Festiwool 2015

A couple of weeks ago, I was offered a ticket to go to Festiwool in Hitchin, Hertfordshire. After re-jigging my diary, I managed to free up the day, and at the last minute, my knitterly partner in crime, Snoopydog, was also available! Marvellous! So bright and early yesterday morning, we set off, putting the world to rights and catching up with the goings on in each other's lives the whole way there. The only time we stopped chatting was when we needed to listen to the directions from the sat-nav, approaching our destination!! Festiwool was a new-to-me yarn festival, in its second year. The location was perfect, in a light and airy college with plenty of space to spread the vendors out. Before starting to browse, we enjoyed a cuppa and some rather yummy millionaire's shortbread at the bargainous price of less than £4!!! The college canteen was providing the catering, so we were paying student prices!! What a great idea and something that other shows might consider where possible. There has been some talk on Ravelry about there being too many yarn shows popping up around the UK. But seeing the number and variety of vendors at Festiwool, I don't think think that's a problem. As well as some old favourites such as Whimzy and Sparkleduck, there were lots of new vendors to discover. It really was an excellent mix of indie-dyers, spinning and felt making, knitting notions and accessories and local yarn shops with mountains of more affordable yarn. A very well organised event with plenty of friendly volunteers on hand should you have needed them. Here's a snapshot of my day ...

As well as all the stalls to browse, there was a demonstration of felt making, a question and answer session with the model Daphne Selfe who then took part in a fashion show along with students from Bedford College. Hard to believe that this elegant lady is 87 years old! 

I was very excited when I spotted packs of the Stylecraft limited edition yarns, along with a copy of my Ripple Stitch Cushion!! I just had to take a photo!

Snoopydog and I had a wonderful time at Festiwool and were there pretty much the whole day! So I bet you'd like to know what I bought! I surprised myself when I actually laid out all my goodies this morning! In my mind, I thought I'd spent a lot more. A lot of the little bits and bobs are destined for gifts. The sparkly rainbow Opal yarn is mine, all mine, as well as a very pretty drop spindle from Spin City. There are also two balls of chunky yarn that I am going to use to knit the Fiddle Muff and two balls of a striping yarn that I fell in love with. It's a mix of wool and acrylic and the sample that was knitted up on the stand looked fabulous! I think  a hat/cowl/mitts set might just be in order! My last purchase was a pot of black dye that I have plans for!! More about that another time!

So thank you very much to the organisers of Festiwool for their invitation. Definitely worth the drive from Norwich and I very much hope that there will be Festiwool 2016! I'll be there! xxx