Woolfest 2012 - Day 2

The Woolfest is over for another year boohoo! On the second day I arrived in good time. The weather had continued to be atrocious and there was considerable flooding - not as bad as the other year, but bad enough. I heard that some people in Holmrook had their homes flooded, so sad. My friend D had a rough journey to get to Woolfest. The plan was that she was to come to me and we would travel together. The BBC Travel news said that the A595 was blocked both ways at Muncaster, and at her alternate route of Dudden Bridge. However these were made passable. The there was Holmrook Floods. D managed to get through this but got a puncture. She drove onto Egremont and had to have two tyres changed. Luckily after this her journey was uneventful. There was a diversion then temporary lights very near to the Woolfest, but by the time I got there, these had gone. Phewey!

I signed in as a Volunteer and got a free voucher for some Ewes Milk Ice Cream. I gave this to D when she arrived - I thought she was in more need than me! I was on the Bunting Stand from 10 - 12. I was sewing the bunting onto the tape. In all I sewed 35, and there was a pile still waiting - a job for the next volunteer!

So here I am sat behind the machine, sampling some Ewe's Milk Ice Cream - which was absolutely divine - no wonder I am grinning!

I didn't get to do a stint on the Olympic Cushion Stuffing. By the time I had walked around with D, time had run away with us and my feet were proper hurting - I did hobble to the car.

We had a good look around. I returned to I Knit London, D went nuts over the yarn and I had a good chat with Gerald, mainly about lace knitting and the current trend of hard blocking. I took D to see the Easy Knits stall. We looked at Eden Cottage yarns and I made my purchase - a beatuful skein of pale green laceweight. I will take pix of my purchases and show you. I was also very tempted to get a skein of 60/2 silk from Oliver Twists. However I thought I might find it frustrating to knit with something so fine. Part of me still wishes I had bought some.

However I did see what seemed to be a bargain. Balls of hand dyed yarns - approx 40g for 50 pence each! Yes, 50 new pennies. I bought 10 balls. I wasn't quite sure what to do with them. The looked as they would go very well made up into fairisle - but how would I use that? Then is dawned on me - a felted bag. I have not made one for far too long. I spent an age looking through all the felted bags on Ravelry, hoping that a suitable on would jump out at me. I was trying to think of what shape I wanted it to be so at least I'd have a head start in looking and may even be able to design my own. In the end I came across 'Suzie Q' by Angelique Den Brock-Molen dijk. This surprised me as I have seen this pattern before and tried adapting it without the luck I hoped for.

I am using 5.5mm needles

The colours are quite autumnal and I am looking forward to seeing the finished results.

It has been pleasant change from Lace knitting. I still need to do and send a cloth by the end of the month for a swap. I have selected a pattern and have agreed with myself to start it tomorrow. I am also going a bit nutty about wanting to try beading. The thoughts of beaded projects have filled my head today. I have looked through some back magazines and found some non-shawl projects. Two prominent ones are a small reticule (to use Jane Austen language) - a bag to you and me, and a christmas ball decoration similar to the one I did last Christmas. This latter thought got me onto thinking more widely about knitted chrimbo deccies - so I started looking on Rav. I found two that I printed off. One was a set of miniature socks and the other was a multicoloured stocking.