The Woolclip shop tomorrow so I can collect all my things, then we set up the stalls on Thursday from 12 noon onwards. Then open to the public on Friday..... & Saturday.

Collapse on Sunday!

The house is full of wool, kits, patterns & things to put on the stand, all completely mad!

The weather forecast isn't great, last year we were in short sleeves, this year I think we'll be in a couple of layers - ho, hum!

Woolfest

Well, had the busiest 3 days of my year.

Thursday, I went on a lace knitting course by Galina Khmeleva at Higham Hall, which was good for techniques such as grafting to pieces of live knitting together, must try it out before I forget it!

Then Friday & Saturday was Woolfest, we think we had about 4,000 people come & visit, which was amazing & there were people from all over the UK & abroad as well, quite a few Americans, Estonians, Scandinavians & they're just the ones I met. So we're all exhausted but exhilarated, will post some pics when have them.

Going for a lie down........

Oh bought some yarn too, so maybe I'll have a play with that first!

Springwatch

Spent the day at The Whinlatter Visitor Centre near Keswick today, taking part in the BBC's Springwatch Weekend.

Myself and Marion from the Woolclip were there to help promote rural crafts.

We were a bit disappointed by the number of stands there, only 5, a willow weaver, cookery demonstration, a felter, an artist doing charcoal drawings & ourselves; but people were interested in what we were doing, Marion spinning & me knitting,
so hopefully people will have a look at the shop, The Woolclip & come along to Woolfest & see more of what we do.

Holidays & The Woolclip

Well, we've just come back from 5 weeks in Spain, we left at the end of February in the snow & returned on the 1st Sat in April to yet more snow! Luckily we came back on the Saturday & not earlier as we wouldn't have got home there was so much snow.

This is what we left, lovely bright days, this is a photo taken along our favourite walk, Las Rotas, & this is what they put on washing lines in Spain.... a bit different!The day before we went away I heard that my shawls & stoles have been accepted to be sold at The Woolclip in Caldbeck. It's a wonderful shop run by 15 women as a co-operative & is based in an old Priest's Mill in the stunning village of Caldbeck in the Lake District. They sell all sorts of wonderful hand-made things from felted cards to rugs, kits, corsages & now lace shawls!

They also organise the amazing Woolfest in Cockermouth, which I went to for the first time last year, when I first started getting back into knitting again. Do try & come this year as Cockermouth desperately needs people to come back after the dreadful floods. The town is still so quiet, even though it's Easter, there are few tourists around.

So now I have to try & work out how to display my shawls in the shop......a nice problem to have!

Here I am!

Well, here I am world, come & find me!

I'm a 40 something year old living in the beautiful north of England.

Been interested in crafts all my life. Have done embroidery, knitting, cross-stitch & needlepoint forever & I've just started learning to crochet, a friend is very kindly giving me lessons, she has a lot of patience!

Went to Woolfest last Friday which was very exciting. Lots of inspiration but was very good & didn't spend too much. Did buy some hessian & a proddy to make a rag rug - another project to start!

But first I must finish the rug I've been doing for 13 years, just got the border to do, only been taking me 3 years!

Then I need to decide what I want to crochet with my new-found ability.

& get wool & pattern for a cobweb lace shawl/stole. If anyone has a reliable pattern, would love to see it, keep looking them up on the net & can't decide what to do. Saw some absolutely fabulous ones at Woolfest & am desperate to make one. Also want to use Rowan's kidsilk haze mohair as it looks beautiful & the colours are to die for.

Yesterday I made some elderflower cordial for the first time & it was so lovely that I'm now making 6 bottles more.

Also making some elderflower champagne, apparently it's non-alcoholic, which is a bit disappointing & you have to wait 2 weeks for it to mature, looks pretty dire at the moment but smells wonderful. Using a recipe given to me by a neighbour from a WI Cookbook from 1939!

So many things to do & just not enough hours in the day........