Finally getting my energy back and ready to recap on the trip up to Wales and the amazing Wonderwool experience. What a weekend!
We arrived on the afternoon of the Friday after a 5 hour drive ready for our first booth set up. I hadn’t actually gotten a chance to try anything out at home due to a few last minute issues that had me sewing for the 2 days leading up to the show!
I was making these:
…which became these with a little creativity:
I was pleased with them in the end, but will admit to turning the air blue a few times as my ghetto sewing machine gave me grief!
Overall the stand looked much better than hoped and my mental image of what it would all really look like turned out to be quite close. Actually, no. BETTER.
I wanted a ‘weathered cabin in the woods’ feel to the stand and the samples I brought with me worked amazingly well with the backdrop.
Our booth ended up on a corner, which worked out well for us, and had the added bonus of being right next to the livestock! I loved watching all the different sheep breeds throughout the show, especially these quiet, inquisitive Gotland ewes straight across from us.
A huge shoutout and thank you to the amazing Rob at Pickwick Cotswold Fleece – check out his Ravelry group here– for giving us some Cotswold wool carpet (made from his amazing flock) to stand on for the duration of the show…unasked and out of the kindness of his heart. It was so appreciated and made standing for hours in a frigid room much more pleasant!
You can see the floor clearly in this shot below. Solid concrete. Which combined with the damp air coming through the grills to the left of us made for a very chilly two days. We’d been warned, but it has to be experienced to properly believe!
The Sunday we woke to this stunning view of the River Wye out the B&B window:
We kept hearing about these amazing Scotch Eggs from The Handmade Scotch Egg Co and had to try them out. The size of a baseball they were a wonder to behold!
I was blown away all weekend by the kindness and camaraderie at the show. Everyone was happy and pleasant and you could just see how much people were enjoying themselves. The energy was just infectious!
The only downer came after when I was told there’d been a rash of organised thefts at the show – likely during the evening – and that huge amounts of stock got stolen from people’s stalls. Such a shame. Especially when I went through my own numbers and realised it included me. Peh. (There is a special place in hell reserved for those who steal from people who are barely making a living…and I hope it is scorching hot with sharp pokers. Just sayin’. ;-B)
Overall, though, the experience was brilliant. I couldn’t have picked a better first show to start with.
Thank you Wonderwool and all the amazingly friendly and helpful staff and organisers at the show! Hope to make the trip again next year.
From the Purl Side 