PunkconformityLife, history, and the pursuit of knitting.

Monday, April 8, 2013

NC Fiber Festival

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If we liken being Cold Sheep to being on a yarn diet, then this weekend I binged.  I binged like someone who'd given up chocolate for Lent does on Easter.

This weekend was the NC Fiber Festival.  I had always planned to end my final three months of Cold Sheep this weekend, but I was thinking about it in terms of the last few years, when there were a handful of great sellers, but mostly a bunch of people trying to sell their 90 yd skein of worsted weight for $28 (I have no problem with people who charge reasonable prices for their work, I just object to 90 yd skeins - what are you supposed to do with that?)

But this year was not like the last few years.  This year, they moved it down to Sanford, which is a rather odd location in the middle of nowhere, about an hour away from anything else you might want to visit.  And while I'm not a huge fan of the new layout, it certainly seemed to me that there was an improvement in the quality of the vendors, much to the detriment of my wallet.

The results of the binge:


From the top: Delly Delights Farm merino roving (in the bag), Delly Delights Farm O So Soft Alpaca sport in Gray, Unplanned Peacock Superwash Merino Fingering in Coral, Knitting Notions Merino Superwash Sock in Ironstone, Taylored Fibers Merino/Silk braid, Cozy Rabbit Farm Merino/Tencel roving, and GnomeAcres House Gnome Sock in Polyjuice Potion (received as a gift).

For those curious about the roving, I may or may not have learned to spin on Wednesday and purchased all of this on Saturday.  More on that later.

On the one hand, that replaced all the stash-down I've done since Christmas and then some.  On the other hand, I have ideas for everything I purchased, so while I binged, I binged more thoughtfully than I would have pre-Cold Sheep.  And honestly, I can't feel guilty in the face of all those pretties. 

Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go snuggle my skeins of alpaca.