Santa Monica Fiber Fest

Spinning on a Majacraft Rose under the expert tutelage of Morgaine.

Sweet alpaca.I have been incredibly spoiled the last few weeks. Last weekend, I went to a spin-in at Andrea's and spent the whole day (and much of the night) surrounded by really talented spinners. I got to try out MJ's Lendrum DT and Andrea's Kromski Minstrel, which was so fun. I was the second least experienced spinner in the room, so I had an opportunity to check out a variety of great spinning techniques. It was bliss.

This past week, I have been completely spoiled with Marnie occupying our guest room and joining me in ultra-crafting adventures every day.
Knitting Ring.On Saturday, we made our way over to the Fabulous Fiber Fest in Santa Monica. This was the perfect fiber festival for me. There weren't an overabundance of vendors - there were one or two very nice vendors for each type of material - beads, buttons, fiber, yarn, fabric. I loved it because I didn't have to wade through a lot of wares or people. There were a select number of vendors of incredible quality, and the crowds were manageable. It was fun without being overwhelming.

Prize shawls.Although I don't usually blog about my purchases, I'm considering doing it for this festival. The things that I got are just too special. If I'm still feeling the vibe after my trek to Portland, I will at least post a list of my favorite vendors - they are too good not to share.

For now, I'll just hit the non-vendor highlights of the festival. We were greeted by three lovely Alpaca outside the Convention Center. I have long wanted to have a small herd of my own, but this little group of animals really cemented that feeling. They had the sweetest faces. The Alpaca were escorted to the festival by the women of Fleece Unlimited - a new group of women Alpaca Ranchers.

Claudin & Andrea.Another wonderful sight outside the festival was a ring of three women all knitting the same piece with three circular needles. Each woman knit with one end of the circular needle to the left of her and one end of the circular needle to the right of her, so no one ever had to move - genius!

Once inside we were able to locate the area where the shawls for the Spindlicity contest were displayed, including our own Marnie's shawl (the orange shawl on the right).
Andrea spins!I am glad that I didn't have to choose. Each shawl was lovelier than the last, and the fact that they were all handspun original designs blew me away.

In addition to all the wonderful sights, we were surrounded by good friends. We met up with Caroline, who we met at Andrea's spin-in the previous weekend, and then ran into Andrea as well, who brought her beautiful sister Claudin along for the fun. Claudin didn't craft before, but I think she's ready to start now.

Marnie spins!Marnie attracted many on-lookers and wanna-be spindlers by spinning some beautiful fiber on her Golding spindle, and even enticed Andrea to try her Golding out.

Personally, I got lost in the wheels. My blogging pal and spinning enabler Tiffany recently made the wise observation that I would know my wheel when I saw it, and I think she's right. I got to try out a Majacraft Rose from Carolina Homespun. I loved the wheel and got a lot of special attention from Morgaine, so unless I fall to the siren call of the Schacht Matchless, I will be getting the Rose from Carolina Homespun in December when I go back to San Fran for work. Yippee!

P.S. If any of you have wheel preferences and experiences that you want to share in the comments, I would be thrilled! Until December, I will be window shopping.