I went to the Bloomington Spinners and Weavers Guild’s annual Fiber Arts Show and Sale tonight and escaped with one little purchase–a fat, soft ball of 4 oz of Cotswold/angora/bamboo roving from Breezy Manor, allegedly with a bit of blue angelina glitz in it, but I don’t see any on the outside of the bump. It mostly looks like a mixture of nice, natural, light and dark grays. The same stall had immensely appealing stacks of clear plastic takeout containers full of various colors, dyed and undyed, of angora and mohair fiber, but those seemed too pricey, $5 for 1/2 oz–and also, I still haven’t knit up the little ball of Navajo-plied angora I spun up from their stuff earlier this year.

As usual, I was sorely tempted by Robin’s hand-dyed yarns and rovings, but since she sells them in my LYS I know I can always get them later. In particular, she had some beautiful, shiny skeins of a DK or worsted-weight plied silk/bamboo blend, and shimmering rayon laceweights in wonderful colors–one skein had fiery autumnal oranges and reds, one had a very subtle and beautiful mixture of soft old rose and oyster gray shades. Oh, and some skeins of handspun, hand-dyed cornflower blue silk/angora that looked absolutely delicious, with a semi-solid look to them reminiscent of Louet Kidlin.

There were many wonderful woven shawls and dishcloths with moire or herringbone patterns, but $18 for a dishcloth seemed excessive. (Not in terms of the labor involved, obviously, but just more than I wanted to pay for the item.) They were cheaper last year… should have picked them up then!

If I knew any children who needed mittens, I would have snatched up the adorable and very reasonably priced handspun, handknit mittens from a booth by the door. They had a Fair Isle pattern worked in pure white, fluffy, handspun Samoyed fur!

And Martina Celerin was there with her amazing three-dimensional weavings. There’s a gallery at that link, but the online pictures don’t really convey how amazing they are when you see them in person.

There’s another craft fair tomorrow I’ll probably go to as well, the Tri Kappa Arts and Crafts Sale.

If any of my fellow Bloomingtonians go to the show, I want to hear what you bought, and what your favorites were!