My great friend Simi and I were shopping one day at a little yarn store in Vancouver, WA. She reached over and picked up a small printed magazine and handed it to me. She asked if I wanted to go to this fiber festival. I had only started knitting again in 2014, so I was unaware of just HOW MUCH is out there to do. I had never been to a fiber festival before. SO…I said yes. We made plans to spend the weekend up in Canby, OR where the festival takes place in the Clackamas Fairgrounds. Simi’s mom and dad make drop spindles and were going to be there to sell them, So we could camp out with them. Simi said it was a great time where we spin yarn, knit, sit around and chat and of course…wine!

So we headed up on Friday evening with a car full of spindles, camping equipment and wine. We had driven up the night before to drop off Simi’s submission for the hand-knitted fiber arts competition, as well as several bottles of wine. At one point I stopped abruptly and a bottle of wine broke in my car, it smelled delicious! But I had it cleaned before we went up for the weekend.

We set up camp, and it was hilarious. I looked like a tent full of little old ladies! Quilts and buckets full of yarn.

That evening we sat around and knit, swapping stories and drinking. It was late September so of course it got chilly, but we were all bundled up. It was a nice break from the ridiculous heat we had been dealing with all summer.

The next morning I took my bag of sundries and walked over to the arena where the only shower resided. It…was…fantastic showering among the smell of livestock! I’m serious! It reminded me of when I was growing up in Colorado, and we would go to the State Fair and the smell of animal was everywhere. I love that smell. The water was warm and strong. Mostly used for washing off mud and such, but it felt great.

That day we were going to check out the vendors. It was WAY cool. So many amazing tents with lovely yarn, and fiber. Drop spindles, Spinning wheels, fiber crafting accessories. I was in heaven!

We went into the main pavilion building to see Simi’s competition entry. She had submitted this beautiful lace and beaded shawl. She had made 6 of them for her bridesmaids and this one was on loan from one of them. There it was, up with the other submissions. Some very lovely pieces. She was excited to see if she would win anything, but didn’t expect to win at all. We went to her folk’s tent next to check it out. They had a lovely set up! They had their drop spindles, as well as a spinning wheel up for sale. If you are looking for a lovely drop spindle, or if you want to try and learn check out their website Twists and Turnings!

After staying there for a while we moved on to watch the spinning circle for a while. It was great to see so many people all hanging out just spinning fiber into yarn.

After lunch I wanted to catch the Goat obstacle course. FOR REAL, Goats in and obstacle course. What goat do you know that willingly does anything it is asked?? I had to check this out! There were SO many contestants! Some were lucky with their goats.

Some…Not so lucky.

After that we had some lunch and then we went back to the pavilion to see if the judges had finished choosing the winners. Simi WON!

She almost won Best in Show as well, but they gave it to another contestant. It was pretty impressive. Simi was pretty pleased.

We went to tell her folks. We spent the rest of the day sitting at the booth just working on stuff. I got to try spinning on a spinning wheel for the first time!

Simi went out and treated herself to some lovely red dyed wool and silk fiber that she had been eyeballing for several weeks. To celebrate winning. She started working on it right away. We spent the night talking away. Everyone was really pleased with Simi for winning, and we ate good food. The moon was beautiful in the sky that night

The next morning we woke early and started crafting right away! Simi was spinning up that lovely red fiber, I was knitting on my gloves for the wedding.

We planned to see the livestock that day. We visited the sheep and alpacas first. They were super cute, and obviously well loved. They were shearing them right there too. You could walk away with a bag of freshly shorn, untreated fluff!

Next we went to see the angora bunnies! They were cute and fluffy, and there was a bunch of angora fiber around to buy! I got some Moreno angora mix to spin up.

We spent the rest of the afternoon crafting. Spinning up fiber to make actual yarn. I finished my very first skein of hand-spun yarn. And Simi got pretty far spinning up her victory fiber! She ended up with some lovely lace weight yarn!

After a while it was time to pack up the campsite and go on home.

What did I learn? The animals that yarn is made out of smell amazing! I enjoy spinning on a wheel instead of a drop spindle. Also, Lacework is the most amazing type of fiber art out there.
This was a great experience and I plan on going again next year!