SAFF 2005

Wow! That about sums up what I saw this year at SAFF. It's larger than ever, with lots of new vendors. There was a great selection of fibers. Carolina Homespun was there this year, a first for them. Hopefully they will be back next year.

Where was my eye drawn? Well, while Robin took her newest drum carder over to Mr. Strauch of Strauch Fiber Equipment Co., I headed over to Grafton Fibers because the colors there were just gorgeous and my eyes kept wandering there. Naturally the body had to follow! I eyed the fiber longingly, but waited until Robin could come talk me out of it. Yeah, right, like that was going to happen!

When she was done, we met up with a friend from Avillion Farms and helped her carry some mohair over to Ozark Carding Mill, another great source of fiber. I bought some of my first fiber from Ozark and love their stuff, but this year I passed them by. Color kept drawing my eyes!

Well, after talking a bit, I told Robin I'd be over at Grafton Fibers and to come over when she was done. I wasn't in a hurry to drool over that lucious fiber, honest. Well, okay, I just had to buy some of that vibrantly colored merino fiber. Gorgeous colors. What did I finally buy? Well, here's a shot of my loot. Robin helped me pick out the colors from Grafton Fibers. See the center batt, nicely rolled up in a bun? That's the first colorway I picked up. There are hints of pale sea green in there among the purple. I loved it. Robin helped pull me away from my usual colorway to help broaden my color palette. I liked this stuff so much, I had to go back and get a coordinating color, hence the beautiful purple batt on the left.

But, wait! What about the batt on the right? Well, that happens to come from a new vendor that our guild members told us to visit, MissBabs. She's still designing her website, but she is personable and helpful and has lovely fiber! What more could a fiber enthusiast want in a vendor. She had lovely rovings and yarns as well. Hopefully her website will showcase all of these lovely things. The batts she sells are superwash merino and all of them are in lovely colors. When you unroll the batts there are more colors present, some in layers, some in strips, some well blended, but all of them gorgeous. Robin bought a lovely red batt, and true to form I forgot to take a picture of her lovely batt. The colors are gorgeous, more burgundy red with hints of paler flame like colors. Hopefully she'll either post a pic or send me a pic so I can post it up (hint hint!) When I unrolled mine, there were paler greens to more yellow-greens in the batt. I can't wait to spin this up, but I can't wait to spin a lot of the stuff I bought up. :) Am I happy about my purchases or what?

Alright, lots of stuff in that picture. At the far left is an 8 oz bag of bleached silk roving from Little Barn Inc., one of our early stops. They sold out of their silk (both tussah and bombyx) and almost all their fiber later in the afternoon.

I bought some double point needles, U.S. size 9, from Carolina Homespun, some Country Classic dye containers from various fiber places, a bottle of Eucalan to replace my diminishing bottle, some Trekking XXL in color 40 (from Maple Row Stock and Wool Farm, and, last but not least, several bars of soap from The Blue Ridge Soap Shed. I love the soap from the Soap Shed. Even after a year, my soap still smells good. I always buy a sampler for a gift. :) This year was no exception about the sampler, but I also bought a couple bars of my favorite scented soap, White Spice. Yummy. I also bought a lavender bar as well.

That takes care of the main purchases, but we also took a class, Spinning Silk Hankies, on Sunday with B. J. Crawford from Earth Guild. I think both Robin and I were happy with how the course went and what we learned and received for our materials fee. A couple other guild members took the class as well, and I'm kicking myself for not taking pictures.Here's what we received for our materials fee: 1) a 1 oz dyed hankie package, dyed by Chasing Rainbow Dyeworks' Nancy Finn, and 2) an undyed hankie as well, much less than an ounce. Well worth the materials fee. But, wait, there are two dyed hankies in that image. I chose the hankie on the left, called Morning Glory, to learn on. Here's a picture of the yarn on the bobbin. The colors are pretty accurate. It's amazing how muted the colors become when you spin the hankies. The colorway on the right in the photo above was purchased as a coordinating colorway for Morning Glory and is called Juniper Berry. Lovely colors. And again, in true Annette fashion, I forgot to take a pic of Robin's lovely hankies. Maybe she will send me a pic later or even post!

I have a couple more pictures. The first image is an Australian spinning wheel a gentleman was spinning on. We were eating with other guild members when it was spotted, and several of us went to check it out. A few weeks ago I had asked fellow guild members about Australian spinning wheels and if anyone knows of brands. Well, here's one very easy traveling wheel, the Windwheel, an Ettrick wheel.One of the fun things about meeting up with Robin at SAFF, other than getting to see her, is that we share experiences and lessons learned. This weekend we swapped lessons. I taught her how to make stitch markers and let her go at my bead collection, and she taught me to needle felt a little something for Fall. What did I make with this lesson? Well, check my little project out below.One last website to mention. Although neither Robin nor I puchased anything from Lori Flood of The Spinster's Treadle, she had a wonderful display of felted merino/tencel scarves as well as felted beads, dyed roving, undyed silk hankies, and silk batts. We talked with her for a bit about the process and what she does. This was her first time at SAFF and hopefully we'll see her back again.

Alright, that's it from me. Hope everyone has a fibery week. I'm off to play with clue 4 of my mystery shawl!