Fibre East was lovely and vibrant this year - I will admit that the poor weather last year rather marred my impression of the first show, but it was made up for this weekend!
We were stationed in the newest Herdwick hall together with our good friends Eden Cottage Yarns, Triskelion Yarn and Fibre and Five Moons, which brought a higher level of giggling and after-show drinks than usual. Victoria from Eden Cottage also turned out to be an enabler of the worst order when a simple "mosey around the show" resulted in my buying a new handbag. And yarn!
There were a few new things on display this time - I've really tried to adapt a bit more to the seasons and finished the Diagonapples scarf by Anna Maltz just in time. The scarf is worked in our Lithuanian Linen mini hanks so provides lots of lovely summer colours with the cool, draping feel of linen.
Also using the linen is my version of Heidi Kirrmaier's Climb Every Mountain, this time held together with a strand of our Indiecita Alpaca yarn. Together these yarns produce a wonderful fabric: all the drape and fall of the linen but with the softness and fullness of the alpaca, and I think that works particularly well with Heidi's lovely little layering top...sort of like a comforting half poncho, half sweater.
Also off the needles is Mark's Fika Shawl by Karina Westermann. Karina designed the great Hygge collection around our yarns last year and we had her original samples on loan for the winter. However, she was rather missing her favourite shawl so it was returned to her to be paraded around Glasgow and Mark cast on his own in the original Deep Orange of the pattern.
Fika is made using 2 hanks of the fingering weight Ohut Pirkkalanka - available from the shop now.
My personal obsession at the moment is the Breathing Space sweater by Veera Välimäki . I fell in love with the Lightest Grey Ullcentrum yarn as soon as it arrived and was looking for the perfect striped sweater to use it for. I'm really pleased with how it's looking so far - I've just started on the slanted stripes and starting to see the colour change in the Lapland contrast yarn - think it's going to make a really cool, graphic, go-with-anything sweater for early autumn.
