I commend this wool to the House...

It's not often anything woolly (other, than occasionally, the thinking) makes a foray into legal London. Other than the occasional post-Inner London/Blackfriars trip to I-Knit, wool and my job don't tend to come together - the wigs are made of horsehair, not wool. So on finding myself with an hour or so to kill in Chambers it was a delight to find that Woolhouse, the Campaign for Wool's exhibition had landed just down the road at Somerset House.

First plus point - Sheep in the courtyard!

 

 

Frankly I'm a sucker for any event with a herd of sheep outside. I didn't know quite what would be inside - I knew there would be a spot of very impressive crochetdermy, and some chairs. But it was all just fascinating.

 

Compared with your average exhibition, it was very tactile. So much fabric and wool to handle, and of course it's utterly amazing how different woollen fibres can be - one moment thick and sheepy, the next light as air. The exhibition has four bits, sort of - art (fleece tapestries), handcrafts (spinning, lots of balls of wool, dyeing, and Jason Collingwood (http://www.rugweaver.co.uk/) weaving amazing rugs (WANT ONE!!!)), fashion, and furnishing.

 

(That was a complicated sentence.)

 

I was pleased to note a large display of Rowan Purelife British Sheep Breeds in the handcraft section, including the Mid Brown Jacob yarn I used for my Capstan Cowl in the extremely well-timed Best of British edition of Knit Now. Made me feel sort of part of things...!

 

The fashion section included a room full of Savile Row suits. If you have ever invested in a 25g ball of Arctic Qiviut, you may like to speculate on how much an entire bespoke Qiviut and Cashmere suit would cost you on Savile Row. It seems such things are available.

 

Furnishing is probably the biggest section with a suite of sample rooms put together by various designers using wool for walls, floors, furniture and accessories, ranging from traditional:

 

 

 

to ultra modern:

 

 

 

Probably my no. 1 most desirable object was this chair..:

 

 

 

It was in the bedroom section but the not included on the list of suppliers on the wall! Again... WANT ONE!!!

 

There's also a fab kids' bedroom by Donna Wilson - beware of taking your children - they will also be bellowing WANT ONE!!!

 

Everything was fascinating - everything was desirable. But what's this? There was NO SHOP. I heard some ladies asking on the way out if there was a shop and they were told "No. A lot of people are asking about that, and they did consider it, but they wanted to be completely uncommercial".

 

Totally uncommercial - and in the heart of London. That's what I call a breath of fresh air. Although I did in fact want to buy nearly every exhibit.

 

The exhibition is free, and on until March 24th. There's a LOT more to see than I've covered here. Anyone who likes fashion, design, textiles, wool or sheep will love it.