Felting and Fiber Studio

part 1 can be found here: feltingandfiberstudio.com/2024/04/15/peterborough-fiber-festival-2024/

Welcome back to the Peterborough (Ontario, Canada) Fiber Festival, 2024. I hope I have not left you sitting too long. So before you develop a numb butt let’s go look at the inside group of booths. I hope you have saved a bit of window shopping money since I think you may need it!

 25) Map showing the location of the sale in Peterborough. Located between Ottawa and Toronto to give you an idea of the scale of the drive. approx 270km/167miles

While we are still by the windows, let’s look at what else is here. Next to the sitting area, where we are leaving Glenn to continue reading his book and hold my shopping, there are two more booths. The first is the display by our hosts, the Peterborough Weavers and Spinners Guild (ptbo-hwsg.com).

26.1-26.2) The Peterborough guild booth display, And close up of the display with rug hookers display in the background.

As I pull you away from the guild display let’s fill in our door prize ticket and we can check back to see if any of us won before we head home.

27)Door prize table and list of winners for the hourly draws.

Did you see the booth with the chickens as we came in? Let’s start there with the inner group of booths. this should be Earth and Vines.  There was a distracting display of emotional support chicken wire legs! This prompted a chat about wire armatures and wire acquisition (aliexpress had aluminium wire, in a large range of gauges. For toes the coated steel floral wire worked well when needing a finer gauge but with greater strength than aluminium.)  She also had an interesting neck armature idea, which I may investigate later.

 28) Earth and Vines had Chickens, Chicken armatures and baskets.

The next booth, What’s Weft, it seemed quite busy most of the day. It had fibre and felted items

 29.1 What’s Weft pictures, bags, purses and bags of colourful fibre (I think it’s silk and merino)

29.2 felted scarves and wraps, fibre to spin or felt.

Although the next booth should be the Embroiderer’s Guild with hand-stitched items, I don’t remember seeing it. I was likely distracted by something fluffy. So we will keep going. I think this next photo is at A River of Yarn which lists Luxury Knitting and Crochet yarns, tools, and accessories. When I see these knitted shawls I wish I could knit. Oh well, maybe someday.  

 30) Colourful knit shawls

You may recognize this next booth from photos from the Ottawa Guild sale last year!! Top of the Whorl I didn’t get too far into this booth, I was distracted by nalbinding needles. One had two holes, the rest had only one. Did you know that the two-hole needles allow you to work with longer lengths of yarn, so less splicing as you work?

Check out the spindles (both drop spindles and support spindles) and see if you pick out a spindle case with built-in support spindle bole! I spotted them down on the bottom shelf! Ann will be sorry she didn’t come too when she sees they had all the little boxes of rolags she enjoys spinning.

31) Top of the Whorl; spindles, nalbinding needles, spindle cases and rolags

Lanes End Farm was the next booth, I was distracted by the cute little wheel but was being good and just admired the little Saxony. Looking down I noticed needle felting kits with lots of coloured fiber. I also spotted more of the blue needle felting fake clover tools. They usually work well but are a bit noisier and not quite as smooth as the green actual clover tools (but are also a lot cheaper than the clover tools). If you have tried the blue tools, like the concept but not the feel of it, try the green Clover version before giving up on this style. they are different.

32) kits with balls of fibre for felting and a little Saxony wheel.

If you picked up the wheel and one of the fake clover tools, let’s go see what is in the next booth.

Eakoworks Fashions- (Quilts) I was distracted by the display of through pillows at the end of the booth and there was fibre in the next booth calling to me!

 33.1- 33.2) pillows, is that a black moose on a green background?

Oh no is that fiber? yes, definitely fibre! I am distracted by Shepherd’s Hill Farm – raw fibre bags and locks as well as knitting yarn, books,

34.1) Shepherd’s Hill Farm, Yarns, books and locks mostly dyed

34.2) 2 bags of raw fleece BFL X Coridale and “Marsha” who had even nicer crimp I think she was also a BFL cross.

The fleece named Marsha had tiny tight crimp and more lanolin than the other bag. I was very tempted but needed to check a couple more booths before making an extra purchase. I did not see it when I went past a second time!

We now are going to turn the corner and start heading back towards the comfy window chairs. I must apologize, I was distracted at this point by felt backgrounds in the Wool for Ewe booth and missed a good shot of the Indigo Dragonfly – “luxury yarns dyed in small batches”. If you look behind the Shepherd’s Hill Farm booth, you can see some in the background. I remember deep rich colours, but the quest for wool felt background overcame my documentary photography tendencies.

35) Indigo DragonFly lovely yarn

Mostly Mohair – fibre bumps in bags, I got some! When I tore myself away from the felt that had distracted me, I headed across the aisle to Mostly Mohair, which had Bumps in bags fresh from the mill! Three bumps of top were wool, the others were blends of wool 60/ mohair 40.

36.1) The plastic bag above the table is the fibre blend fresh from the mill, the bags on the floor are state wool.

36.2) white fibre with knit sample

36.3) Felted Teddy bare with mohair locks

36.4) Bags of 60/40 wool/mohair blends in bags100.gr/10.00canadian.

By the time I got home, I had buyer’s remorse for not getting a few more bags. The colour does not show as well in the photo. It was lovely and should spin or felt very nicely. I will try it out on the new wheel (we will talk about that later) once it’s all clean and ready to go.

