Post-2016 CFF Demos Report

Two days of fiber arts demoing at the 2016 Carolina Fiber Fest are now behind me. There were a few minor glitches, but overall all went really well. For my Friday demo I had lots of visitors talking with me about recycling materials for fiber arts and crafts. And several children had fun braiding candy laces. But, although I brought a camera, I totally forgot to take any photos...oh, well.

On Saturday, Tri-Tatters, my local tatting group, displayed and demonstrated tatting. We were there for the entire day and had lots of people come by and share their tatting stories. We also got many people to sign up for our mailing list so maybe we'll see some new faces at our monthly meetings. This time I finally remembered I had a camera and could take some photos before we packed up. I've posted them on the Tri-Tatters Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=oa.1158277920857692&type=1.

Did I do any damage to my Visa card this time? Yes, indeed I did. On Friday, I was incredibly restrained, telling myself that my yarn stash was in the SABLE range. For those new to this acronym, it stands for Stash Acquisition Beyond Life Expectancy. So I left the event with one bar of gardenia fragrance goat's milk soap from Humbug Farm from up the road in Holly Springs, NC...what a good girl I was! I've bought Kate Shirley's soaps at past Fiber Fests and they are a pleasure to wash with.

But on Saturday, I lost a bit of this self-control. I began with a vintage knitting book...no copyright date, but from the pictures, it appears from the 1940s. Then I started cruising the yarn vendors. Since I've been wearing the little scarf of silk yarn I bought in Vancouver, I've decided I really like that fiber for items worn around my neck. So I was on a search for 100% silk yarn. I ended up buying 2 skeins of single-ply silk, one in black and the other in turquoise with tiny sequins. I'm thinking of knitting it up in Martha Behm's "Leftie" shawl pattern. I purchased the pattern a while back, but never got around to using it. The nice thing about it is that you can knit it as large as your available yarn. While the yardage I bought seems sufficient, this pattern will work fine if it looks like I don't have as much yarn as I thought. All these yarns came from Sheepish Creations, a mother/daughter business out of Huntersville, NC. As an added bonus, all their silk is fair trade fiber.

I also bought a skein of variegated silk strung with tiny beads from Sheepish Creations. It's quite thin and more like thread than yarn. Not sure what I'll make out of it, but I'm thinking this might work into a 2016 State Fair entry.

And, finally, I did succumb to the lure of wool yarn. I bought a big skein of superwash merino sock fingering in a heathery lavender shade from The Fibre Studio out of Charlotte, NC. Not sure what I'll make out of it (definitely not socks!), but I fell in love with the color.

In the past I've posted photos of my Fiber Fest purchases, and many of those purchases are still in the same form as when I brought them home. But this time I shall wait until I have finished pieces to show. That will be much more satisfying to me than more pictures of balls of yarn waiting to fulfill their promise.