Born Lost Creations: Sit Down For A Spell aka The Jay County Fiber Festival Roundup!

First off...it's March 11th and 60+ degrees. My windows are open and the heat is off. Tomorrow is a snow storm. I really dislike Indiana this year.

Onwards....

Mom, me and Becky went on a road trip to Portland, Indiana to visit the Jay County Fiber Festival. I've been once before and really liked it, although it is a pretty small one. I was surprised at how full the parking lots were this year. Looks like word has really gotten out about it!

After a few hours of squeezing, petting and manhandling fiber and yarn, I looked like

But not as blurry in real life :) I wore my Rainbow Pride scarf so I would be noticed if any other Knit n' Bitchers showed up but I was noticed by lots more people. One lady even said she was keeping an eye on me around the room so I wouldn't leave without her looking at my scarf. I actually felt like a real knitter Saturday.

Admission was $1 (what a deal!) and the first booth I see looked like this:

A Good Yarn booth

Walls and walls of gorgeous handpainted yarn. GORGEOUS. This booth was A Good Yarn by Mary Ann. She was supremely helpful in answering questions and explaining the dyeing process she used and how the yarn will knit up. I wanted to buy so many skeins but I reigned myself in and bought just two. Actually, as I was taking photos of my purchases I was shocked at how little I bought. I manhandled so much I thought I had bought more.

My purchase from A Good Yarn

My knitting teacher, Susan Markle from The Trading Post, had her booth. I bought my first drop spindle from her last time I was there. Becky bought her first drop spindle from there this time.

My spinning has been on hold, mostly because I was upset I wasn't perfect at it right off the bat (how silly is that?!?!). I was talking to a couple at the Bell Creek Farm booth and the husband was downright encouraging me to keep going. They also had a sale on their Shetland fiber. So I bought some! What I like about these festivals is the kick in the pants everyone gives me to keep going!

squishy pretty!

Onwards, I saw some basket weaving demos and got a demo on how to knit those odd scarves with the odd yarn with holes. That's really all I know about them. The Thankful Ewe was the booth with the helpful folks :)

I am really considering getting a spinning wheel and found some demo, year old Ashford wheels. I know this is a big investment so I wasn't ready to buy but Betty from Little Shop of Spinning gave me quite a bit of information on them and, even though her shop is in Ft. Wayne, I think I'll be making a road trip there to get my first wheel. We also got to watch a demo on making punis in her booth. Very cool.

So I thought I was done at this point.

I came across Oak Meadow Alpaca Farm's booth and fell for the natural yarn and fiber. What got me even more was that the labels contained the names of the "contributors" of the yarn. All the alpacas, sheep and bunnies got their names on the label. Nancy, the owner, told me that the names are also her dye lots. So if I want more of, say, the brown, I just need to tell her it's the dye lot that Peanut contributed to. LOVE!