Fibre East 2: Swamp Thing’s Revenge

Sooo, just to get it out of the way before the off, yes, you’ve heard correctly. Fibre East was wet. Really, amazingly wet. And muddy. And covered in worms.

But you know what? It was still loads of fun and people were sloshing around the marquees with big grins on their faces, squishing the fluffy stuff and ooohhing at all the pretties.

Because fibre addicts are hardcore.

With that out of the way, here’s my usual round up of favourite moments of the weekend.

* seeing Sparkleduck and Sparkledrake. Lovely folks! Heather gave Elias a teeny rubber duck of his very own. He spent most of the rest of Saturday afternoon happily flinging it in various muddy puddles and slush piles and laughing like a drain.

*the lovely lady from MillaMia who came up and told us she’d met us at Knit Nation when she bought a couple of the limited edition yarn/bag/pattern kits.

*the lady from Birmingham who we’d met at Fibre Flurry who came to tell us how much she’d liked knitting one of Anna’s designs.

*geeking out with fellow Browncoats over news from SDCC about Firefly related things. SO much glee.

*Seeing Sadie and Sarah and Sarah’s burgeoning bump. Just lovely!

*Catching up with the very lovely Yarn Cafe team. Lovely to see all three of you! The shop is one year old now and by the looks of the number of people I saw at their stand, it’s going strong. Hurrah!

*Getting a hug from Debbie (Skein Queen) and Alabamawhirly 🙂

*The two girls who make their own FIMO food. They spent ages at my stand looking at all the different types of food I had. I asked them to recommend some books on making FIMO creations and they were really sweet. They were both really into other crafts as well, one said she liked sewing and the other makes jewellery. I think they were no more than 10 so it was lovely to see some younger crafters enjoying themselves.

*There was a really nice lady who bought a Spinderella bag for herself as a birthday gift. She said she collected owls and had hundreds of owl related items.

*I bought some yarn from a dyer I’d never met before, Boo’s Attic. Clare had the most glowing colours and I ended up buying two skeins. One is intended to be a new River of Blood shawl for me, once I finish the one I’m knitting for my sister. Can’t show you photos of it as I left it in Anna’s car and since neither of us has really felt up to moving or leaving our houses so far this week, it’s still there as far as I know!

*Catching up briefly with Joy and Bobby from The Knitting Goddess, two of the nicest, funniest ladies in the business. They always make me laugh and  it’s always a delight to see them.

*Chatting about children’s literature and knitting with Toad of Toad Hall (Ravelry name, obviously. Not the real actual Toad of Toad Hall. Sadly Poop!Poop!) Another fan of Susan Cooper’s incredible books.

*We spotted an amazing knitted jacket on Saturday. It was indigo dyed and covered with 3D clouds and rain drops. Awesome!

I’m sure there are heaps more moments that will come back to me once my poor tired brain has a chance to recover.

I can tell you I was very very grateful for being a knitter of socks this weekend as the mud soaked through my  boots. My socks kept my feet warm, if not dry.

And as always it was wonderful to see so many familiar faces, check out other peoples’ beautiful creations and meet lots of new knitters. Huge thanks to those who braved the horrible weather to come visit the show. I hope you all had a brilliant time!