Surprisingly enough this was my first actual fiber festival! While I've participated in a couple of yarn crawls and certainly make a bee line towards any booth filled with lovely fiber goodness at a craft fair, I had yet to experience the glory of more yarn than you can shake a size 13 needle at!
The Shenandoah Valley Fiber Festival is held at the Clark County Ruritan Fair Grounds in the delightful little town of Berryville, VA. We lucked out with beautiful weather as I hauled along with me the rest of the birds, mostly with the promise of lots of wooly animals to stare at, to a fair full of color and yarn.
On the animal front Littlest Owl was not to be disappointed! There was a bevy of yarn producing animals in addition to a sheepdog demonstration, both the official one in the pen and unofficial one required when the sheep broke loose into the fair grounds!
After the excitement of the runaway sheep Littlest Owl was able to join all the other kids (of all ages) in petting the Angora rabbits and meeting some of the larger residents of the fairgrounds, such as a camel and these lovely fellows from Central Hill Alpacas and Freestate Llamas.
The highlight of the day was of course just the sheer volume of brightly colored yarn from all over the region in a wide variety of fibers and weights varying from uncombed fleece pretty much right off the sheep to richly dyed cashmere blends. As usual, a wonderful atmosphere is created when members of the fiber community get together. I was pleasantly surprised to see just how many active spinning wheels were whirring away and to get the chance to meet some of the spinners, dyers, potters, and proprietors of these small businesses that make the fiber art world such a vibrant one!
Here's a quick tour of some of these wonderful vendors!
Blue Fields Farm- Icelandic Sheep and Wool
Barbarah Robertson Pottery for all you nerdy knitting and decorative needs, it took a great deal of self control to not buy half of her booth!!! In addition for the nerdy spinners out there, the be-kilted guys over at Hipstrings make some drop spindles and other accessories fit for a Galifrayan!
Some more images of the festival.
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| Littlest Owl was hard to pull away from all the critters! |
I clearly couldn't go home empty handed and I have a feeling that this festival might just have to become a yearly tradition! Beautiful fibers from Verdant Gryphon, Delly's Delight Farm, and other deliciousness.
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