I'll start with Black Sheep Gathering....

Going to a wool festival is not only tons of fun, but it can really jumpstart flagging creativity. One of the best wool festivals in the west is Black Sheep Gathering. I carpooled up to Eugene, OR, with 2 friends and fellow guildmembers and the traveling was just about as much fun as the Gathering itself. Part of the whole experience. We camped out at a friend's farm (Finney Creek Farm), and drove into the Fairgrounds each day. It would be easy to take up all of the days with workshops, but I knew from past years that there is a lot more to see and do. So I took one day of workshops and saved the other days for watching the sheep showing, checking out the fiber arts entries, watching demonstrations, and, of course, shopping. BSG has about the best set of vendors possible and the market area is filled with irresistible fibers and equipment and all sorts of other sheepy things. When planning the trip, the three of us sharing a vehicle carefully puposefully packed light in order to leave lots of room to bring home our booty. I took 2 workshops on rughooking, so I was all set to bring home a whole new class of stuff. The one thing I was not in the market for was a new spinning wheel. One should never make grand statements about what they are not going to do; my new wheel arrives via UPS on Monday. I am inspired to make an art project out of it. I'll talk all about that project in another post. So... if you plan to go to a fiber festival, I recommend traveling with friends, leaving lots of time to see everything, traveling light to have maximum space for your purchases, and if all else fails, remember that most vendors will ship.