Carolina Fiber Fest Day 1

Today was the first of two days of a fantastic local fiber festival where my guild, Twisted Threads Fiber Arts Guild, likes to make a bit of a showing. We set up a bunch of spinning wheels, spindles, yarn, some finished projects... and then we lured unsuspecting people into the wide, wonderful world of fluff. We're a bit disorganized which is a struggle for me - I'd rather everything were planned out, but it's good for me to not have things Exactly How I Want Them. There was much shuffling and moving of tables and wheels but eventually we were all arranged where we wanted to be, happily going about the business of spinning fiber.

Patricia and Danielle, two of my favourite people so far, really did amazing work. They had boundless energy, patience, and enthusiasm for teaching people how to spindle. I'm not an enthusiastic teacher, possibly because I'm such a terrible student. I like to take something new to a dark, private corner where I can fuss and bang my head against it in private. You know, someplace no one will see me cry or threaten to burn everything down. I don't like people to watch me struggle and so I have a tendency to politely turn away when other people are struggling. This is not what teachers are supposed to do! So I was happy, sitting on the sidelines and making encouraging noises while I spun and spun on a big project I'm working on (more about that another day).

Here's Danielle, working her teaching magic.

Danielle was so kind and generous - it turns out she has a huge soft spot for broke students so a few people when home with their first spindle and a pile of wool to play with. Hopefully we'll see them at some guild meetings! :D

Around 5 things started winding down so I went for a nice wander and peered at all the beautiful, beautiful things I absolutely could not buy because house. Patricia came with me and was very helpful - when a few shopkeepers sensed an easy mark she intercepted. "She can't. She's buying a house." I'm very grateful though I really, really wanted the Nantucket knitting bag. Omigosh, you guys. This bag... it's a study canvas bag with a million pockets that you can unzip flat or zip into a backpack. It's cleverly designed so that if you want a skein of yarn that you left at the bottom of your bag... you can unzip the side to get it. Without messing up the contents of the rest of the bag! Good lord, I want this bag!

Gimme, gimme, gimme!

I wandered around and took pictures of some awesome things I was really taken with... and since I couldn't buy any of them, I will now tell you all about them. Brace yourselves.

First, look at these amazing buttons. There was a whole table of hand-carved buttons. I'm planning on knitting Jaime a Dragon's Wing Cowl for his larp costume and I've been sort of idly watching for the perfect buttons to show up for it. I was thinking some very simple carved wood or stone buttons... but these horn toggles really distracted me. I'm covering the price tag in this picture in case I buy them - I don't want Jaime fussing about how much they cost. :P

I was briefly tempted by this kit and I took a picture so I'd remember the pattern. It's Amy Gunderson's Stinger and I think it'd look fabulous on me as a sort of summer weight tunic-y thing. Something to obscure the amount of chocolate I've eaten, you know? Fortunately they didn't have any colour kits I liked but the sample piece they'd knitted up was very eye-catching. Now take a deep breath and brace yourselves...

Because look at these tiny, tiny needles! Size #0000! Look how adorable they are! So tiny! The shop was selling itty bitty mini skeins and had all sorts of tiny, tiny things they'd knitted. The tiniest socks I've ever seen. I'm only capable of making high pitched squeaky noises when I'm around them and I have no idea why.

And finally...

I want this sock yarn so much it hurt to put it down without buying it. I hope you're all really impressed with the herculean self-restraint I showed today... because I'm going back tomorrow.