Fibre East 2012

My first proper fibre festival, such a good time! I went with two of my knit group buddies.

There were three whole giant tents of vendors selling all kind of fibrey goodness. Actually there were a couple of extra tents with a single vendor in each, but I didn't need another wheel, so I just looked at those.

I was being very restrained, I did a full round of all the tents with my money safely in my pocket, picking the things I might want to go back for. A full tour took longer than expected, mostly because it was necessary to stop and look at EVERYTHING!

It was very, very wet, the floor was very squidgy, boots were the order of the day.

There was a sheep show to watch. I love these, have seen them several times before but it is always fun to see the sheep breeds and watch some shearing.

After looking round and watching the shearing we set out our picnic in the have a go tent. There was a spare table so we commandeered a corner and sat for a bit with tasty food and knitting. Lots of people to chat to here.

I was going to try the longdraw spinning but never got round to it, will have to research it on youtube. There were other have a go things too- felting, weaving, but no new hobbies for me! 

After lunch we visited the sheep from the show.

I would have liked to see more fibre animals. There were the show sheep and one very cross looking bunny in a cage. Not an alpaca to be seen. This makes me sad as alpacas are every kind of amazing. Also getting to see critters makes it feel a bit less like being sold to the whole time.

Lunch and sheep visit over it was time to shop. Choosing what to buy from all the beautiful goodies available was hard work.

It came down to 500g of dyed merino DK or 500g of undyed 4 ply wool. Same price. In the end I went for the undyed, I have a thing for 4 ply cardigans at the minute. This will be dyed up at some point and I will try my hand at steeking.

Some fibre was on my to buy list. I love humbug fibre so 100g bluefaced Leicester found its way into my shopping bag. A cowl maybe?

And 100g of Corriedale decided to join it. I thought I read somewhere that Corriedale is gorgeously soft. Can't find where now so maybe I got the wrong breed. The Fleece and Fibre Source book says it can be soft but can also be variable so we will have to see. Trying new fibres is fun no matter how it turns out. And £1.60 is pretty cheap for hours of spinning and knitting fun.

Socks perhaps? Or ply with the BFL?

My final purchase was my big treat. A skein of sock yarn from an indie dyer. Narrowing it down was tough but I got to about four to choose from. This beautiful skein was the winner as I have not tried Skein Queen before and the colour is just amazing.

And as an added bonus I ran into a friend I have not seen for ages. It was a very random bumping into as he was only there because his wife took him along.

A fantastic day, I am already marking next year into my calendar.