I’m a bit late with my week-day post because I’ve been having too much fun the last couple of days. This weekend was the Interweave Yarn Fest and my friend, Mary Beth Temple, was teaching there then came to my house for a visit. I just said good-bye to Mary Beth this morning so I’m getting caught up on my blog now.
Saturday I drove up to Loveland to check out the Yarn Fest Marketplace. Mary Beth Temple and I were getting together for dinner after the Yarn Fest was closed for the day. But before that it was time to have fun in the Marketplace. I took this duty very seriously and got straight to work when I walked in the door.
My first stop was at the Brown Sheep Wool Company booth. I had been in touch with them earlier in the week and had asked them to bring down 4 pounds of their mill end fiber for me. I am practicing my needle-felting sculptural skills and that 4 pounds should keep me busy for a while. I also purchased a couple hanks of their super bulky Burly Spun to play with, both for needle-felting and crochet.
I took all those purchases out to my car and then returned to the show floor to continue my shopping adventure. My dear friend and fellow designer, Brenda Bourg, was there as well. We met-up and walked around the marketplace together. Interweave Crochet magazine was having a preview of the pieces going into the June issue, so we went to watch that.
Between looking at the various items being shown I notice Brenda’s gorgeous hot pink shoes. I was teasing her that I might be sneaking off with them. Just needed to find an event where she had to take off her shoes.
I was also excited to meet the talented Lisa Souza at this show. Lisa and I have been friends on the internet for some time, but had never met in person. Her booth was a glorious display of color and texture that was truly drool worthy. Despite my yarn diet I ended up adopting some hanks that were too lovely to abandon.
The 2 larger blue toned hanks will grow up to be a crocheted wrap some day, they are a yummy blend of wool and silk. I’m not sure what the little purple hank is destined to become. It is an incredibly soft silk/cashmere blend that was really just pure indulgence on my part.
While Brenda and I were exploring we came upon a booth that wasn’t really a yarn craft, but intrigued me greatly. I love making and wearing jewelry. I want pieces that have some durability, after all I do live on a mountain and have a very active lifestyle. This booth was all about making jewelry pendants and charms.
They had jewelry quality glass pieces of various shapes and sizes with trays to turn them into pendants or charms. As a demonstration you could do a make-and-take pendant. One of the ladies there, Karen, helped me turn my logo from my business card into a pendant for a necklace in less than 2 minutes.
I’ve always wanted to have a necklace with my logo on it, and now I do.
I was so excited about the products they had I purchased a number of them to make some gifts and experiment with in my art studio. I will have to share more about my results of working with these materials in another blog post. But if you want to try them out for yourself before then you can visit their website over at: CraftFantastic.com.
Brenda and I took a break about three to sit down for crochet time and chat in some comfy chairs in the lobby. Then she needed to leave to head back home, while I went back to the marketplace. Mary Beth joined me in the marketplace after her class finished up for a few more rounds of shopping.
We stopped by “The Recycled Lamb” booth and talked to the owners. While we were standing there a glowing basket of yarn kept calling my name. I finally succumbed and ended up purchasing one skein of this teal-toned silk, I think it may become a lovely necklace/cowl with beads when I work with it.
The thing I tend to be looking for at events like this are buttons, and my last purchases of the day were 2 beautiful glass buttons from the very talented Jodie McDougall. This carp button is my favorite and I don’t know if I want to use it or just keep it on my desk where I can see it every day. Doesn’t he look like he is really swimming in there?
The Yarn Fest marketplace had a lot more vendors this year than last year and I bet it will be even bigger next year. So you might want to keep an eye on the Interweave website to make plans to come to Yarn Fest 2017. It’s a lot of fun, especially the shopping.
I’ll show you what I’ve been up to with some of that lovely wool fiber this weekend.
Mamas2Hands 