The beggining is a good place to start. In a way this is a good beginning. The first ever Cumbrian Wool Gathering, my first fiber festival. The first time this hobbyist maker and crafter put on her big girl pants and went to this kind of event on her own.
Was I an aquwardly shy introvert, who didn’t talk to many people, but spent several hours wondering the two halls taking in everything she saw? Yes. Will I do better next time? Maybe, probably. Will there be a next time? Absolutely!
As a long time crocheter, sewer, sort of knitter, fiber arts maker and crafter and newbie spinner this event was awesome.
For months I have been reading up and watching hours and hours of video relating to spinning, how to spin, how to process your own fleece to spin and because I’m that way inclined, historical documentaries about the decline of the Irish home spinning industry from the 1960’s. (Did you know commercial thread and yarn was still hand spun as late as this?) The bottom line is, you can read and watch as much as you like, but sooner or later you need to physically see the items and feel the materials in your hands to understand completely.
True to Facebook and Google and all the mind reading analytics, I was reccomended the Cumbrian Wool Gathering through Facebook marketing. (Whatever settings you had for your Facebook campaign worked well!) decided it wasn’t that far to drive and bought a ticket!
I hadn’t comprehended exactly how important feeling the materials was until this event though. Suddenly, you can feel how soft or course a wool is, those pretty curls, not always as soft as you would expect!
The breakthrough was when a really nice lady explained that the wool from her pet sheep were brilliant for beginners because the fibers wanted to stick together and showed me this big fluffy bundle which was soft, and then showed me the sheep’s wool with some alpaca in it and this felt amazing, the difference was instantly noticeable and suddenly the video about blending alpaca and sheep’s wool made sense!
At this point I started touching more of the products, part of me has forgotten you can do that post pandemic, but it’s so integral for a craft like these, the feel of the fiber is so important and no website or video will give you that tactile information that you need when learning or working with it.
So, would I go again? Yes, in a heart beat! I really hope it was successful enough to run again next year. Would I reccomend it to others who can get to the Kedal location? Yes! There is nothing mainstream about this industry and it’s great to have so many traders in the one location to browse and chat too and purchase from and remind you, you are not doing this alone.
Check out the Cumbrian Wool Gathering page for more news about upcoming events.
You can visit a few of my favourite exhibitors from the Gathering below.
GeekySquidoo 