WONDERFUL WONDERWOOL
Máire, our Rental Coordinator writes:

I havw had a wish to go to a fibre festival for years, and this year my wish came true!
Wonderwool Wales is held the last weekend of April at the Royal Welsh Showgrounds in the
town of Builth Wells, Mid-Wales.
We decided to make a short holiday of the trip and took our caravan. We stayed on a lovely site
about 4 miles from the showground, on a 500 acre farm. The site has lots of pitches and also a
cottage and 3 yurts for rent (if you are thinking of going next year!). There is a list of local
accommodation on the WW website, if you want to book somewhere – do it early, as they are
snapped up quickly.
Saturday dawned cold and fresh, the queue of cars entering the showgrounds was about a mile
long but it moved quickly. The grounds are huge, with plenty of parking – there seems to be a
facility for camper van parking onsite, though I couldn’t find any details.

The show itself is held in 3 large halls – sheep and all! I had made a list of stands I wanted to
visit. Mostly weaving and spinning equipment suppliers. I had ordered some things online and
was to collect them at the show, thus avoiding the dreaded postal and customs charges our
end. Oh my! What a colourful event! There was a competition for a Wonderwool beanie – you
can see the winners on the Wonderwool Facebook page. Some weird and wonderful hats were
to be seen. Many people were wearing handmade coats, sweaters, scarves and shawls.
3 Welsh WSD Guilds had stands, as well as the Association of WSD. A member of one of the
Welsh Guilds had a very interesting display of items woven from stinging nettle fibre, which she
had processed herself.

There was something for everyone – everyone interested in fibre and fibrecrafts, that is. I had
been to a few fibre festivals where most stands were indie dyers of knitting yarn – but
Wonderwool was different. Equipment suppliers The Threshing Barn, Weft Blown, Wingham
Wool Work, Adelaide Walker, Wonky Weaver, Hedgehog Fibres and Classic carders all had
busy stands. Ashford UK (Frank Herring & Sons) had a large display stand in Hall 3, with all
the Ashford spinning, weaving and carding equipment on display, as well as many woven items
which have featured in ‘The Wheel’ magazine. Kate Sherrat, who features in Ashford YouTube
videos was there too, giving advice to people on the various looms and wheels- all available to
try out.

The new Lojan Buddy wheel was available at several stands to try – it seemed very popular,
everyone wanted to have a go.
Saori Mor, from Bangor in North Wales was a popular stand, with many people trying out the
Saori loom. She sells the Saori looms as well as the warps.

And then there were all the stands selling fibre – a veritable rainbow. Hilltop Cloud, Cat and
Sparrow, John Arbon amongst others, as well as all the equipment companies were selling
fibres for spinning and felting. I was spoilt for choice – everywhere I looked there was
something interesting to squish and look at.

The Bag Creche helped lighten the load, when my purchases got heavy, with the money going
towards the Mid-Wales Air Ambulance. There were long queues for the various food trucks ,
which were located outside the Halls, but good humoured – easy to strike up a conversation with those in the queue with you. Plenty of tables and chairs dotted around the halls to rest the
weary legs. It was cold, I never took my coat off all day Saturday. Twice a day, the Sheepwalk
takes place – a fashion show of handwoven,knitted, felted and crocheted clothing.

And then there was the livestock – Jacobs, Bluefaced Leicster, Romney, Zwarbles and other
breeds of ewes and lambs in pens. The owners were also selling their fleeces, so you could
buy a kilo or so of raw wool as well as all the processed fibres on offer at the show.
I bought a ticket for both days – Saturday was very busy, but as the aisles between stands were
quite wide, it wasn’t a problem. Sunday wasn’t quite as crowded (or as cold) and many of the
stand holders were on for a chat.

There were 5 stands devoted to dyeing – natural and synthetic and a few selling undyed yarns
suitable for dyeing – Chester Wool Company is one of those with a wide range of undyed yarns.
The day before Wonderwool we went to Newtown Textile Museum, which is about an hour’s
drive from Builth Wells. A really interesting 4 storey museum. The weavers and spinners and
their families lived on the first 2 floors, and the spinning and weaving was done on the 3rd and 4th floors.

They have a collection of old wheels and looms, and hold spinning and weaving workshops
and demonstrations there. I was particularly interested in the fleece weighing machine there – a
fascinating piece of machinery.
The Braid Society had a small exhibition on the 4th floor, and I met some of their members
there. Then I kept meeting them at Wonderwool on Saturday and Sunday – old friends by then!
Would I go again? Yes, maybe not next year, as I have a considerable amount of fibre to spin
now, but I certainly would like to go again. With over 200 retail stands it is worth it. And you can pre-order and pre-pay for items to be collected there.

It would be difficult to do it as a day trip from Ireland, I think. There is a train station a few miles outside Builth Wells, and the organisers have shuttle buses from the station to the showgrounds. I’m not sure what the rail connections from Holyhead or Fishguard/Pembroke would be, but it might be possible.
There are lots of photographs of the 2023 show on the Wonderwool website which give a good
idea of what’s on offer.
Máire