Fibre-East 2016

Hellooooooooo!! It feels like a lifetime since I last chatted with you. Last Thursday, I headed off to Bedfordshire to help with Fibre-East. We spent that day measuring and marking out the halls and marquees for the stands and then shifting tables so that they were in place for the next day. Rather than travel over each day, I stayed in a Premier Inn, and spent the evenings relaxing and knitting. Friday was very exciting as the whole event began to take shape. Bunting was festooned around the site, signs stuck up for visitors and a steady stream of vans and cars meant that the vendors were arriving. It was wonderful to see all the lovely things that the vendors had brought with them, and also a little dangerous, as I kept seeing things to add to my shopping list! It was absolutely brilliant being part of the Fibre-East team; they are a lovely, friendly bunch who look after their volunteers so well. I have already got next year's dates in my diary! 

On Saturday, I wasn't officially volunteering, as it was the day that Snoopydog and I had arranged to meet up for a spot of retail therapy! Every single fibre craft you can think of is catered for at the show, and probably some you haven't thought of too! Knitting, spinning, crocheting, weaving, felting and more. A huge selection of vendors with a wide variety of things on sale. Soomething for everyone! It's on a lovely big site with plenty of space for people to be able to get in and look at what's on offer. I just hate the shows where you can't move around easily or get to see the stands without a bit of a tussle. Well, there's none of that at Fibre-East! Over and over again, I heard comments about what a lovely, friendly show it was and how nice it was to have things spread around.There were actually 3 halls, a corridor and 3 marquees, as well as a sheep shearing show, a historical group demonstrating traditional crafts from their own pavilion, on-site professional catering and some other small tents from individual vendors. There was even a 'knit and natter' room and somewhere for video bloggers to meet up. It seemed to be pretty near perfect to me! Take a look at the photos to see some of the yarny temptations that were trying to seduce me!



You can see just what a colourful event it is, although there are plenty of natural yarns and fibre too. It's just that I am always drawn to colour! I did watch part of the Sheer Sheep Experience and wandered around the back to say hello to the sheep! They do have such lovely faces, I'd quite like a pet sheep, although it might not impress Flo too much!

There was also a historical group, the Society for Creative Anachronism, Insulae Draconis, who were dressed in period costume demonstrating a variety of pre-1600 fibre arts. They were very interesting to talk to.

Entries in the spinning and weaving competitions were far fewer this year, and I was delighted to see that I had two '1st' rosettes for items knitted using my handspun. My more recently spun skeins didn't get placed.

While I was there, I said hello to fellow Stylecraft Blogstar Jane Crowfoot. She had a stand showing off lots of her beautiful blankets, with very tempting kits on sale. I also had time to chat with Sue Pinner and Sandra Paul who were both visiting on Sunday. A great gathering of the Stylecraft Blogstars!

Now I expect you're wanting to know what I bought aren't you?! I think, bearing in mind that I had ample opportunities to shop over the whole weekend, I showed a LOT of restraint! I have tried very hard this year to knit from stash, and so was quite happy to have a little splurge at Fibre-East. I wanted to buy a gradient fibre  and found the perfect one at Cat and Sparrow. I love Jon's dyeing and succumbed to a set of Easyknits mini-skeins on Saturday, topped off with a skein of grey in the same yarn so I can do some colourwork. The cream yarn with rainbow splashes was one that I admired on Saturday and it came back with me on Sunday! This was from FiveMoons. I spotted the crochet hooks and magnetic ceramic pin dish on the Fibre-East blog during the previews of the marketplace and had them on my shopping list, and also needed to top up my Soak. The little sheep charms are very sweet as are the ceramic cat buttons. I couldn't resist them! The fibre was my last purchase oon Sunday afternoon, when I went 'off duty'. I've often watched Louise from SpinCity at shows; she comes across as such a lovely person, really willing to share her skills and inspire people. She had been spinning some really fun yarn using a whole mixture of fibres, but I especially liked the bits with the little tails of Wensleydale sticking out. So I have a bag of bits of dyed Wensleydale just to play around with and spin some crazy yarn! I don't have a jumbo flyer on my wheel so it will be interesting to see how I get on. All in all, I don't think I went over the top, do you?! I think there's enough there, with what I've already got stashed away to keep me out of mischief until next year's Fibre-East! I left Bedford a very tired but happy josiekitten - I think this was the best Fibre-East yet!

Oh, there may have been one more purchase, but more of that another time! xxx