This was my first festival with p/hop and my first visit to Woolfest so I set off from London on Thursday evening with a mixture of excitement and mild nervousness. Did I remember to pack everything, did we have all the samples with us, would people donate money? I was with festival old hands Pete and Ann who soon put me at ease. After an good drive up to Cumbria (Pete is an excellent driver) listening to Ann’s choice of love songs, plus some Welsh radio and esoteric radio 3, we quietly set up camp at half past midnight.

After a good nights sleep in the fresh Cumbrian air we were raring to go and set up our display stand. Woolfest is held in an agricultural hall and all the stallholder stands are animal pens. This was perfect for our display as we rigged up a washing line to show off the p/hop samples which our supporters lovingly made. We even managed to fit in a hearty Cumbrian breakfast before the festival opened.

My nerves set in again, would the patterns “sell”, would our sample knitters hard work pay off??? I needn’t have worried, before I knew it it was 2pm and we hadn’t stopped. The stand was constantly busy and we’d already “sold out” of two patterns. Having the sample knits was brilliant as we know how much knitters love to feel things and they really made the display stand out. I had a great time chatting about knitting and pointing people in the direction of patterns which would suit them. Ann drew people in with her knitting and winning smile and Pete’s charm and enthusiasm for MSF won people over.

We were lucky enough to meet some of our designers and sample knitters so if time allowed we grabbed a photo with them.

Here’s Jacqui with the very first p/hop pattern, the beautiful Flowers in the Rain scarf…

… Ann Kingstone with her Socks for Little Wizards (sample knit by rosclarke)…

… Marly with the samples she knitted (Jacob Beanie and Stained Glass Window Sock)

and Beanz52 chatting with Ann about the Dido scarf sample she knitted.

It was great to meet lots of people who already knew about p/hop through a friend, or who remembered us from last year’s Woolfest or had read about us in magazine articles. Thank you to everyone who came and said hello from the Ravelry group too. It was lovely to meet you in person, I wish I’d had more time to chat.

Woolfest itself was great and I would highly recommend it to anyone interested in anything woolly, from rare breeds to spinning to weaving. As well as all the traders there were demonstrations such as traditional feltmaking and the annual hand made sheep auction. The festival has an independent feel, and is surrounded by gorgeous scenery. There’s also a chance to see rare breeds up close with animals ranging from Wensleydale Longwool sheep, to freshly shorn alpacas and ridiculously fluffy angora rabbits. The organisers were friendly and helpful and it made my first festival very easy. Our stand was in an excellent location in between ice cream and beautiful yarn, opposite cake and interesting weaving and within earshot of the traditional music. There’s nothing quite like discussing MSFs work in Haiti to a backdrop of bleating sheep, a hurdy gurdy and the sound of Northumbrian Clog dancing!

We did find time to relax and enjoy a good pint of Cumbrian ale in the pubs in Cockermouth. Woolfest is a lovely way to support Cockermouth which was devastated by floods last year (as written about by Sefronia in last years blog-a-long). While most businesses have reopened there is still evidence of flood damage. There’s a hearty resilience about the town so if you are in the lakes I would recommend you visit. We had some delicious meals in Cockermouth and there’s a local brewery tour as well as many other places of interest to visit as well as the stunning scenery.

Back to business, Woolfest was a huge success for p/hop. We raised £1094.05 as well as raising awareness about the humanitarian work MSF does.

We’d like to say another HUGE THANK YOU to the Woolfest Organisers, everyone who visited the stand, helped spread the word and made a donation and to all our sample knitters and designers. Next year Woolfest will be on Friday 24 and Saturday 25 June 2011. We’re looking forward to seeing you there, with ice cream, yarn and cake.

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We’re now getting ready for KnitNation which will be different to Woolfest (as far as I know there won’t be any sheep in on the Imperial College campus) but just as much fun. See you there!