I had a lovely time yesterday at East Anglia Yarn Festival 2024 chatting wool with lovely people and feeling very inspired. Since I have a lot of wool waiting to be spun (and quite a lot of handspun waiting to be used), I was on the lookout for patterns and haberdashery that I could use with my handspun, rather than buying more yarn.
Links to vendors websites are provided for reference and are not affiliate links.
Fibre/Yarn
The Wensleydale sheep shop had some raw Wensleydale wool which will be useful for project plans that need long locks, and while I was there I also picked up some scraps of yarn as they come in handy for repairs and embellishment. I bought some beautiful roving from Yarn Tings which is a BFL/camel blend. I haven’t tried spinning with camel before, so plan to use this as an easy spinning project during tour de fleece this year. I also purchased some naturally dyed silk embroidery threads from Allium Threads and some silk/wool threads from Wild Field Fibre as a gift for my mum this year.
Knitting
I was on the lookout for knitting patterns, but can be quite fussy when it comes to designs. I loved the look of hirismakes falling leaves sweater and thought it might be a good fit for the Castlemilk moorit fibre I have waiting to be spun. I bumped into Jenn Monahan from fibreworkshop who was one of the first fibre vendors I ever met and purchased her new Drover jumper pattern inspired by the narrow roads sheep used to be transported along. I also treated myself to a handmade glass cauldron stitch marker from Flame Knits.
Miscellany
I paid a visit to Lilliput Wight‘s stall for some buttons and saw a card by Tilly Flop Designs that ‘matched’ the one I bought last year. I bought a linocut postcard from Beccy Mundy and finally some madder root and logwood chips from Burnt Fen alpacas which will come in handy for dyeing adventures later on.
Despite coming away with lots of new project inspiration, I do have to tackle some of the smaller projects that have been on my to-do list for a while now that my Victorian jumper is finished (some of them using supplies I bought at EAYF last year!). Much of my time is being taking up studying at the moment, but I hope to be able to have more time to spend crafting soon.
In the meantime, if you have any recommendations of yarn festivals or events then let me know in the comments below.
Happy Crafting!
Loose Ends 
What a great selection of goodies you picked up. I love baby camel and silk, but haven’t tried BC with BFL I’ll be interested to see how you like it.
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It feels very soft, so I’m excited to try it out during TDF!
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I love all of it, especially the Falling Leaves sweater pattern. I will be interested to hear how the camel spinning goes.
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I’m debating whether to spin the camel fibre on the spindle and use it as a travelling project during TDF, or use the wheel (I might have to test a sample first and see how it spins). The falling leaves pattern is really beautiful (and I think it’s available in digital form too from the knitwear designers website).
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I have never felt comfortable with spindle spinning, but it sure would be good for on-the-go spinning. Good luck figuring out the best method for your camel fiber.
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