Scarf journeys

So we went to the Scarf Festival. Finished off a stunning scarf on the way, and it was another wonderful serendipitous occasion, with only two inches left of the yarn after I'd finished the scarf....just enough to finish it off. We'd driven for most of the day when I finished it, and I made my long suffering family try my scarf on to show me how it looked, before we went for a toilet and food break. You can tell by the look on Currawong's face......

The folks at the festival were friendly and enthusiastic about my scarves when we delivered them, they tried them all on and showed them around the office and took photos of each other, so I thought that was a good omen.

We had two weeks to kill before the actual festival opened, so we checked out some communities and markets and schools and other festivals - the Winter in Warburton festival was a bit of a highlight. Caught up with friends and family, and fell in love in general. So much so, that we're selling our house so we can buy a bigger bus and go and live there!! Griffyn realised a life long dream (he's 5 years old) to see snow and we all had a bit of a play in the white, cold stuff.

When we got to the festival opening, Barbara Coddington, the editor from Yarn magazine walked straight up to me and recognised me by my handspun!! She'd checked out my blog after I sent her the address, and I was a bit thrilled about that. We had a lovely chat, and then it was the time for the awards. I found out later that Barbara had turned up that afternoon when most of the judging had been done, and decided that the scarf I'd finished on the way over needed a prize, so she created the runner up prizes to acknowledge some scarves she felt deserved it.

So I got a bag, with Yarn magazine, a beautiful ashford spindle, and some tops from my fairy godmother Katherine who I buy all my sheep fleece from!! What beautiful irony, to come all the way to Melbourne to win some tops that I could have bought from her any day of the week! We both got a bit of a laugh out of that one....

I'd been promising myself to get into drop spindling and buy myself a spindle sometime soon, especially after issue 6 of Yarn magazine, so I was wrapped!! I took my prize home, and the next day I taught myself to drop spindle and spun Katherine's tops, and the day after that I made a scarf that was my interpretation of the winning scarf. I thought I was a bit of a smart bum, to not only teach myself to drop spindle, but also spin and crochet an original scarf within two days of winning the prize....

I ended up giving the scarf to the beautiful Veronica...she liked it.