Wonderful Saturday out and about to the Maltings in Farnham, a repurposed brewery that now hosts a number of cultural venues. Unravel is a twice-yearly trade show aimed at spinners, weavers, dyers, felters, knitters, crocheters...you get the picture.
The first I attended was last February, but this winter, I attended both as a customer, and as a speaker as part of the free Gathernor talks (and had I known I'd asked for the same time slot as the intarsia-in-the-round...argh).
It takes us about an hour to get up to Farnham from ours -- every time the satnav takes us up the A3, but back down the more rustic A32, so it's a nice way to get their fast on the one hand, but then a leisurely drive back on the other.
Parking is challenging on these weekends, so himself dropped me off at the door to coordinate with the Unravel folks.
I was actually a bit early, so I had a chance to rampage through the very crowded and busy trade rooms -- some super quick purchases of Stein wool from The Little Grey Sheep Co. and cotton from Adelaide Walker, plus a couple of antique tools from a shop whose card I failed to get, like the muppet that I am. (Muppet twice over as they had a lovely mini antique swift that I meant to buy, and of course when I went back, it was gone. Grab'em when you see'em, kids.)
Lovely to have been able to give this talk -- nearly a full house in the meeting room, and everyone quite attentive -- and laughed in all the right places. What people found most interesting was how little the actual tools for spinning have changed over the years. Good Q & A afterwards, and the possibility of another workshop, this time at a school in London, soon to be under negotiation. That's what's great about these sorts of shows and talks and things -- you never know who you are going to meet, and you might be in the right place at the right time for an interesting opportunity.
Once the talk was over, I was given exactly 45 minutes to finish up my turn about the trade show (cos that's how long the parking slip in the NCP was good for), so another raid on the stalls like a Viking hitting up Normandy on holiday.
Swag is good, as evidenced by Tiny Toast. Came away with some lovely fibre, some sock wool, a few new spindles (from IST Crafts), and other bits and pieces.
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