I've been a bit slack with my blogging since I got home from the Retreat... I've been preoccupied with my purchases, and required 8-months-pregnant naps! Today I'd like to share a bunch of photos from the vendors area.... It was a great experience to walk around and chat with the vendors and fondle admire the wares. When else can you go shopping and be encouraged to pick up everything and touch it? Buying fiber is a very tactile experience for me. I need to feel what the fiber is like to know what I can do with it... which is difficult because I often buy wool online for lack of local stores with such goodies. I'd be surprised if anyone would look at you funny if you rolled around in a pile of fiber on the floor in a room like that! Very freeing experience.

Note: I'm trying something new with the photos: Click the thumbnails for full sized images! (Thank you to my technical staff for the upgrade... ahemHUSBANDcough)

The Bobbin Tree - many wonderful wooly treats... complete with experienced wool-pusher and enthusiast Janet! (whose hair matched some of her fiber perfectly... just sayin *wink*) I succumbed to the pitfalls of the booth and ended up with yarn, combed merino top, and a few other goodies too! Also: Jobo's prize for the best booth mascot goes to Orville - the Bobbin Tree Owl!

Gaspereau Valley Fibres - our wonderful hostesses for the weekend... and their piles of dyed locks, tops, books, etc. There were many people walking around with large brown paper gift bags full of these scrumptious locks! The service was great too!

Cobweb Woolies - There were many many bags of wooly treasures at this table... it was like a sea of them! Delia had bags of both washed and unwashed natural wool locks in every color under the sun! Wooly Balls made a comeback - basically dyed beautiful locks wrapped into balls with elastic bands hanging on a tree... forget holiday ornaments, you can decorate my Christmas tree with these!? I bought a bag of creamy white washed Romney locks (8 oz) to play with, and it's springy and wonderful!

Handspun Silks - luscious, wonderful, handspun reeled and spun silks by women in developping countries! I couldn't believe the beautiful colors of the silks, dyed with natural products and locally sourced dyes. One particular shining beige brown was dyed with coconut husks, and just had such a warm lovely glow. The second photo with the felted soaps, brown hat, and yarns... I'm sorry I can't remember the name of the vendor... but the products were really neat! I almost bought one of the felted soap kits... but I feared it would be to nice to use, and would languish in the bathroom forever!

Alpaca House Farm - I had a very interesting chat with a gentleman alpaca herder (and vintage motorcycle enthusiast) about farming, fiber production and processing, and alpaca yarn and blankets in general! The fleeces were lovely, as evidenced by the prize ribbons, and this fellow's woven blankets were out of this world! I loved the geometric patterns in the two colored weave... priceless!

I very much enjoyed all of the vendors and tables, but these were the only ones I managed to photograph between the petting of the yarn :) All in all - a fantastic marketplace full of enthusiastic and helpful vendors and fiber artists!