Fiber Festival!!!!!!!

This past weekend was my favorite of the year: The Finger Lakes Fiber Festival in Hemlock, New York. Stuff a girl needs to travel to a fiber fest?

1) Map

2) Audio book

3) Gift Certificate for one of the participating yarn shops. (Hooray for bridal shower gifts from astute friends!)

4) Knitting

5) Newly finished and first time worn woolen sweater, because Saturday was 10 degrees colder than any day in the previous or subsequent week.

This festival has everything, some of it twice, and all of it nice. Lots of beautiful yarn and equipment:

Winderwood Farm had lots of beautiful wooden equipment including wheels. Up on the shelf in back you can see a yarn reel and some lovely lazy kates.*

Goldings were there with their amazing carved wheels and spindles. Those are relief sheep's heads circling around that wheel and on the back of the chair.

The Bosworths were selling their ingenious book charkas and journey wheels. Incidental, I'm trying to convince Andras that he needs a charka. No, he doesn't spin, but he is a Buddhist, and recently purchased a ukulele, and somehow a charka just fits perfectly with that.

I saw and knitted on the current attempt to break the world's record for largest sock. The sock, like everyone else, has it's own blog.

Our fiber fest has the best fair food in the world. Tacos, salt potatoes, fresh squeezed lemonade, kettle corn, and the Artichokes French stand, which has 2 styles of artichokes and beans and greens. Their motto is that good food is neither fast or cheap, but it is good, and boy are they right.


There were great hooked rugs at some of the booths. I love that this sheep is swirly. I find the color choice in hooked rugs really compelling, as well as the way the color of the background often swirls around the foreground objects.

And best of all there were bunnies. This is a not yet full grown giant angora on the lap of the woman who created the breed. We had a great talk about bunnies and specifics of angora grooming, plus I got to pet all of her rabbits. Maybe Rusty needs a friend?

*Kate like Susan, was ingenious, which is never lazy.