New festival to celebrate wool craft

• Published date: 24 April 2024
• Publication title: Otago Daily Times: Web Edition Articles (New Zealand)

The Deep South Fibre Festival is a new initiative from Creative Fibre Southland with an aim to pass on a passion for wool craft

Event organiser Amy Hughes said the idea was sparked when she attended WoolFeast Christchurch.

"There's a wealth of knowledge and skills in our Creative Fibre Southland groups and I wanted to start an event in Gore to share it," she said.

"We have crafters of all sorts in our groups — spinners, weavers, knitters, dyers, flax workers, felters, crocheters.

"These are all skills our grandmothers learnt and it's important to learn them before its too late and they become a lost art."

The event will run over two days and will include a trader-style market, displays and workshops, Ms Hughes said.

"Our event will bring yarn, wool and other natural fibres from alpaca, sheep and even llama from all over the...