Stash Enhancement Experience (aka Wonderwool)

Ok, so the plan was that my Wildcraft shop would be up and running by the 1st May. But after another week of growling at my computer and frightening myself with php code, it's not quite there. Almost, but not quite. I've been fighting with setting up Paypal accounts today, which was fun. Not. And don't talk to me about filling in bank forms! I got one in the post earlier in the week that confused me so much I had to take it into our local branch for help, only to find that the assistant there was as confused by it as I was. Next week I'll be away for a few days on a business trip, but that should be enough time for Paypal to have finally verified that I am who I say I am (which after this week, even I am confused about), so look out for grand shop opening notices towards the end of the week.

In the meantime, this weekend I'm planning to dye another big batch of rovings for the shop, since I bought a lovely bunch of undyed BFL roving at Wonderwool Wales last weekend.

Oh yes, I was going to say something about Wonderwool! It was so much fun, even the camping out in a wet and windy campsite part was fun. My friend Mel was a very able tent construction assistant, and an excellent cook (my cooking tasks mainly involved lighting the gas burner, which I think scared Mel a bit :) ).



It was a great campsite, called Fforest Fields, which was just outside Builth Wells. This is the view we had from the door of our tent:



Very nice, except you can't see the rain, or the wind, or the hundreds of sheep and lambs just off to the right who spent most of the night bleating to eachother. Which was nice to hear, but not ALL NIGHT! Somehow Mel managed to sleep through all that, I think I wore her out with all the navigating she had to do to get us there (another long story, but suffice it to say that as a result of an unfortunate set of road works and an impossible-to-find lpg garage, we are now far more familiar with Abergavenny than we'd like to be!).

Wonderwool itself was jaw-droppingly packed with excitement for anyone remotely interested in fibre-crafts. By the end of Saturday we were absolutely exhausted and mentally overwhelmed with all we'd seen. But we did manage to find many nice things. I picked up some gorgeous yarns from the Posh Yarn stand, which was so beautiful it was like walking into a jewel-box. I eventually chose some 'Lei' sock yarn (merino/bamboo/silk) in a pretty yellow/lavender colourway...



... and some 'Eva' cashmere/silk laceweight, which I'm still trying to pick a pattern for. I want to knit a lace scarf with it, but nothing too tricky as I'm still a beginner lace knitter.



I also bought some merino/tencel sock yarn from the Fyberspates stall, in pretty blue colours.



Looks like I have a lot more sock knitting to do!

That was in addition to the undyed rovings I bought (merino/silk, baby alpaca, soy silk etc.). Mel and I had reasoned that buying spinning fibres would give us more yarn for less money, but we hadn't factored in the effect that mental exhaustion has on the brain, i.e it makes your sense of stash control go out the window! I narrowly escaped buying a new spinning wheel too. It was a Louet Victoria, and so cute! Fortunately, with the car already packed with tent etc., there really wasn't space for it. Not unless I abandoned my promise to collect my brother from Bristol on our way home, and I can tell you, it was a close run choice! Suffice it to say, I did collect my brother, but I have also been perusing the net for cute fold-up spinning wheels since returning home :)

One of the nicest things about the show was meeting the stallholders. There was a great atmosphere at the show and people were really friendly. Definitely an event I'd recommend. Not so sure that I'd recommend the camping so much, having survived that experience I really feel I'm due a merit badge or something...