The first Wairarapa Wool Weekend is done and dusted to a brilliant shine! I had a thoroughly enjoyable time trading, demonstrating natural dye techniques and generally chatting, meeting people, plus a little shopping myself. Thanks go to James from Joy of Yarn in Greytown for conceiving of the idea and making it happen at the Cobblestones Museum in Greytown.

James successfully lured Gudrun Johnston, The Shetland Trader, all the way from the USA to be the guest tutor. As well as Gudrun’s inspiring classes there was a tempting range of workshops, classes and talks from our talented NZ craftspeople. Attendees I spoke to were full of praise and enthusiasm for the various workshops/classes they had done.

My contribution was to deliver a close-up demonstration of eco-bundle dyeing for a lovely group of people. Time flew by and we managed to produce three very pretty variegated skeins of different colours using readily available local plant materials.

I’ve said before, and again….. I am so grateful for the purchases of Kindly Dyer yarns and the feedback and conversations about yarn, dyeing and making in general. These chats spark ideas and make a real difference to how I feel about continuing my dye practice learning and creating colours with new ideas in mind.

It’s interesting too to see what catches the eye of customers.

This time it was the little daisy mittens I’ve been addicted to making. The pink sample pair made with Kindly Dyer “Flora” 4-ply merino and a strand of variegated 2-ply mohair-silk sparked a lot of conversations, ideas for future colourways and the possibility of kits. I’ll explore the idea of kits a bit more and see if I can make this happen in time for Capital Fibre Fest and Woolfest in May. Gee whizz, that’s setting myself an out-loud goal.

There was plenty of variety on offer in the traders hall with selections of both sought after international brands and specialty NZ yarns. The camaraderie amongst traders made the weekend a treat to be part of.

I was delighted to come across a few things that piqued my own creative interest which meant I came home with some local yarn spun at Patrizia Vieno’s micro-spinnery on her farm, Rewarewa Station, at Tinui. Also, some Spincycle multicoloured skeins from Happy-Go-Knitty, a skein of organic Garthenor Shetland Wool from Newtown House and a beautiful little ceramic vase made by Sarah Drake that I just imagined holding little stems of dried flowers from my garden. The surface pattern is the imprint of a fragment of lace fabric. Possibly unusual for me but I already know what I’m going to create with these yarns. One project I’m thinking of will use a Kindly Dyer yarn that I need to dye specially and another needs some embroidery skill development. We’ll see how all that works out in a future post. Watch this space.

All in all, in my opinion, it was a very successful event with a great local vibe and I’ll be keen for the second muster of Wairarapa Wool Weekend in 2027. Meanwhile let’s look forward to May for Capital Fibre Festival and Woolfest. Now it’s time for some knitting.