Once you have picked out a couple of bags for yourself, let’s go on to Songbird yarns.  I was quite fascinated by the knitting of these hats. Knitting is so different I do wish I could figure it out. I will keep working on one needle and maybe, someday, I will be ready for two.

37.1) Fancy knitted tooks and yarn for hat kits $60.00

37.2) colourful knit took.

By this point, I was starting to get snide comments from my back about too much standing and bending forward and buying things.  So I am pretty sure this was Sweet Pea Cottage Fibre –  I got distracted by the fibre box in the corner. it was a sampling of local fleeces. let me read you the tag;

” All-Ontario Sheep Breeds Sample Pack”

• Polwarth roving 40g
• Babydoll Southdown Roving 40g
• Icelandic lamb, Washed
  • Black/white 60g
  • Black /charcoal 60g
  • White 60g
• Cotswold Lamb, Washed
  • Ewe, white 80g
  • Ram, Brown/Grey 80g
• Cotswold Ram Locks washed and picked;
  • Light Grey 10g
  • Mid-Grey 10g
  • Dark 10g

(Price $45.00 Canadian)

There were also some individual bags of various fibre all well labelled. I probably should have dug around in that bin a bit more!

38) A study of Ontario breeds and some well-labelled samples in another bin.

I must apologize again I can’t remember either of the next two booths that were listed, Lisa Rideout Jewellery and Hek of a Knit – Knitted items and patterns. I suspect I may have been rushing by to see the double booth of the Olive Sparrow. I was able to pick up some more felt backgrounds for picture felting from Monika, as well as get distracted by all the colours (some of which were not Merino!)

39) Olive Sparrow Felting supplies as well as other interesting offerings.

I am not sure if I can drag you away from all the fibre but we only have a couple of booths left to peruse so let’s keep going!

We are back across from the bake sale table, but they have sold out! so we will have to go on without a sugar boost! Maybe we can stop for a treat on the way home?

Fabric Art- is at the end of the aisle across from the window chairs. It was quite busy and it took me a bit to get a clear shot of this booth. It was around 2:30 when I finally got a shot down the far aisle with this booth and the alpaca booth beside it visible.

40.1) glimpses of landscapes made with fabric

40.2) the far aisle, notice the empty bake sale table across the aisle from fabric art.

40.3) the edge of Fabric Art and the last booth we will see Twin Pines Alpacas

This too had been a busy booth each time I had passed it. I had spotted fibre in one corner and then a palm washboard hanging further down from the fibre. (unfortunately, it was priceless).

41.1) I may be able to get into the alpaca booth now!

41.2) This is from just before opening as vendors were doing their final setup

41.3 I have finally made it inside the booth and there are some very nice knitting samples as well as the yarn that made them.

41.4 here is a close up of one of the samples

We finally made it all the way around the sale! Now don’t forget to pick up your packages that were dropped off with Glenn. I will also remember to collect Glenn!  I hope everything will fit in the car.  Check the board with the door prize draws before we leave, to see if we were lucky.  (I was not this time, maybe next year?). oh my, the clouds and rain seem to have wandered further east so maybe we will have a nice drive home?

42) the sky has blue spots and white fluffy clouds it may be a nice drive back.

If you will accompany us for a bit longer I wanted to point out to you something that quite shocked us on the way down.  I remember hearing about tornadoes touching down along Highway 7, around Madoc – Tweed, but I don’t remember seeing them the last time we drove here. It’s really quite traumatic, so you may want to pull over and stop along the worst section. It looks like the last time we made the trip was May 2022 and the tornado hit July 25, 2022 (which would account for why we had not seen it yet).  If you google-search “Ontario tornado highway 7 2022”  you should find more information. It was rated as a high-end  EF-1 tornado with wind near 175 km/h, but the swath of damage looks like it had a friend with a grudge and was a bit more aggressive. It picked up a big pickup truck on Highway 7 tossed it across the highway, over the power lines, and dropped it in a farmer’s field, the driver was shaken but relatively fine.

As we drove, you will see, we quickly caught up to the sombre weather, which seemed correct for the distressing sensory.

43) tornado destruction is still evident from July 2022.

44) There are sections, that have basically, been flattened. Some spots have the odd tree, now bent, trying to stand. Many trunks have snapped like twigs.

I don’t want to leave you feeling stressed so let’s take a quick peek at a few of the shots Glenn took which were not horrifying.

 45)Beaver pond east of Peterborough

46) Above: Marsh with bridge and unfortunate McDonald’s sign hidden in the trees. Below: one of the small rivers with spring runoff just west of the Tweed turn off not too far after some of the devastation.

The rest of the drive was full of more rocks, trees and beaver ponds. We arrived safely home before 7 pm. It was a fun day. Did you want to take a peek at my loot? I am sure you will recognize most of my shopping!

It was getting a bit dark for photos.

47.1) I was being good but I have a weakness for cool new tools. I will review in the next photo what I came home with.

47.2)felt, combs, Nitty-knotty, nostapin, 2 nalbinding needles, 2 bags of fibre and not shown in this group is a second-hand felting book Fabulous felted scarves.

I hope you have enjoyed the trip and are very happy with all your virtual purchases.  If you want more physical purchases, there is a vendor’s contact list here:  http://www.ptbo-hwsg.com/events/fibrefest/  If any of the landscapes inspire you, please enjoy felting them! Although the later shots may be less stressful, than the former ones.