I had such an excellent time at the Carolina Fiber Festival. On Thursday I took a spinning class and learned a lot more about how to prep to get the yarn you want and how to work best with your wheel. I do think the instructor was a bit thrown off by my e-spinner but I still had a wonderful time in the class. I can’t wait to start a new spinning project and show off what I learned. I cleared off my bobbins so it’s all ready for a new spin to start. It would be nice to get some additional bobbins at some point but that costs money and I just spent a bunch at the festival. So it’ll have to wait.

Friday my husband joined me. He was very supportive in every purchase I wanted to make, but I do appreciate the woman at Queen City Yarns for asking if I wanted to hear the total or if I wanted it to be between me and the card reader. The card reader is the only one that knows how much I spent on that blue yarn. That said, it was within the budget I’d set and I went in knowing I wanted to buy for a specific sweater (the Theodore Wrap by Kolibri by Johanna).

I also have a tradition of buying cards from Ken McNeill. His art is fantastic. I love the way he uses color in his works. Deep purples become shadows and bright oranges are highlights. Every year I pick up at least 5 cards and send them out to loved ones.

This is the first year I managed to get some Carolina Fiber Fest merch. Usually when I go they’re sold out of everything I like. To be fair, they were sold out of the right size already on Friday around 11am. But it’s a sweatshirt so I got a bigger size and it’ll just be extra snuggly.

Finally, I got some new fiber types to spin! The white fiber is an ounce of bamboo, which will be interesting to try. I don’t spin with plant fibers often (have I ever?) so it will be a learning experience. Then I got 4oz of an angora and merino blend from a lovely woman who had her angora rabbits with her at the festival. My boss mentioned later that he’d gone with his family to see what all the hubbub was about and that the bunnies were the biggest he’d ever seen. I just like how fluffy they are.

I have already started knitting with my blue yarn on the Theodore Wrap but it doesn’t look like much yet. I love the color so much. We saw this yarn fairly early on but I wanted to see all my options before committing so we walked around the rest of the festival then went back to Queen City’s booth and I took every skein of this blue they had in Queen City Yarn Latta Classic and most of the Queen City Yarn Bernice. One good thing about buying from Queen City is that they’re only about 2 hours away. If I run out of yarn we can make a trip out there or I can have it shipped fairly quickly. Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that and that I’ve calculated correctly though. Once the wrap starts to look like more than shoulder pads, I’ll make a post about it. In the meantime, happy knitting!