Wonderwool Wales

It's been a while!  I'll catch up later but for now I'll tell you about our latest adventure.  Do you remember Three Go Wild in Yorkshire?  Well, this weekend one of the three and I went on an adventure to Wales.  As you know recently I have been drawn more and more into the world of wool and all things fibre so the chance to spend a weekend in beautiful countryside with lots of wool and sheep was too tempting.  My dear friend and 'taxi driver' collected me on Friday morning and we had a good journey down to Builth Wells, or thereabouts. 

As we only decided to go at the last minute our not-quite 5 star accommodation was a pleasant caravan on a very beautiful site just north of BW.  Unfortunately its heating system was archaic.

We're not joking!  This was us on Friday evening all dressed up to relax in the sitting room.  We went to bed in our respective rooms with almost as much on!  I can't remember ever having to sleep in a fleece with the hood up before.  Saturday morning saw us in the neighbouring town buying electric heaters so at least we were warm for the rest of the stay.  Yes, we should have complained but we both thought we could use heaters for our studios at home anyway.

Despite the quick shopping trip we were soon queueing up with everyone else to get into the Wonderwool Show.  The venue is excellent and the show was really well organised, plenty of places to sit and have a cuppa and lots of volunteers running the bag creche, which was well used, especially on the Saturday.

Once through the doors friend and I made a bee-line for the stand of P&M Woolcraft and scooped a beautiful portable spinning wheel each.

This is a Louet Victoria spinning wheel and they are very dinky.  The wheel is only 14" across and they fold up for transport so I can take it to groups and maybe even on holiday :-)

I didn't take many photos of the Show, I was too busy getting over-excited and shopping.  But here's a couple I did take

That's a surprise!  They're both of the Saori weaving stand.  If you check out the Wonderwool website you can have a look at the galleries of photos of previous years' events.  I'm sure this year's photos will be up soon.  

I think our success in buying the Louets and the general atmosphere sent us both a bit fluff crazy and before long we had made 3 trips to the bag creche with bags of beautiful fibre and yarns.  If you have a look here     you can read what we got up to.  I have to say I was a complete innocent in the bag burping episode but we did have absolute hysterics.  You had to be there, and the German lady who sat with us drinking her cuppa  said she was glad she had been and that she wouldn't forget her visit!  I have never laughed so much for years!  

What with racing to buy the Louets and falling about in hysterics we ran out of steam by mid afternoon so left a little early but we were back bright and early on Sunday for another full day of enjoying beautiful hand made goodies and a few more restrained purchases.  

This is some of the fibre and yarn that is going to keep me busy for the rest of the year and probably the next 5!  The long white box is a swift for skeining yarn once I've spun it. 

Sunday was a much quieter day and I think a few people may have been disappointed if they visited John Arbon's stand.  We bought some beautiful blends of fibre from them on Saturday and by Sunday the infamous burping bags of fleece had all disappeared along with a lot of the loose fibres on this stand.  The prices were very reasonable and I'm sure their website is still full of lots of lovliness.

We both had a spin on our new wheels back at the caravan and they run very sweetly.  I can't wait to take mine out and about.  This morning we woke up early, disturbed by passing traffic, and since the electricity went off just as I was about to have some breakfast we decided to beat a hasty retreat back to Lincolnshire before the icy temperatures descended again.  We had a surprisingly easy journey home and my husband is still breathing after seeing the new wheel and the number of bags I brought home.  Bless!

Now then, where are all those cottages for next year's accommodation?