StitchFest 2017

I made it! I went to StitchFest in Totnes on Saturday 🙂

The whole week before I managed to squash any anxiety when it reared its ugly head. I did preparatory research so that I knew which stall holders to head for and made a list of what I wanted to look at. I knew that my time in the buildings would be limited due to sensory issues so preparation was key.

The one and a half hour journey down was ok for me. We managed to get parking at the school in the centre of town where one of the two venues was sited. I looked around that venue and decided to go back after I had seen the stalls in the town hall. This didn’t happen though but the intention was there.

I had an Auti moment when trying to find the town hall. They said town hall so I looked for town hall… It’s actually called the civic centre. In my head I was visualizing the words town hall so I was looking for that pattern of letters…oh well, I felt silly but nevermind, I was on a mission!

I was ever so excited 😁 that a blogger I follow was exhibiting there and I was going to get to meet her. Allow me to introduce you to Nikki of Dartmoor Yarn Company 🙂  It was already getting very busy but we were able to have a short conversation and shared a hug. Bekki’s stall was chocca full of her wonderful wares and creations. As I’ve been following Bekki  for a while I know how much work she has put into designing and printing her new pattern book “27 Knitted Santa Sacks”. You can see the little sacks hanging in the image below. They are so sweet. Also if you look by the pattern book you will spot larger sacks that are exactly the same as the little ones but knitted with a heavier gauged yarn. I can’t wait to work up some of these sacks for Christmas 🎄

I wanted to take several photos as I had this blog post in mind but it wasn’t to be and this is the only photo I took… one small part of Bekki’s stall 🙂

There was a lot of yarn for sale, I was after fibre though. First I came to Fleece Witch who sells alpaca fibre from her own herd. I bought two plaits of space dyed alpaca/merino/silk blend and 200 grams of the most gorgeous silvery baby alpaca fibre.

I had hemp on my shopping list and I was pleased to find that Adelaide Walker had not only hemp sample packs but a number of other unusual fibres also. I was well and truly in yarny heaven!

I managed to stay for about 40 minutes before sensory overload drove me outside. I managed to text Lovely Husband to say I needed to go and also managed to get myself back to the car. I had never been to Totnes before and would have very much liked to wander around the town but that will have to wait for another day.

The drive home was difficult and the following day I was rather tearful. Today I’m good though so I’ve recuperated really well and quite quickly. It really helped that the event was exhibiting something I’m passionate about plus I have my little haul to gaze at 🙂 I started spinning one of the plaits today. I’ll show you progress on that in another post. In the meantime I’ll finish with four images of my ‘haul’ 🙂