Knits to stay sane: A good weekend was had by all

Good morning good people.

Are you well?

What a week!

I paid the price for forging on last weekend. I went to work on Monday and was utterly exhausted. By the end of the day I had nothing left at all. I took Tuesday off sick and didn't go to a meeting I had planned on Wednesday. I slept for near enough two days. I felt basically human again come Wednesday night. Note to self - when you're sick, give up and go to bed when your body tells you! Else it's much worse in the long run!

Thursday I went back to work and Friday was the start of Woolfest! The tenth anniversary year was a great one. Lovely stalls and lovely people.

I didn't take nearly as many pictures as I meant to. The two days seemed to pass me by! Friday was my day. I helped the organisers through the day, but essentially I could go where my heart pleased. I watched the rare breed parade commentated on by Peter Titley who is the president of the Rare Breeds Survival Trust; a man passionate about the preservation of our native breeds of sheep. It was lovely to see the variety of sheep who live on our shores. I may have seriously thought if it was possible to slip out with a Hebridean!

I mean?! Why wouldn't you?! They're so small and cute!! Those horns might scratch if you're sneaking out with one under your jumper though!

My friends arrived on Friday night ready to hit Woolfest hard on Saturday. We watched the shearing demonstration first, there was so much knowledge and expertise in that ring. Wonderful to watch.

Then a quick bite of lunch - Herdwick mutton kofta- yum! Then more helping out. One of my jobs was to help at an auction. Woolfest visitors where asked to craft an animal which bears fibre to donate to the auction. Proceeds went to the Allerdale Red Squirrel Society. I'm never doing it again!!! I ended up buying two lots!! A lovely massam brooch and a lazy camel! Still, it's for a good cause. We raised about £700!

Social media has been awash with folk showing their haul this weekend. Mine is really rather tame! I wanted an Alien spindle. It's a cunning modular spindle system. The one I bought is 3D printed and

very light weight. It comes with 3 whorls a shaft and 3 "bobbins". I love the colourful nature of the

kit and although it doesn't spin for very long, I'm enjoying it. The other thing I wanted was a mini Turkish spindle. I found one at IST. It can best be described as a thing of beauty. I didn't want fibre. I've got loads at home that I really need to work through. But when you've just bought 2 new spindles you need to try them out then and there, yes?! So I went to Hilltop Cloud and bought one of her tiny batt bumps. A snap at £3 - just enough fibre to play with and not have to wrestle with a huge batt or a long braid. On the boring front, I needed a drive band for my Kiwi. I also vowed that I didn't need yarn. FAIL!! I bought a lovely skein of Titus from BaaRamEwe along with a pattern for lovely mittens, and a skein of Teasdale lace weight from the Yarn Garden. Beautiful yarn to make beautiful things. Snag is I want to cast them all on NOW!!

I also bought a button. Just the one. It's made from African ox horn and it's stunning. I bought it in the vain hope it inspires me to cast Hana Hou back on!

As hauls go , I thinks it's really rather tame!

The best thing as ever about Woolfest are the people. I met up with Joanne and her husband. They had travelled all the way from Oregon. They are lovely people and I thoroughly enjoyed chatting with them. I was so worried that Woolfest wouldn't hold it's own against the big American fibre shows. Joanne assured me she enjoyed her trip. I hope to be able to stay in touch with her.

This isn't the best photo in the world - my 11 year old was in charge! Ah well!

Feeling the love -

The virus from hell sapped all my mojo for the majority of the week, but a lot of my projects seem to have grown recently so I'll update you with photos.

Ben's second pair of socks have proven to be a disaster. I cast off the first sock on Saturday evening and it doesn't fit. It's way too tight. Give me strength. The last pair I knit him, I increased to 60 stitches and they are too baggy. So this time I increased to 56. FAIL!!! I'll continue with the second sock and then give them away to some slim footed person!

Also getting attention recently is the sock yarn blanket. In all fairness, it's seen the most action. The other day, when breathing seemed to take way too much effort, I faffed about and made 3 huge balls of sock yarn. I was sick of all my odds and sods falling out of my project bag so I magic knotted almost all of them into 3 gigantic balls. I've nearly finished one this week. It's starting to look really rather pretty. I'm happy with how it's turning out.