Loot From Madrona

Every year in mid-February, the Madrona Fiber Arts Festival takes place in Tacoma, Washington.  I’ve heard of it twice before without being able to see for myself the fun I was purportedly missing.  This year, the last day of the Madrona fell on a Sunday, which also happened to be Valentines Day.  In addition, the Washington State History Museum in Tacoma has been running a Sasquatch exhibit, and my five year-old son (who has been hunting for Bigfoot for going on two years now, go figure!) has been bugging us to take him to see it, so I actually had an excuse to be in Tacoma, even chauffered there!  Not only that, we received free admission to the museum through our local library system.  Sunday was even Chinese New Year, so you can see that the very universe and stars were well and truly in alignment, which meant that I got to spend some time chatting with friends and shopping at Madrona for the very first time.

I purchased some yummy hand-dyed BFL (Blue-Faced Leceister) from Stephanie of Rainy Days & Wooly Dogs, a sister Eastside Spinner, who was one of the vendors.  And, anticipating many more woven scarves in my future, I invested in a four-prong fringe twister.

I love all the tools made by Howell, that have the signature “Little Man” symbol burned into them.  The mini niddy-noddy comes apart in three sticks that fit neatly in a little case I use to carry my spinning wheel’s orifice hook; this the 1/3-yard sampling skein size.  The 1-inch wpi (wraps per inch) yarn guides are pure simplicity; you can tell how irresistible I find the “Little Man” design.

And last, these are Bluster Bay poke shuttles, designed to prevent weft from catching on warp threads, and which I heard are great for weaving through narrow warps and small sheds.

I couldn’t justify the purchase of some gorgeous, hand-dyed tencels and bamboo weaving yarns.  Hopefully, I can weave through a good portion of my yarn stash this year, as that will give me a good excuse to splurge at the next Madrona.