Carolina Fiber Fest 2024

I am not getting to much of the event this year, because I want to get back to Dallas for a show (or two) and several of the days are work days, which I cannot take off right now.  I debated about classes, and whether to go to the Friday event, and whether to try entering items in their competition.

In the end, I decided "no" to the Friday event, partly because it is just a hangout and I may be more comfortable after I know more people in the local fiber groups, and partly because of the difficulty I had on Thursday evening when I drove to enter the one item I decided to try.  There's a lot of road construction in that area, and my car navigation didn't acknowledge the Expo Building, then my phone navigation didn't handle the construction detours.  I got there with about twenty minutes to deadline (then had to find parking, and hope I didn't get towed for slipping into a "permit only" slot which appeared reserved for the next day), but managed to get the submission done.

This is what I entered:

Pattern is called "Granny's Not Square Cowl".

It's Category YC32, the Crocheted 2024 Craft-Along Pattern.  I did a slight variation by adding a row of single crochet at each edge.  Yarn is Louisa Harding "Amitola Grande", a silk-wool blend, in 'Tangerine Dream', an oddball purchased from a short in the DFW area.

Another lady was also entering her item (a lovely felted abstract picture that appears to be in natural colours of various wools, brown and black and cream) just then, so I felt better not being the only person to skid at the end of Thursday.  Items could also be entered on Friday morning, but I had to work.  If you are coming to the opening of the event, it's handy to deliver your item then.  While classes begin on Wednesday and run through Sunday, the vendor hall and other events are on Friday and Saturday only.

I thought about entering more items (you can only enter ones made between March 2023 and March 2024) but I cannot be there on Saturday afternoon for pickup.  They offer an option to mail it to you, but I didn't want to risk the box not being correctly calculated.  One cowl in an envelope with several stamps shouldn't be an issue.

Given my schedule I wasn't sure which workshop(s) to take.  I am very interested in the one to do a felted sheep or peacock table mat, but in the end decided on a beginning drop spindle class.  I keep trying to learn and hope that someday I'll get it to work.  Maybe this time?

I chose the early Saturday session, which ends just as the vendor hall opens.  I hope I can get in there and while I don't want to buy much, I expect I'll find a few interesting items.  I also want to browse the Used Equipment Sale and maybe find somebody who can help me get my wheel back in service.  I've had an offer to help balance it, but the pedal needs work also.

After Report

More report later, when I have time to take photos of the things I purchased: buttons, a magnet, lots of yarn.  And I think I've figured out drop spindle!

Plus I got to see my cowl on display:

Finishing Things

In addition to the cowl, I finished one of the scarves I had in my quickly-begun pile.  As I semi-suspected, one cake was not enough, so I included most of the second one.  This means there will not be another green scarf, although I might have enough (in the two bits in the middle of the photo) to make a hat to accompany it.

I worked on the scarf through the North Texas Irish Festival and it drew a lot of attention.

I also finished the Ghost Ranch Cowl:

I'd done the hat first, and am thinking about frogging it and reknitting in the stitch pattern so they match more closely.  It will wait until after Easter as that's not a started thing.

Speaking of started things, I decided that the second mitten of a pair doesn't count as a new start, but the progress is not encouraging:

The yarn isn't even thickness, so the new mitten is smaller than the other despite the same number of rows.  I may remove this bit and start further down where the yarn is thicker again.  Or I may reknit the hand with extra rows.  I am leaning towards the former so I can get to some bright colours more quickly.  Definitely fraternal mittens, whatever happens!