Last weekend I went to my very first fibre festival East Anglia Yarn Festival. I had a wonderful time, met lots of lovely fellow crafters, talked about all things wool and came away feeling very inspired. Since I have quite a large stash of my own hand spun yarn and fleeces waiting to be processed, I don’t tend to purchase much yarn or pre-prepared fibre, however I did go with a mental list of items that would be useful.
Links to vendors websites are provided for reference and are not affiliate links.
Yarn
The first skein I bought was a beautiful earthy toned sock yarn from Mamie and Florrie. Sock knitting has been on my project list for some time and this colourway was really beautiful. I also treated myself to a colourful Yak/Silk blend from Yarn Tings as it will complement some yarn already in my stash and is wonderfully soft. I purchased two naturally dyed silk threads from Allium Threads for use in future sewing projects and two half cones of grey wool from Eliza Conway who sells vintage second hand wool and notions as they will make an excellent warp for weaving projects.
Fibre
With lots of fleeces in my stash, I was strict with myself when it came to fibre. I purchased a small bag of white Shetland fibre from The Slow Yarn Spinner with the intention of spindle spinning it and combining it with the coloured Shetland I spun last Tour de Fleece into a project. The Spinning Barn were selling some combed Gotland wool, which is a breed I have been wanting to try out for a long time and the fleeces are harder to come by. Finally I picked up some silk hankies from The Threshing Barn to experiment with.
Miscellaneous Items
When experimenting with my DIY Wool combs, I had been using an oversized button, so though it high time I got a proper diz (though buttons and stones with holes in do work just as well). Tine and Floyd had some lovely handcrafted dizzes and while I was there I also treated myself to a Turkish spindle so I can now have two spindle projects on the go at once. I was also rather taken by a set of sea glass buttons by Lilliput Wight, a felted sheep notebook by Little Gem Felts and finally a card by Tilly Flop Designs that I felt summed up a crafters life very well!
Overall it was a truly wonderful event, everyone was so friendly and it was pleasure meeting so many fellow creatives from all over the country. It was also lovely to meet some of the people who I bought from during virtual fibre east in 2020. There were many more vendors than I have listed here (at time of publishing, I believe the full list of vendors is on the EAYF website), so if you are in need of yarn or notions, but not sure where to start then I highly recommend having a look.
If you have any recommendations of yarn festivals or events then let me know in the comments below.
Happy Crafting!
Loose Ends 