Young Knitters Discover a Decades-Old Wool Festival
The Wool Guild of New York’s annual demonstration of 100s of bales of hand-spun and handstitched wool was the biggest and most ambitious event on the North American textile calendar this past May.
For those of you just tuning in, the Wool Guild of New York is New York City’s major wool-related nonprofit organization. One of its most prominent and successful events is the annual demonstration of thousands of bales of handspun and handstitched wool presented to the public by the organization’s two main committees: The Wool Guild Members’ Committee and the Wool Guild Teachers’ Committee. Those two committees, in turn, have two main committees, the Education and Information Committee and the Visitors’ Committee (which provides transportation to various events and activities throughout New York at no charge).
The demonstration is always exciting and fun to attend, and is one of our most visible and well attended events on the calendar. It is a wonderful day for visitors and for those who attend because of their interest in wool on the other nine days of the year.
Now the reason this post is so long is because of one of the special features of the demonstration: the Wool Guild’s “Wool Day.” This is a day when the public can come into Downtown Manhattan and view, touch, smell, and interact with 1,000s of thousands of bales of handspun and handstitched wool!
The idea for this idea came from the founder of the Guild of New York Fibers, George F. Smith, who felt that the public should have the opportunity to see a large mass of wool. George had been a member of the Guild for over 50 years and had worked to promote the Guild to the public in the early 1960s. He knew that many people did not have the opportunity to enjoy the demonstration of handspun and handstitched wool, and he felt that the public should have