Friends are people who walk in when the rest of the world walks out
When I did my first Wonderwool Show I had no idea what to expect so I was completely unprepared for the reality. It’s a festival of wool and sustainable Textiles and Fibres held in Mid Wales on the last weekend of April – that’s what I knew. No-one mentioned the thousands of (mostly) women who used it as the perfect opportunity to stock up on raw materials, meet up with some of the best Textile and Fibre practitioners in Britain and catch up with old friends while making new ones at the same time. But until they come in, the immense halls in the Royal Welsh Showground are COLD! In 2007, there was I, bare legged, wearing sandals, in a summer skirt and blouse – freezing. Across the aisle from me was the warmly muffled up Lorraine of Greenweeds, dispensing words of wisdom, humour, experience and cups of hot coffee. I have learnt a lot since my early days of Wonderwool so whether you are going this year, have been before, hope to go in the future or may never get there but want a glimpse of one of the most enjoyable weekends of the year, this is what I’ll be doing on the last weekend in April 2015.
Scrumbling is a fun way to play with texture. You can scrumble with knitting, crochet and weaving and I’m teaching workshops on both days called Scrumble Scramble. In just one hour, with chopsticks and an egg timer, we’re going to produce some mini wallhangings. Should be fun.
Many of the standholders at Wonderwool sell everything from fleece to finished article. Just because you can afford the stand is no guarantee that you’ll be allowed in so it’s great to know that the people who are working there are really passionate about what they do and what they use rather than only thinking about making a profit. Some stands are based around specific events being held. As well as the amazing Wool and Willow Festival , the http://cambrianmountainswool.org/ design challenge will be hosting an exhibiton of submissions including my entries:
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Other standholders (I’m in this group) are there mainly to exhibit and educate. I will talk a glass eye to sleep if you get me on the subject of Textile Art. This year I have created a series of works under the title ‘Etifeddiaeth’ which means legacy or inheritance. I have used techniques like wet felting, needlefelting, creative embroidery, free form knitting and needleweaving. If you are going to Wonderwool and get to my stand, R5, I can (and will) talk about any of these for hours on end. If you’re not going to Wonderwool, here are two of the new pieces I’m showing this year.
INFORMATION FOR SCRUMBLE SCRAMBLERS!
This is for everyone who took part in the Scrumble Scramble Free Form Knitting Workshops over the weekend. Firstly, I hope you enjoyed yourselves and secondly, I apologise for the non-ticking egg timer! The whole point of the pattern we were using was to show you that Free Form Knitting comes from inside your own head. We cast on 14 stitches and worked a few rows in K2, P2 rib simply to give our hangings a stable header. After that, as you may have noticed, there was very little that we were all doing at the same time or in the same way. Have a safety pin ready to move stitches on and off, add and change yarns, stitches, needles and direction of work at your whim rather than by following a pattern. I thought you were all brilliant and I know how far out of your comfort zone you were. Pats on the back all round!
