2 July 2008

NEWS RELEASE

The wool world came to Cockermouth

The fourth Woolfest attracted almost 4000 visitors and over 100 stallholders to Cockermouth at the end of June and raised almost £1500 for charity as well.

"The aim of Woolfest has always been to celebrate natural fibres," said Pam Hall, a founder member of The Wool Clip cooperative that organises the event. "It is a huge team effort that involved about 60 volunteers on each day as well as Wool Clip and Guild members and stallholders. For the first time this year we had a knitted sheep auction, hourly fashion shows and even a group from Scotland singing traditional "waulking" or tweed stretching songs."

Local talent
Last year, the Wool Clip cooperative launched the Carolyn Rawlinson Stall to commemorate the work of one of the Wool Clip founders who sadly died soon after Woolfest 2007.

This year's winner was Naomi Harrison (28) of Ireby near Wigton who displayed a collection of modern clothing designs using traditional woven wool fabrics in vibrant reds and greens. Naomi set up her businesses, dress, three years ago and she had designed and made the collection especially for Woolfest.

"Some of the fabric has been woven locally by Linton Tweeds in Carlisle," she said. "I thoroughly enjoyed Woolfest as it gave me a great opportunity to showcase my work and develop contacts to help my business to grow in future."

Crafty fundraising
Three charities benefited from Woolfest this year: Farm Africa, Breakthrough Breast Cancer and the Great Northern Air Ambulance.

Volunteers from the local air ambulance ran a wool crèche throughout the event so that visitors could leave their purchases, including bulky raw fleeces, in a safe place while they continued to look around and shop.

"The Wool Creche idea came from feedback last year," explained Pam, "and we thought it would be a good opportunity to raise some money for a local cause while providing a useful service."

Ingrid Wagner from the Northeast of England has been a regular at Woolfest with her Big Knitting and this year she brought her new 4 metre long and 8cm diameter needles (made from drain pipes) to work on her Big Knit Project in aid of Breakthrough Breast Cancer. The Project will travel to events across the UK during 2008/09 and Woolfest was its first northwest venue.

"I am aiming to create the world's largest one piece knitted textile," Ingrid explained, "and Woolfest gave visitors a chance to get involved in the early stages. Knitting with 4 metre needles was a challenge but great fun and about 200 people were brave enough to have a go and helped us to raise just over £200 for the charity."

Sheep from across the world
The major fundraiser of the event involved about 120 sheep from across the world - all knitted, crocheted or felted in wool. Adam Day of Mitchell's Lakeland Livestock Centre auctioned this unusual "flock" in aid of Farm Africa on Saturday afternoon and visitors generously paid a total of £1176 for nearly 50 different Lots.

Top prices were paid for a pair of Ronaldsay sheep, a grey ram made from Icelandic wool wearing an Aran jumper and a couple of Herdwick lambs knitted in the USA and delivered to Woolfest by "show judge", Lea Stern. Lea is involved in the organisation of the biggest wool events in the world, held in Maryland each year, which was also one of the inspirations for Woolfest back in 2005.

Inspirations in wool
Other highlights of Woolfest for this year were the fashion shows in the Exhibition area. These featured work from Lithuania and Estonia as well as Cumbria and were organised by June Hall of The Wool Clip and Martin Clark of Grampus Heritage and Training in Wigton.

The fashions on the catwalk ranged from Marie Antoinette crinolines and wigs through to modern designs inspired by the Cumbrian landscape.

"Woolfest is a fantastic event and it's great to have the opportunity to be part of the celebrations for a product which is intrinsically linked to the Lake District," said Martin Clark. "Wool is an important part of our past and future and I know our young people have emerged wiser and hopefully committed to the conservation of our natural and cultural heritage here and in the Baltic states."

Woolfest 2009 is already booked to take place on Friday 26 and Saturday 27 June next year. Details will be available soon at www.woolfest.co.uk. The Wool Clip shop at Priest's Mill in Caldbeck is open every day except Monday from 11am to 4pm with a wide selection of woollen goods, textile craft materials and inspiring kits.

Notes: The Wool Clip is a Cumbria-based cooperative of sheep farmers, spinners, dyers, knitters, feltmakers, weavers and other wool workers. It was set up in 2001 to add value to local wool and to market members' skills and products. The Wool Clip established Woolfest in June 2005.

Further information is available at www.woolclip.com or www.woolfest.co.uk.

Further media information is available from Sally Seed at Stoneleigh Communications on 015396 24732.