Happy 2nd birthday blog, here’s to a fun and craft filled 3rd year!
Two years ago I went to the very first Cumbrian Wool Gathering and wrote about it for my first blog post. This year I went for the third year running (second time with my mother-in-law) and we had another absolute blast!
Last year they introduced workshops and classes, but we didn’t do any, deciding to spend a good amount of time walking round the show. This year, we decided to do one of the classes. Landscape felting by Little Gem Felts. It was one of the first classes of the day so we were down bright and early and waiting outside to go in at 9:30am. (If you are interested in the workshops, highly recommend booking in advance as spaces do fill up quickly!)
(A little aside, this year we were actually allowed to park at the rural auction centre at Junction 36 and I cannot tell you how much of a massive difference that made! Last year and the year before we were parking a little way away and there were regular shuttle busses between the car park and the venue. Being able to go back to the car and drop things off and leave our lunch in the car was a game changer.)
After check in and a short wait we were allowed in the hall for a walk round before the class started, and it was full again with old and new vendors alike!
The landscape needle felting workshop was brilliant! Silvia was a fantastic teacher, explained things really clearly and in an accessible and achievable way. Neither of us thought we would have a finished picture by the end of the class, but Silvia’s teaching had ever last one of us walking out of there with a finished piece and a new skill. So if you live in the UK and make it to an event with a workshop run by Little Gem Felts, I would really recommend having a go. You will have fun and all the stabbing is quite cathartic! Not to mention it’s nowhere near as difficult as it looks or you think it will be.
After finishing class it was tipping it down with rain so we decided to go and look at the stalls in the pen area (which we hadn’t got to before we went into the workshop) which was also filled with old and new vendors. The event was much busier as it was midday. At this point we found the bargain of the day a 3meter stretch of Tartan fabric for only £15! If you are not familiar with Scottish tartan fabric, proper woven fabric usually starts about that PER METER this stuff is not cheap!
This Segway’s nicely into the chat we had with the lady representing Fairfield Mill who told us all about their workshops and competitions. Interestingly they are offering a tartan weaving workshop later this year, so providing I can get a place on this, you may see my first steps into loom weaving later this year. (My husband may cry if I say I want to get into loom weaving. We honestly don’t have the space! So let’s hope I don’t get sucked in like with the felting! Haha)
And continuing the education theme of this year’s gathering, we also spent a bit of time chatting to ArtyBird Carnforth School for Art & Textiles. Dying yarn (in particular my hand spun yarn) has been interesting me for a while now, and in theory is a continuation of the hobby. So it was interesting to learn all about their courses. They do everything from Creative Textiles, to Weaving to Dyeing and Printing. They are all City & Guilds accredited so you finish with a proper accredited qualification at the end of it. Have to admit this is tempting. However it will need to be a future consideration as I’m committed to other things right now.
The reason we ended up chatting to ArtyBird Carnforth School for Art & Textiles was because (in the line with the thought of dying hand spun yarn,) I had been to the ColourCraft stall to buy some Fiber dye. You may remember the picture from last years blog of all the coloured sheep hanging up, well they were back again this year, this time with a Ram wearing a coat of many colours (dyed using their dye). They were really helpful and explained how to avoid felting (you shouldn’t temperature shock the wool because this is what causes the felting.) They make all their dyes in house in Sheffield in the UK and have complete control over the product which is one of the reasons their dyes look so vibrant and last so long. During our chat they recommended ArtyBird for courses as they said the college uses their dyes and they had had a lot of students coming over to buy their dye because they had enjoyed using it so much. You can absolutely expect to see experiments in yarn dyeing in the next 12 months!
We also spent quite a bit of time with Gwennol Designs who were selling absolutely stunning knitting patterns! Knitting isn’t my strong point or I’d have been right along with my mother-in-law in purchasing them. The photo is of my favourite blanket which was of woodland animals and very much made me nostalgic for my 1980/90’s childhood and animals of farthing wood. But would recommend checking out their website if knitting isn’t your thing!
Can’t go to the wool gathering and not talk about the animals! There were quite a few sheep and the angora bunnies were back again! There was even a baby lamb, can’t have been very old at all! There were also a ome very friendly sheep too who liked head scratchies! Sadly the alpacas were not back this year, we missed their singing.
Feel there should also be a shoutout to Carol Greaves, her tea cozies were so cute! A friend liked the picture of them so much, the frog pattern has been purchased and will probably show up in a future post as well!
Finally on the whistle stop tour of this years Cumbrian Wool Gathering is Never Needle Felt Better her skills with needle felting are impressive, especially on the scale it is being worked on and you couldn’t not love Hamish the giant highland cow!
Once again this year’s Cumbrian Wool Gathering didn’t disappoint! If you are local to Cumbria and you haven’t been yet, I would fully recommend going in 2026 if you can. You won’t be disappointed!
GeekySquidoo 