Hoosier Hills Fiber Festival

Today was the Hoosier Hills Fiber Festival in Franklin, Indiana. The morning started out with breakfast at Bob Evans with some of the women I knit with. Lilly thankfully was pretty well behaved. (Why is she an angel with other people and a tiny terror for me? Is this the "mother's revenge" I keep hearing about? My mom must be hysterical with laughter if so.) But the company of knitters plus strawberry and banana stuffed hotcakes is the most excellent way to start a Saturday morning. Then we got to the fairgrounds and I met up with my Mother-in-law and her friend Angie.

Now to the yarn pr0n. It was pretty hot and humid today and my purchases seem to reflect the weather.



From the top left clockwise;
Trekking, color 107. (I had to have it despite the many balls of Trekking already in the stash because it reminds me of watermelon.)
Dragon Tale Yarn, 100% cotton, Berry Pie colorway (1600 yards for a mere $12!)
Fleece Artist, 100% Washable Merino Wool (No idea what the colorway is, 22 perhaps?)
Fleece Artist, 50% Blue face 50% Suri (Again unsure of colorway, 1135 possibly.)
And lastly, Treenway 55% silk 45% Camel (No colorway and this stuff is stinky. I hope the smell dissipates with washing.)

So yarn for socks, shawls, and I'm not sure about the cotton. I would love to make a shawl with it but I'm not sure how much I can really block cotton. Most of my color choices remind me of berries (or melon) or the sea and they are all for lightweight knitting. Today's weather is just a reminder that the hot, humid months of summer are practically here. Now I am prepared to knit all summer long.

My MIL doubled my yarn budget for the day (yay for having in-laws that understand fiber addictions!) and she also made a wonderful purchase today, her first hank of alpaca plus some beautiful mohair. I figured out the hard way a week ago that mohair and I don't really get along. I was tempted to purchase some of what she bought and spent some time fondling it. My arms (and my eyes a little bit too) itched all afternoon. But before today my MIL was pretty much limiting her yarn choices to what they carried at JoAnn's and Michael's so today was the first time she purchased 'luxury' yarns. Funny how I considered those 'luxury' yarns at one time as well. Becoming a fiber snob happened almost overnight for me. She also bragged on me every chance she got. "You should see the wonderful shawl she made me, she knits beautifully." And she really did emphasises the word 'beautifully'. Winning ribbons at the state fair last year was great but walking around with her today was so much better. I just got to play modest and smile a lot while she did all the bragging for me.

I also picked up one other, non-fiber related, item.



These earrings are made from paper! They were so beautiful and are so weightless that I decided I had to have them.

I consider today to be my warm up for Stitches in August.