Wool Fest

Well it's been a lazy year where my BLOG has been concerned and for that I apologise. I have promised myself that I will write something every week, like a diary and who knows, in years to come I may be put in print ' The secret writings of a boring 21st century ordinary person'!
Dream on Marilyn!!

Well I'm back again with the few notes I've made throughout the year and what a year it's been, 7 weeks in Orkney, two more trips to Wales and an aborted trip to Spurn point. We were lucky with the Orcadian weather, cold but dry and beatifully sunny, that was while England soaked again and you were all sharing the roads and paths with the ducks.

So I'm going to get back into the swing of things and start this posting with the second trip to Wales in April where we visited the Woolfest at Builth Wells and oh I did enjoy it.

A week after the cold, cold abandoned trip to Anglesey we were again on our way to wonderful Wales. It was still cold but not quite so bitter and we were laden down with maps for The Gower Peninsula, the coast around Cardiff and the coast either side of Swansea. This turned out to be very optimistic, you see we were looking for two new coats, quiet, cotton and green. I'd found a shop in Congresbury 7 miles South of Bristol, where the scruffy little oik, Bill Oddie buys his birding gear. So to save postage (yes we never learn) we decided to visit my brother and sister-in-law near Bristol before getting the coats.

First I'd got my Wool Fest at Builth Wells to visit.


It was great, we both enjoyed it and I've always been facinated by the big weaving looms, the kind where you have to use your feet to lift the warps and you can weave all sorts of intricate patterns, herringbone and tweed and such like. Trouble is they are all so big, like a dining room table. Well, we saw one being used that really was a table top loom. It had four levers on top for lifting the warps in various patterns and you used your hands to operate them instead of your feet! I think it would sit very nicely in our living room but Pat wasn't going to be persuaded, anyway not enough room in the van to get it home. Never mind I've got the web address!


The stalls were so varied, some selling, some demonstrating, some just happy to talk about ideas. A lady from Australia had come up with a nice idea and she'd got lots of knitters to knit a small flower or leaf, a circle, a square, embroidered knitting, different shapes and sizes, in fact anything you can think of and then she had joined them all together to make a coat. It was beautiful, very colourful and individual. I couldn't resist it, I bought the book with instructions and ideas for bags. It'll be one hell of a challenge but I look forward to it.


The temptation I was under was great, there were so many different wools, yarns and fleece, silk, you name it and it was there but I was very very good. You see, I've still got a couple of sheep in the spare room to spin, as well as a wardrobe full of yarn. I must not buy any more wool until I've knitted up my stash.

We met up with Janet from The Threshing Barn and I was chuffed to see my knitted bunting was hung along the back of her stall. 24 knitted triangles all a different pattern, it looked good.


Anyway we had a quick chat, she was doing well and enjoying herself and then she put us to work, tidying up the books which were selling like hotcakes. I must admit I'm a sucker for books and I came away with two new ones.

I stood watching a lady spinning, she was using 'long draw' it looks really easy but it's something I've not yet mastered. You need a good fleece that's been carded lightly and then you hold it loosely in one hand and let the wheel tension draw out the fibres. I don't understand why it doesn't break, one day I'll master it.

Pat is also going to make me some giant knitting needles, just look at the size, a jumper can be made in minutes! This particular lady was using the trim off the edges of commercially made cloth. It's about an inch wide and you can make bags, scarves, rugs and anything your imagination turns up. It made everyone smile and most of us just had to have a go, it was fun but not the sort of knitting to do while watching telly.



I just loved this little pegloom, it's made from wood collected from the hedgerow and I'm sure I'll have one some time in the near future. I've seen the giant looms the Navahoe make from branches and I'm sure one would look good in the garden but this is one that I could actually use and produce something.


After our third footsore circuit we decided to call it a day and went to Tal Y Bont forest. It's a lovely area with some good walks along the forest rides. The birdsong was very distant so again no recording. By the law of averages we've got to get close to some birdsong soon, it's nearly May and the height of the Dawn Chorus, now all we've got to do is get up at 3 am!

We'd parked in a forest ride pull in and watched a gang of people in wellingtons and overalls with hard hats and torches stagger up the field along a gulley. Being the nosey type we later checked out the field. The concrete areas and few sleepers still around suggested a rail line with some buildings. A little further down the gulley it seemed to be a canal but the bank had collapsed blocking the waterway. That evening a local family arrived and explained that it was in fact a railway. The line came up from the valley through a tunnel and the bank had been collapsed on purpose to flood the tunnel making it impassible to the casual walker. At least we now understood the wellingtons. It seems that a 'bloody Englishman' (who says the Welsh haven't got a sense of humour) has bought the land and intends to open the railway as a tourist attraction. Let's hope he succeeds.

Our next call was to friends in Pontypool. Bev and Dan Leigh who design and sell Kites. This time we were after a kite for high winds. We've got kites for light winds but recently the winds have been quite strong, I bet from now on there won't be any wind! We had a lovely morning discussing anything and everything. They were impressed with my knitting and weaving and Dan showed me a book they'd bought in a trading post in Canada. The Navajo weaving patterns were stunning.

We left Dan and Bev to the rest of their evening and took a pleasant drive across to The Royal Forest of Dean. It's a lovely area with plenty of trees and birds so next morning we walked along a forest ride but everything had gone mike shy! We did manage to get the song of a Blackbird, I love the Blackbird it's such a beautiful mellow sound and always makes me feel good. The woodland this time of year is that gorgeous yellow green, the leaves so fresh and edible looking. Actually young Beech leaves and Hawthorn leaves can be used in salad.

There were the usual Spring flowers Violets, Celandines, Daisies, Bluebells in bud with the occasional Wood Anemone, just so colourful and pretty to look at in the wild.

We crossed over the River Severn to see Fred and Janet, we always go West to East 'cos it's free, the English charge a Toll! We spent a lovely morning catching up on family news and swapping holiday stories. They're both retired as well and living life to the full, travelling all over and having some fantastic experiences. Staying at home doesn't seem to be in any of our vocabularies.

We left Fred hanging new doors and went to try on our scruffy little oik coats. They are great, cotton so they feel friendly, the right colour and best of all quiet. The shop had a special offer, spend a certain sum and get a free shoulder pouch worth £20. This was too good an offer to resist so we each bought our own coat and got our pouch. They're a bit like a bum bag really but you hang them on a shoulder.

We were ready for anything now and needed somewhere to test the coats. I'd looked at the map and found a Reservoir that looked promising, Blagdon Lake . After 30 miles we'd driven right around the reservoir and not found a place to get close to the water so we turned our back on it in disgust and headed for Salisbury Plain.

We sat in the van that evening when the heavens opened. The noise on the van was deafening, 12mm hail stones. We even got a recording. The ground was white over for at least 20 minutes and later on during a walk up one of the Downs (sounds a bit double dutch that) there were still pockets of ice in the grass. It was exciting to be sat warm, dry and cosy watching the heavens pelt us with balls of ice, I really can't think what we'd done to deserve it.

On our way home we passed this sign. A World War 1 airfield which became a permanent camp with Radar and Radio training facilities before becoming an important airfield again in World War 2. It was finally closed in the 1960's and has been returned to farmland except for a small area which is used for Microlites. At weekends the club offer pleasure flights and we both feel inclined to return. It would be great to see the Avebury Henge and Stonehenge from the air.



I'm now going to get out my Orkney notes and start reliving a fantastic 7 week adventure especially the day it was warm enough to go swimming in the sea!