It seem I have yarn on my mind. This weekend I was lucky enough to have a friend ask me to join her on a trip to the annual Spring into Wool Festival. With the offer of free tickets, I could not resist.
This was my first time going to a show of this kind. It is held at the Grammar School at Leeds. There was decent parking which is always a good thing.
I wasnt sure what to expect but my friend (who had been there on the Saturday as well) was a great guide. She is very knowledgeable in the yarn and fibre arts – it felt like I had a personal guide to explain things to me.
And wow! Did I learn a lot of new things – what blanks are, spinning, acid dyeing, plys, yarn weights, felting, etc. There is so much more to learn.
The yarn was varied; I was dazzled by all the beautiful colours and textures. I got overwhelmed actually – which I suppose is good for my wallet :-).
All of my knitting thus far has been using aran weight yarn (or chunky). The exception has been the Holsten which used DK. Some of the most beautiful yarns were 4 ply or lace weight which scares me!
There were some colours I couldnt resist buying though – a modest haul for me. I am going to try and knit these up by the end of the year and we will see.




I enjoyed myself immensely. Can’t think why I haven’t gone before! Never mind. I was quite impressed by the number of men there on the stalls selling their goods and knitting. Made me realise my assumption that knitting is a women’s craft is false!
And here I am with a baby (not mine)!

Thanks so much for stopping by!
Peace and love,
Hila
I was there on the Sunday too, it was a really nice show but I find a lot of the yarns are out of my price bracket and it’s difficult to get enough to make a garment out of as they are all hand dyed and the fine lace weights scare me too, so I was very restrained and only bought one 100g skein of hand dyed in a beautiful bright blue for the bargain price of £5.
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I kept adding up the total cost of knitting a sweater and the cost was too spendy for me too. I think for jumpers and larger items I will probably stick to the bigger (cheaper) brands and for smaller things like cowls , I will look at the handdyed stuff.
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Looks like it was a lot of fun. I couldn’t have resisted the magenta yarn, either. And I am loving your new hair colour!
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Thanks Lori! I wanted to do something I have never done before with my hair 🙂
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