Sharing Your Creations: Wonderwool 2025
All of us here at the Mill are still riding high on the Wonderwool yarn fumes! Last week we popped oodles of woolly goodies in the vans (thanks to Laura’s superpower: van-packing spatial-awareness!) and drove them up to Builth Wells in South Wales for one of our favourite woolly weekends of the year. It was such a magical, rejuvenating thing to see so many stonking woolly, crafty humans all together in one space again. It is such a treat admiring your finished objects (it was a little chilly, so rather a lot of woolly layering all round!), hearing about your future creations and, of course, noshing our way through all the food vendors on offer – pure delight. It has made me even more excited for our Mill Open Weekend 7th-8th June (not long to go now!)
It was a joy to be able to preview our scrumptious Seafarer silk range with so many folks at Wonderwool. Good to hear so many of you are as excited about it as we are! There was a lot of love for all those colourful tops – we think the pale blue and purple were the two stand out hits.
At every show we go to, we see so many of our wonderful customers in their hand-knit, crocheted, woven and hand-spun garments and accessories. They’re such an inspiration to us and we like to sing their praises here too. We hope you’ll find inspiration in seeing the fab things they’ve made!
Donna’s sample of the Artus Shawl by Natasja Hornby (Ravelry) always gets a lot of love on our show stand and Diane (left) cleverly adapted the colourwork to make this fabulous custom vest in Harvest Hues 4ply with Blackthorn as the main colour. We love the texture on the top of the vest and the extra detail of the stripes in the neck and armhole ribbing — chef’s kiss!
John (centre) proudly modelled this cosy jumper, beautifully knitted for him by his wife Victoria. The super-wearable sweater is Jaiden by Isabell Kraemer (Ravelry – LoveCrafts) and it’s knitted in Yarnadelic Harmonium (Song for A). The textural top half adds interest and there are even some fun knitted-in elbow patches in the pattern, too!
Meanwhile, Mary (right) stopped by to show us her Vegetable Patch Cowl by our very own Helena Timms (Ravelry) in our ‘Down the Allotment’ yarn—a Mill Open Weekend special a couple of years ago. Worn over her stunning Field Sweater by Camilla Vad, this cowl is a great layering option for Wonderwool’s chilly micro-climate!
We adored Sarah’s (left) delightfully playful Dala Sweater by Elenor Mortensen (Ravelry), using Knit by Numbers 4ply #56 with a more variegated yarn for the horses, making them look hand-painted just like their wooden counterparts. It’s also available in a very cute child’s version — it’s definitely being added into our ‘must-knit’ queue!
One that the Mill Folk have enjoyed making themselves is the Ship Shape jumper by Heidi Kirrmaier (Ravelry – LoveCrafts), so we were delighted to see this one that lovely Lorraine (centre) knitted in Appledore DK Foxwhelp and Pig Snout. There are several options for this perfect wardrobe staple — the original boat neck, a crew neck and a cardigan (stay tuned, you might spot one of those later!).
Sue (right) came to show us the Kintra sweater by Rebecca Clow (Ravelry) she’d created in her amazing handspun. The simple-but-effective yoke and ribbing colourwork makes it a great option for using small quantities of yarn — well done Sue!
We were super-impressed by Thalia’s glorious Glittering Snowscape Shawl by Stephen West (Ravelry – WestKnits). This big, squishy shawl is made from a selection of Thalia’s beautiful handspun Harvest Hues and various special editions — they came together to form a really fun palette of colours! We spotted a glorious monochromatic version of this shawl at Unravel earlier in the year, so it’s a very versatile pattern for showing off all kinds of colour schemes and with so many different stitch patterns you’ll never be bored while making it!
We know we have a lot of weavers in our community and Kate (left) brought this absolutely magnificent handwoven shawl in three shades of our Knit by Numbers 4ply. We were especially impressed by the patterned centre section, neat selvedges and twisted fringe. We’re very jealous and might have to warp up something similar very soon!
Here’s that Ship Shape Cardigan (Ravelry – Lovecrafts) I mentioned earlier! Rosie (centre) crafted this one in Appledore Billy Down Pippin with Golden Knob adding its signature pop. We love this as a perfect layering garment—a great choice for a Wonderwool year where it was a touch cool inside but warm outside!
And thanks to Erin (right) for stopping by to show us her Beat Sweater by Katrin Schneider (Ravelry – Maschenfein). It looks just fabulous in this Devonia Pollen Gold and Devonia Cream colour combo!
Many of our wonderful customers have been helping us out by test-knitting the stonking lineup of patterns for The Annual (issue five), which is due in the autumn, and two of our test-knitters dropped by to show us their creations. Things are still a bit secret so we’ll save some of the details for nearer the time, but Jan (left) has made a fab shawl in exquisite handspun from last year’s Wonderwool specials, while Claire’s (centre) working on a stunning textural wrap in our Devon Naturals, which was hand-dyed by our friends over at Riverknits as a special edition last year. Massive thanks to everyone who’s been powering through their test-knitting. We couldn’t do it without you!
Sue (right) dropped by in her wonderful Elegantia Cardi by Astrid Tueting (Ravelry) in handspun Appledore Dufflin — we really love how Dufflin’s colours create those fabulous little pops of colour throughout. Great work Sue!
(note: the lighting here is a bit off and the middle picture below is a more colour-accurate representation of Dufflin!)
And finally we’ll round this post off with a trio of fabulous handspun cardis. Apologies that we didn’t manage to get all the information for these garments (or their makers) so please drop us a message if you can fill in any gaps in our memory! This beautiful cabled yoke number (left) is in Yarnadelic Les Fleurs and we particularly love the little cables on the cuffs and button band as a finishing touch. We also spotted this lovely v-neck cardi (centre) with cables adorning the edges, spun from Appledore Dufflin and Elaine’s (right) amazing zip-front cardi (which she looks delighted with!) is in Appledore Slack ma Girdle. We love how the Appledore’s component colours really shine through in the finished garments!
Thank you so much to everyone who came to see us at Wonderwool Wales — we hope you had a wonderful time and we look forward to seeing what you’ve made by next year!
Next up on our Shows and Events calendar is our very own Mill Open Weekend 7th-8th June followed by Yarndale in September and we’ll be making our first trip over to Europe in October. You can find out more on our Shows and Events Page — hope to see you soon!