I’m a little late on making this post, as the 4th Annual FiberFest was held on Saturday, May 12th, 
the day before Mother’s Day. Located at the Julia A. Purnell Museum, this small festival was a relaxing treat compared to the insane crowds and mayhem of the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival! Because I want the memory to stay that way, I decided to let the pictures do most of the talking instead of typing a long, detailed post.
First up are two cute alpacas from a local farm that we got to pet, except for Corey, of course, because he was kinda shy about getting close to them. The handler told me they were different breeds of alpaca, and which breeds they were, but I’ve forgotten. I think the larger brown alpaca is a Suri, and the smaller white alpaca is a Huacaya. (Just a wild guess, and please, if you know, correct me if I’m wrong and I’ll edit my post.
Spinning demonstrations were being done by three women, each of whom had different spinning wheels. The one on the left is an Ashford Babe spinning wheel, but which version of the Babe, I’m not sure. One of the women was using my favorite compact spinning wheel, the Ashford Joy. We were told that the lady who brought the wheels actually gives lessons in spinning from her home in Easton, Maryland. If you’re interested and live in the area, check out her web site: The Sanguine Gryphon
There were also three different weaving demonstrations. We saw a girl using popsicle sticks attached to yarn and threaded on a PVC frame (above right), one woman was using a weaving machine to make cloth (left), and another was weaving cut strips of plastic grocery bags to make a recycled, eco-friendly fabric (right).
Headless manokins were set up wearing Victorian dresses near a sewing tent, and near the entrance to the museum were cross-stitch and embroidery samples near a sewing machine demonstration. A child’s craft table surrounded by children and a table devoted to dying wool yarn with Kool-Aid were also there. Corey dabbled in a bit of that craft, right after he got his face painted and had lunch. I stopped at the single yarn vendor’s display and bought a couple skeins of yarn (because I can’t just look at the yarn), so pictures of my latest stash enrichments will be posted soon!
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