Its tenth anniversary year proved the best ever for the annual wool and natural fibre extravaganza Wonderwool Wales, which is held at the Royal Welsh Showground, Builth Wells every April. This year’s show on April 25 and 26 brought wool and fibre fans flocking from across the UK eager to get their hands on quality yarns, fleeces, spinning and weaving equipment, knitting and crochet products, buttons, buckles and shawl pins, patterns and more.

As usual the show provided a wonderful showcase for the versatility of Welsh wool, one of its founding objectives. Show organisers have decided to promote a Welsh sheep breed each year and this year the initiative started with a display by the Welsh Badger Face Sheep Society who joined other exhibitors of alpacas and sheep breeds on the livestock stands, which all attracted a lot of interest.

This year’s tenth anniversary show was also the perfect occasion for new venture, Cambrian Mountains Wool, to offer festival-goers a chance to get their hands, needles and hooks into some unique wool from the sheep-farming heart of Wales. Supported by the Cambrian Mountains Initiative, a five-woman team comprising a knitter, a stitcher, a felter, a wool shop proprietor and a sheep farmer has been working with the British Wool Marketing Board and buyers, Curtis Wool, to champion Welsh wool and make it more commercially available. Having created a yarn with genuine regional provenance which is also of exceptional quality, the group invited wool aficionados at Wonderwool Wales to put it to the test with hand-knit and crochet enthusiast, Jude Howard.

The show was a hot-bed of further creativity, with beautiful textile art available to buy; have-a-go sessions on many of the exhibitor stands; hands-on activities in the interactive area; demonstrations by members of the Welsh Guilds of Weavers, Spinners and Dyers and a series of felting demonstrations by The International Feltmakers Association. Visitors also snapped up the chance to attend pre-bookable Woolschools, which this year included making needle felted animals with Jenny Barnett and creating 3D felt flowers with Mandy Nash.

In the run-up to the show, knitters and crochet and craft enthusiasts had all been busily working on ways to mark this year’s tenth anniversary by making the show more vibrant and colourful than ever.

Craft groups from across the UK, including the Bridstow Spinners from Herefordshire and the Rhyader Spin A Yarn group from Mid Wales, knitted and crocheted streamers and other ‘yarn graffiti’ to decorate Hall 3 and the stage for the Sheepwalk fashion show, a woolly take on the catwalk. Jane Veevers, who co-ordinated the groups, intends to turn this anniversary idea into an on-going project. She has developed five different patterns for the decorations and groups interested in taking part next year can contact her by emailing woolschool@wonderwoolwales.co.uk. Other colourful and eye-catching attractions this year were Alison Murray’s giant knitted Gingerbread House and The Cardigan for Cardigan, a giant, five-metre wide garment knitted by 300 townsfolk and visitors to celebrate the town’s 900th birthday.

Also on display was The Makers’ Pinnies Exhibition, a collection of innovative and contemporary responses to the traditional ‘pinny’, created by 11 members of MaP (Makers and Practitioners), a collective group of artists based in Wales.

Look out for next year’s show at The Royal Welsh Showground, Builth Wells on April 23 and 24. For further information visit: www.wonderwoolwales.co.uk.