excerpt from Olannand ~ Online Irish Crafting Magazine
Crafting in Co. Clare
We catch up with our columnist Jennifer Lienhard of Apple Oak Fibre Works
So much has already been said about Woollinn that I will only give a brief glimpse on how it was for us. We had a bit of a rough start. My back had gone for 6 weeks beforehand and I had mostly to stay in bed. Dyeing was therefore difficult and I can only thank my husband and a few friends that we managed to bring what we brought, by following my badly scribbled down recipes!
However we managed and once there and set up, we loved it; there was a great buzz and it was a pleasure to watch a lovely community of old and new friends come together through the love of yarn and anything fibre. I bought a great car sticker ‘No yarn left in this vehicle overnight’, which is now adorning the boot of my car.
So many yarn vendors from all over Ireland, the UK, Germany and France joined this first ever Irish Indie yarn festival and I would say it was a success. I have been told that it will happen again 14th/15th of 2019, so if you didn’t make it this year, pencil it in for 2019!
You are probably thinking, surely, it can’t all have been roses, and you are right. There were a few minor hiccups, which thankfully are easily remedied. The food wasn’t great, which will be rectified next year by moving premises. The event coincided with the referendum, which didn’t help footfall, and spinners had mentioned they would have liked to see more fibre.
On the other hand, the organisers and helpers were fabulous, a great team full of smiles and we were never short of a helping hand. Everybody was very friendly; I was given a Nakd bar by a lovely lady with the most amazing headdress! She walked around distributing healthy bars free of charge to keep vendors going. We met many new faces and bumped into old and new. I could go on forever, but like I said, I wanted to keep it brief!
Do you feel adventurous?
Albina from Lbhandknits designed two beautiful Summer garments – Rusticana (dress) and Top of the Morning (sweater) – using our new range of naturally dyed Cotton/Linen yarn – LinCot. The patterns are now available at LBhandknits’ Ravelry page and the yarn kit can be bought in our online shop: Rusticana and Top of the Morning.
Natural dyes react very differently on Cotton Linen fibres in comparison to wool, so this has been a new adventure for us! I love this yarn and have just started on a project myself. Though stiff to start, the yarn becomes beautifully soft after the first wear and allows a breezy fast knit. The great thing about cotton is that it’s cooling in Summer, yet holds onto warmth in cooler weather. It knits like an Aran weight, due to being a thick and thin yarn, but looks more like a DK. Unusual, I agree, but why not dive into something new?...........
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