Woolfest 2009Day trip up to Cockermouth in the beautiful Lake District for day 1 of the Woolfest on June 26th. It was my first time to the Woolfest and it was well worth the visit. The location the Lakeland Livestock Centre, with the pens being converted into stalls for a couple of days.
Some of the pens still held a variety of unusual sheep breeds including the Teeswater and North Ronaldsway breeds and best of all were some alpacas which had just been shorn, and yet managed to look extremely elegant.
A festival to celebrate natural fibres of all kinds, there were stalls with everything from all types of spinning equipments, to weaving, raw fleeces to purchase, lots of buttons and accessories stalls, two of my favourites were
Injabulo, a fairtrade company helping to improve conditions for women in South Africa and particularly Aids orphans and Indigo, who crocheted and knitted up a variety of lovely bags and containers in Herdwick wool in their natural colours.
If you are interested in dyeing, there were lots of natural dyes on sale and advice of how to dye and of course plenty of natural fibres for knitting and crochet. If you were looking for something a little unusual, you would not have been disappointed. It's not a big venue but all the better for it, as everyone was in holiday mode and having a good time.
Definitely worth a visit, if you are thinking of going next year, and why not make a weekend of up staying in the gorgeous Lake District.