Wonderwool Wales vast textile stage was the venue for a wall-to-wall Curtain of Poppies, featuring 79,300 knitted, crochet and felt poppies, drawing comments of “breath-taking”; “amazing”; “inspirational”; “a marvellous tribute.”
The curtain brought together contributions from knitters and fibre fans from all over the UK and abroad. It formed a colourful highlight of the showcase of Welsh wool and natural fibres at the Royal Welsh Showground, Builth Wells, Powys on April 28 and 29. It’s a show which draws thousands of visitors to see and buy a range of wonderful products, some brought direct from the farm gate, and where they can also view and learn techniques for making their own beautiful felted, knitted and hand-made creations.
The show’s Curtain of Poppies caught the imagination of today’s community of knitters and fibre fans and encouraged them to recreate the united determination of the women at home during World War 1, who “did their bit” to support the troops overseas by knitting gloves, scarves, balaclavas and socks.
Individuals contributed everything from one poppy to more than a hundred, some sending them in memory of named members of their own family who died in the Great War. A serving soldier sent a single, embroidered felt poppy, saying she had never made anything else by hand in her whole life. One contributor knitted poppies in memory of her grandfather and sent in 100 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the end of the War. Schools, Knit and Natter groups, WIs, craft groups and even whole communities got involved. St Bernard’s Primary School, Ellesmere Port, Cheshire invited parents to come into school and sew a poppy with their children, giving each child the name of a soldier from the town who died during WW1. Among the largest number donated by one group were 3446 from pupils from Porthcawl Comprehensive. Other group efforts included Y Fenni Rangers; Powys Radnor Federation of WIs; the Afternoon WI Group, Abergavenny; the community of Llanfyllin, Powys who made 558; the community of Ludlow who sent in 2500 ….and the list goes on.
Curtain of Poppies organisers, mother and daughter Olwen and Jane Veevers were delighted by the response. Said Olwen:
“We would like to thank everyone who has contributed. Poppies have piled in from all over the UK and even from Europe and North America, often accompanied by cards, photos and notes explaining contributors’ reasons for getting involved. It’s been truly amazing.”
After its debut at Wonderwool Wales, A Curtain of Poppies was taken straight to Powys County Council County Hall where it will remain on display during May. It will then be exhibited at the National Wool Museum of Wales from May 26 until the end of June. It will be on display at the Gower Heritage Centre during July and August, the Newtown Textile Museum during September and next year (2019) it has been offered a permanent home at the Gower Heritage Centre.
Wonderwool Wales, the premier wool and natural fibre festival in the Principality, has become an annual fixture for wool and natural fibre enthusiasts from all over the UK and abroad. This year’s event featured stalls selling equipment, accessories, books, kits, natural fibre products and designer items alongside beautiful Welsh or British wool and wool products, some of them from rare breeds. Several fibre producers brought their products to Wonderwool Wales direct from ‘field to fibre fan’ and others exhibited some of their animals too – there were sheep, Angora goats and Angora rabbits.
There was a treasure trove of new and innovative products and ideas on display including the chance for crochet enthusiasts to see and buy the new Bohemian Blooms crochet blanket kit from the 2018 British Craft Awards Crochet Designer of the Year, Jane Crowfoot of Janie Crow.
Bringing an international element to the event, there were also stallholders selling glorious yarns or handmade textiles from all over the globe, from Scandinavia to Southern Chile.
This year’s festival also featured the work of the joint winners of the inaugural Wonderwool Wales bursary, Kathleen Lloyd and Julia Davies, both BA Textiles graduates from Carmarthen School of Art.
A popular programme of pre-bookable Woolschools gave participants the chance to learn or perfect their skills with help from an expert and included hooking with carpet yarn; the chance to arm-knit a beautiful cowl and an opportunity for needle felt students to make a charming animal brooch with Jenny Barnett.
Visitors to this year’s show were also able to snap up the chance to see a life-size crocodile whose coat was made up of hundreds of crochet motifs – the result of a community arts project led by Bristol’s Crafting the City.
Joining the exhibitors showing off their wares on the ever-popular Sheepwalk, a woolly take on the catwalk, were Purl Alpaca Designs with their new jumper, Monroe. The Sheepwalk also featured a beautiful “boudoir coat” made with a pattern available from Belinda Harris-Reid; a new Side Winder jumper design from Find Me Knitting in collaboration with Luxury Yarns and a prize-winning dress made in Alpaca wool from Norweft.
For more details visit: www.wonderwoolwales.co.uk. Like Wonderwool Wales Ltd on Facebook or follow on Twitter @wonderwoolwales
Feature image: Wonderwool Wales see Jane and Olwen Veevers unfurl the final poppies to add to the curtain of 79,300. Photo: John Teale
