British wool makes me happy

Four happy flowers with their fleeces at Woolfest in Cockermouth in June! I have blogged about that earlier so please look in the archive of July 2011 if you want to see more. I want to show this photo that Knit magazine kindly let us use:

 Barbro, Malin, Sarah, Tini. Sarah has taken off her scarf, but the rest of us wear the beautiful scarves she knitted for us

What more? I'm knitting a scarf from two of my handspun yarns and one commercial, Manos Lace:

That edging takes forever to knit. Kasper thinks it's interesting, but says "Another scarf?? OK, you only have about 20 scarves so why not?" He's a reasonable dog most of the time.

And I finally started a nålbindning project again. This is an Along in the Blacker & Beyond FFSB group on Ravelry to celebrate the group's first anniversary. I love nalbinding, so I have no idea why I do it so seldom. The yarn is gorgeous: it's Pure Castlemilk Moorit with Silk from The Natural Fibre Company. The mill spins small special yarns and this yarn is one of those. Sometimes they are one of a kind, so it's not always possible to get more. Buy enough from the start for your project! Here's the webshop: Blacker Yarns

It's a perfect yarn for nalbinding. The tight twist keeps the yarn together, and it's easy to pull through the loops.

OK, so my right thumb isn't very kind to me right now. I have to alter between techniques as not to stress it too much, so I started a BIG project: crocheted throws for our beds. I'll crochet two so I can wash them in the machine. I like this pattern I found in an old Swedish crochet book.

Woolfest

Woolfest in Cockermouth, UK was fun. See, four happy fiber freaks waiting to go in and start the raid:

Barbro, Tini, Sarah, Malin

Have a look at the shawls we all wear: Sarah made them for us, each in the colors we love. They are just perfect!

First we went to the fleece tables. I found my fleece at once. It's a Cotswold/Shetland cross fleece, coal black, long stapled and absolutely awesome. I'll show it when I start working with it.

Part of the fleece tables
There were sheep, angora goats, alpacas. I planned to go back to look at the animals next day, but I didn't have time so I only show two Black Welsh Mountain sheep.

I saw a lot of spinning wheels.

Malin and I tried the new Schacht Sidekick:

I saw a spindle that was new to me, a big, heavy bottom whorl you can rest on the floor:

I bought some fibers and yarns, but not very much as we were going to visit Jon Dunn of EasyKnits the next week. I bought a few spindles and other equipment, and gifts for fiber people. I got a HUGE t-shirt, and a spinning apron with the Woolfest 2011 logo. Still I had difficulties in finding my bed:

We hade a few very exciting road trips in the Lake District. The roads are, well, scaring. Sarah is the best driver I've ever seen, so it made the trips much less frightening than they could have been. Norwegian roads are child's play compared to the narrow, winding roads with stone walls on both sides. The landscape is one of the most beautiful I've ever seen. Open hill landscape, woods, gardens, sheep, stone walls, stone houses, iron work... I can't stop admiring the stone walls and all the work and skill put into them.

Yes, we did have time for a beer and the fish and chips you just have to eat in UK.

I liked Woolfest a lot. It's not big, but it's certainly beautiful. Nice vendors, and a lot of them in a small hall. If you take your time you can scan the booths without having to struggle even if the place is crowded. I saw many of the vendors I use to look at on the internet, and that is very useful.

Now have a look at the big Merino fleece that Sarah, Tini and Malin bought. Under the dirt ther is a white, soft, crimpy fleece:

Then it was time to pack, take Tini to the airport and for the rest of us to go on to other adventures.

Packing

 Breakfast on the road

Tour de Fleece has started, and Yes, I had a wonderful trip to England

I have been very busy the last two weeks, I'll try to catch up here in a near future. Just saying that my trip to England together with Malin to see Sarah was wonderful, and Woolfest was wonderful too!

Woolfest

A kind and gentle Ryeland ram

An accelerated wheel from Woodland Turnery

Lake District... oh my

Yes, I did some shopping. Here is a spindle I fell in love with:

A rim weighted top whorl from IST Crafts
 
And Tour de Fleece, the biggest yearly spinning event started on Saturday, July 2. I am in three teams on Ravelry, so I spin three different yarns every day. Here are the yarns I spin in Team Bosworth and Team Nordic Spinners:

White Shetland for lace, variegated Merino on the Bossie
Sarah had filled a bag with awesome gifts for Malin and me. Some I have eaten, some I have been saying ooh and aah about, and this I started using today:

Jumper dryer, perfect for small amounts of washed fleece

My third yarn in the tour will be a sample of East Friesian, now drying on Sarah's great gift. Thanks Sarah!

Back to spinning. See you later :)