The 2009 Florida Fiber-In was my first event of its kind. It took place on World Wide Spin in Public day, which I wasn’t aware of until I arrived at the hotel and checked my Twitter account. Several people I follow kept tagging their 140-character posts with #wwsip and I kept thinking, “what the hell are they sipping?” It eventually hit me later as I saw more and more wheels appear. What a sight that was, but I’m getting ahead of myself.
I started the day early–too early for my taste, but I made it safe and sound. Thankfully I drove down the day before and bunked at a friend’s house that was only 30 or so minutes away in St Petersburg. I made sure to bring a camera with me, but didn’t think even once about bringing any crochet with me at all. I don’t know where my head was, but as it was my first event, I didn’t know if I’d have time to just sit and crochet anywhere. As it turns out I would have spent a lot of time starting and stopping, particularly when I finally caught up with a lovely lady I’ll tell you about a bit later on.
The event began with the market setting up. Vendors were arranging their items, attendees were already claiming their spots at the tables in the market and setting up their wheels or pulling out their projects. There was a series of demos throughout the day, and I arrived at the hotel just as the first was supposed to start. Things were running a bit behind, so thankfully I didn’t miss anything.
The first demo was on dyeing sock yarn by Celena of Rocket Yarn. Celena was fabulous, and showed us two of her techniques while chatting and answering questions–one was called plasma dip dyeing, and the other was a lot like finger painting. She uses some interesting methods that I, personally, haven’t tried before, so it was a real treat to see another independent dyer “do their thing”.
If you get a chance to ever purchase any of her yarn, or watch one of her demo’s, take a class, et cetera–do. You definitely will not be sorry. Be careful, though, as I think a few of the ladies who attended may have been bitten by the dyeing bug and went home to start playing around as soon as the weekend was over. There was some serious note-taking in that room. If I had thought to bring paper and pen, I may have been taking notes as well.
I had about 15-30 minutes before the next demo, so I took my time walking around the market some more. I gave in and purchased a skein of 100% Blue-Faced Leicester from Celena in shades of blue that are just too lovely. I was planning on keeping it for myself, but I may end up giving it as a gift to someone. We’ll see, as it wholly depends on how selfish I’m feeling when I think about it next.
Let me just say that, since I didn’t really know anyone at the event, and didn’t have anyone go with me, I did a lot of hiding behind the camera. There, that clearly needed to get off my chest, and serves as fair warning for those who may feel I publish too many photos in this post. I’m actually holding back–ha!
The next demo rolled around, and while I wasn’t really planning on attending it, I did plan on visiting the person who was doing the demonstrating. Here enters Tracie Barrett–miss TracieCrochets herself. She was setting up for her demo, people were already piling in and trying to max out the 52 occupancy limit, and I was steeling my nerves up to go say hello.
Trust me when I say that I am awkward in social situations unless I already know the person. While Tracie and I have chit-chatted online, that does not necessarily make us fast friends and allow me to talk easily with her in person. So, I pulled up my Big Girl Pants and went over and said, “Tracie? Hi, it’s Brianna”. And that, dear readers, was the beginning. The awkwardness I was expecting was over after a minute, and I spent the whole time watching her demo, taking photos and expelling a huge sigh of relief. There was a kinship–here we were, two crocheters in a sea of knitters and spinners, and one of us was going to be showing how to make amigurumi.
And show them she did…
Do you recognize the top Tracie is wearing? It’s a Doris Chan design from Everyday Crochet! It was in a lovely lilac color which looked great on Tracie.
Tracie and I spent the rest of the afternoon together. We went and had Korean with some people she knew, which was my first experience with Korean food. Not bad! Would definitely try it again.
After our lunch break, we went and spent some time in the lobby of the hotel, where Tracie received an impromptu drop-spindle lesson via a lovely woman named Diane. Here you can see them finally getting some gorgeous fiber onto their spindles and working on the park and draft method…
This is where we met up with Vashti Braha and her adorable son. Vashti and I greeted each other with a hug, though we’d never met (she’s just that type of person you feel comfortable giving a hug to on your first in-person greeting), then we chatted about the sad demise of The Crochet Side podcast. Pretty soon she and her son were distracted by Diane and Tracie’s spinning and had to get in on the action.
Eventually both Tracie and I were winding down–too much excitement in one day for us, I guess. I really only had the time to spend 1/2 the day there anyway, but it was a really full 1/2 day. We took one last whirl around the market, where we both picked up some spinning fiber, and then we said our goodbyes and went our separate ways.
I can, with ease and no pretense, state that I had a fantastic time. I will admit that I almost didn’t make the drive to Sarasota, that I almost chickened out. A good friend kicked me in the butt, though, and told me I’d regret it if I didn’t go. She was right. I would have regretted having missed meeting all the people I managed to connect with. I would have regretted not being surrounded by ~100 like-minded people. I would have regretted not grabbing one of these guys…
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