So when I received word this morning that I had won a $24 skein of yarn from a recent Woolgirl blog post contest, I was overjoyed! Jen at Woolgirl will be sending me a hank of the new Dream in Color Knitosophy yarn in the Strength colorway (and trust me, I need all the strength I can get these days!).

If you happen to be in need of some sock yarn, it looks like she just restocked her Dream in Color Smooshy and Hazel Knits Artisan Sock yarns (two of my personal favorites). I’ve ordered from Jen before, and she has amazing customer service and a really great yarn selection on her site. Jen didn’t ask me to write that, that little plug comes from the bottom of my heart. She’s got a great store!

Thanks again, Jen! You rock!

This is me, at the fairgrounds.

I didn’t take any pictures of the wares, because I know that it’s a big no-no. Unfortunately, they ran out of vendor info booklets right when I arrived (what timing!). So I can’t really discuss the vendors in too much details. But I will say that this was a fantastic festival for spinners. I saw so much roving and fleece, everything from raw and natural to carded and dyed and ready to spin. It was gorgeous.

They also had fluffy angora bunnies. Fluffy angora bunnies are hard to photograph indoors. So go here to look at pictures other people have taken of fluffy angora bunnies to fully appreciate their adorableness.

Other than the bunnies, there weren’t too many animals on site. I heard there was a scheduling conflict with the sheep shearer (bummer!). There were some cute goats, though:

I love their curly coats!

Amazingly enough, I didn’t buy ANYTHING at the fair. We’re moving soon, and my goal is to pack less, not more. Which is why I brought a HUGE bag of yarn with me to the fair to donate to charity.

Remember this post from January? When I put all of that yarn aside for donation if I didn’t use it? Well, I didn’t use it. And I added to it in the meantime. It felt really good to see that go to some folks who could knit it up for a good cause!

All in all, it was a nice excursion on a beautiful October day! Next year, I’ll definitely save my pennies and do a little more shopping!

Gratuitous foliage shot.

Since this was a Bourbon Festival, many of the crafts had a very specific bourbon theme. Here’s just a sampling of what we saw:

There were many booths dedicated to bourbon sauces, particularly barbeque sauce.

This hot sauce was – cooked? brewed? – in bourbon barrels. Mr. Martini said you could taste a hint of the bourbon in the hot sauce. After looking at the artwork on the label, I was too chicken to try it.

In keeping with the bourbon theme, some folks found ways to use bourbon bottles in unusual ways, including these oil lamps.

I found these hummingbird feeders to be particularly clever.

It was a really fun event, and we really only saw a small portion of the festivities. I know that there were concerts and tours going on, but we didn’t stick around for any of that this time, but it’s definitely something to keep in mind for next year!

With these people:

Making them do things like this:

In other words, I’ve been at Ocean Isle Beach, North Carolina for our family reunion! A fatastic time was had by all.

Back to crafty business-as-usual soon!

It’s another site for selling handmade goods – Artfire.com. I really hadn’t heard anything about it, until I got a update from one of my fave sock yarn dyers, Yarntini. Apparently, she’s moved over to Artfire to sell her hand dyed yarns. (Don’t be surprised if there’s nothing for sale over there – she dyes in small batches and it sells out fast.)

The announcement of Yarntini’s new shop made me look around the Artfire site. It looks like it’s still growing, but I did notice some interesting differences between Artfire and Etsy:

• Artfire does not charge fees for posting items, nor does it collect a fee when items are sold. In fact, as long as you have less than 12 items to sell at a time, you can maintain a free selling account with them.
• For larger sellers, you can upgrade to a pro account, where you pay a flat monthly fee of $12 for an unlimited amount of items to sell. For those larger sellers who may end up paying Etsy (or eBay, or their hosting company) more than $144 each year either in transaction fees or for server space, this might be a great bargain.

Now, in terms of the looks of the sites themselves, Etsy strikes me as less “busy” and more attractive, but that’s just me.

I just wanted to throw this out there as an alternative, in case any of you out there were feeling the urge to start selling your handmade items online (definitely read over the user terms and make sure I have my facts straight!). Right now, it looks like Etsy has the instant recognition of a well-established brand, which might make it easier for sellers to attract buyers. But with some savvy marketing, I’m betting a shop on Artfire would catch on with a little effort. Good luck!