SAFFalicious

Wow, what an incredible weekend! We arrived in NC on Thursday evening and settled into the most wonderful little cabin. We stayed in the Speckled Trout cabin (image is larger than the cabin actually was!) which was right on the edge of a stream. It was divine!

Friday was cold and wet, but that didn't stop us from getting out early and heading to SAFF. We did the rounds and then settled in with our friends from the Peachtree Handspinners Guild. These people really make SAFF for me. They are so welcoming, knowledgeable, and just plain fun to be around. We've decided to try to renew our guild membership and try to make more of the meetings. Atlanta is about a 2.5 to 3 hour drive, but to spend time in the company of such a great group of people, I think it's worth it.

I was thrilled that Carolyn found me on Friday! We had a nice time catching up. She even brought her charka and joined the fun in the spinning circle. Carolyn's husband was along for the trip, and he's a great guy. I bet we see Bill spinning by next year!

On cold and blustery Saturday, I ran into Beverly and her mom. They are such sweet people. I'd not seen either of them in a long time. Beverly was shopping for drop spindles, and if you take a look at her blog, you'll see she found some!

At some point this weekend, I saw three ladies from the local spinning group. One of them sat in on the spinning circle for a bit on Sunday, and she was spinning some gorgeous superwash merino (I think) in teal and white. I never managed to run into any of the other bloggers who said they'd be at SAFF and didn't see the sign posted on Saturday for the blogger meetup. Oh well....maybe we'll all be better organized next year.

Fiber festivals are great places to try new wheels, so I took advantage of that. I've always been sort of drawn to the Majacraft Little Gem and the Ashford Joy. I got to try out both this weekend at one of the vendor's stands, and the fascination is gone. I couldn't get the Little Gem to spin in the right direction. The treadling seemed very hard. My daughter, on the other hand, sat down at the wheel and was going great guns. The Joy was easy to treadle, but when I took my feet off the treadle, the wheel spun backwards on its own. It spun back about half way from where I'd stopped. I don't know why that is--light wheel? I'm used to spinning on a Schacht Matchless on which the wheel stays put when you stop treadling. This test spin just proved to me once again what a great wheel my Schacht is. I do love that thing except for the fact that it is heavy to take around to guild meetings and such....

So...you want to know what I bought, do you? I was SOOO good on Friday--only spent about $50 for 4 circular needles. Saturday didn't go quite so well. Sunday was even worse--for our pocketbook. I'm pleased to say, though, that the big ticket purchase of the weekend was not mine although I hope to enjoy the benefits of this particular purchase. I did not buy any commercial yarn (as in nothing I could buy at a LYS), and I'm happy about that. Why buy something at a festival that you can get locally or order--unless it is a great deal? I'm going to keep you in suspense about our purchases until I have time and technological support to get pictures up later this week. I think you'll be amazed!

In non fibery news, I was sad to read this: Pink Flamingos Becoming Extinct. My dad and I always had a running joke about flamingos. He threatened on many times to have my yard "flocked" because I thought the garden variety birds were so tacky. In truth, I really love the things and anything flamingo and have a small collection of them (very small!).