Sarah Jane Humke

So I have decided to break this post up into 2 as otherwise it would probably get too long, especially for y’all with slower internet connections.  I know that it was really pretty long for me, but I was driving almost the entire time so that’s sort of another story:-)

On Friday morning we got up bright and early and took the puppies over to the kennel and were on our way to Cockermouth, Cumbria.  This is a 5+ hour long trip by car assuming good traffic or 289 miles.  Now, driving 289 miles in the UK isn’t like driving the same distance in the US.  It’s a lot harder.  For one, there are a lot more cars on the roads here than in the US.  You will get traffic on the M6 in the middle of nowhere that you would usually only see outside decent sized towns in the US.  Two, there are a lot fewer “big” roads here so a significant part of your driving time is spent on 2 lane roads and in this case, two lane roads that were some of the narrowest, curviest, and most crowded that I have seen since moving here.  To say that it was sort of stressful would be an understatement. However, we made it to the Mitchell’s Lakeland Livestock Centre safely and I immediately started oohing and ahhing over what I saw.  I did one complete pass through the entire building (it was all in one building) before I started buying anything.  I think that the hubby was a little surprised by this approach but it is pretty normal for me at a show like this.  However, I don’t advise it for something like Rhinebeck or really at all because if you see something that you really like and wait and then try to find it again, well, it seldom works.

Here are some pictures from the Festival itself.  I apologize for the quality as we remembered to bring the camera but the battery was left in the charger in the Chapel.

I got many nice things, lots and lots of fiber.  I got 500 grams of White Merino Tops from Wheeldale Woolcrafts as well as 200 grams of White BFL.  (Perhaps Tini could help me dye them some day [I can see a very messy kitchen in the future….])

200 grams of Mixed Colors BFL Tops from Meadowcroft Farm.

About 1000 grams of 2 different colors of Baby Camel Tops from them as well as

250 grams of yak down

and this 50 gram bundle of rainbow dyed alpaca roving.

I found this lovely sock yarn from Kraftykoala called “Undergrowth” 

as well as 2 of these 50 gram batts called “Rainbow” (I really couldn’t resist them!  There are even SPARKLES and y’all know that I have been on a sparkle kick of late!)

Speaking of sparkles, I got what has to be the sparkliest battt that was sold at Woolfest.  It has 3 kinds of sparkly in it and it’s a lovely blue/black color by FeltStudioUK.

as well as another batt by her that reminds me of the colors of the ocean.

John Arbon Textiles were here as well.  If you remember, they were at the UK Ravelry day a few weeks ago.  This time I got 2 pairs of their alpaca walking socks, one for me and one for my mom for the Alaska trip.

I also got some more of their single ply alpaca laceweight as well as more of their 2-ply alpaca laceweight in a couple of colors

and a couple of skeins of their alpaca sock yarn.

I got some cool shell buttons to put on the pockets of the needle case that Tech Support is making.

as well as a few “extras” as really interesting buttons seem hard to find around here.

Since I have been on such a sparkle kick of late I ended-up buying a bunch of samples of different sparkly stuff to work into batts to spin.

I also picked-up some Ashford dyes to put some color into things:-)

I only got one fleece, but it’s for a Leichester Longwool.  I wasn’t terribly impressed with the wool sales area of Woolfest to tell you the truth.  The fleeces were in all sorts of bags, none of which were at all see through.  In fact, the one that I got was in a paper potato sack.  They also weren’t judged at all, just thrown together willy-nilly.  However, the prices were quite good.

I got a couple of pieces of equipment.  First off was 2 pair of sock blockers, one in medium and one in large.

However, the big piece of equipment that I got at the show is an Ashford Fine Drumcarder.

Tini, you’d best get going on learning how to spin as freakishly well as you do everything else cause I’ve got some serious !amounts of fiber to card!!!