To help you get the most from your festival experience, I'd like to offer a few tips on how to make your fiber adventure more pleasant and more satisfying. First you want to find out what festivals are convenient to attend, and decide whether to drive, fly or carpool to the area. Many of the festivals have web pages on the Internet that detail the festival times, location, and available lodging nearby. Fiber Femmes has put together a calendar of fiber festivals with available web page information. Some of the festivals also issue a booklet that is sent out to prospective attendees on their mailing lists. Signing up for this book, which is also generally available at the festival, ahead of time gives you the chance to sit down and absorb an overview of the festival and all the activities available.

After you decide what festival to attend, reserve your hotel room and have the information about the festival, sit down with the book or computer and look over the workshops offered. The larger festivals offer a stunning selection of instruction, with subjects ranging from better farming methods to creative spinning to dyeing to felting and more. The instructors are usually highly regarded in their fields and the workshops hosted by the festival provide a chance to learn from a recognized authority at an affordable price. It's also fun to meet the author of a book, inventor of a method or creative fiber genius. Most of the time you'll discover that the workshop instructors are warm, witty people who are passionate about their work and want to ignite that passion in their students. Get your applications for festival workshops in early; some of the popular classes have limited space and will fill up quickly. Also it's not required to take workshops to attend a festival, of course, workshops do greatly enhance the experience. Try to allow plenty of time to attend the festival, especially if you're attending for the first time. Festivals can be crowded and allowing extra time for shopping will prevent you from feeling frustrated.

Other information in the booklet or on the web site can be helpful. Handicapped access information is usually indicated, making it easier to know what to expect for those with physical limitations. Hours of the festival are noted, along with information as to whether pets are welcomed (not often) and what entertainment is featured in addition to the fiber activities. If you have a particular interest in sheep shows or sheep dog trials, the times and places for these will be indicated as well.

When it's time to pack for the festival, try to find out the weather conditions in the area where the festival is held. Temperatures at festivals held during the summer months can be brutally hot, and wearing cooler clothes will help you cope better with the heat. Wearing a hat is advisable; although vendors and animals are often under cover you will spend a lot of time out in the sun walking from place to place. Sun block is also advisable. In the event of cooler or rainy weather, a jacket or light shawl that can be pulled from your tote bag when necessary might be preferable to taking heavier clothes. Those who travel to festivals in their own vehicles can carry a variety of clothing and still have room for the expected stash enhancement items that they will be bringing home. But if you fly or carpool, space is a consideration. Above all things, be sure to bring or wear COMFORTABLE shoes! You will spend hours on your feet, standing and walking, throughout the festival. A tote bag that can be carried to serve as a purse and carry-all for other needed items is a nice idea. With just one large bag to keep track of, you'll be less likely to lose a purse, camera, or your knitting!

Many festival attendees wear an item that they made during the previous year. This is a fun way to showcase your talent and also provides a nice way to break the ice when meeting strangers. Comments and compliments abound as shawls, sweaters, scarves and especially socks are paraded through the festival grounds. Savvy knitters recognize patterns and compare notes and the discussions enrich the festival experience.

There are other things to think about taking along to the festival. If you have room to stash a cooler in your car, if you're driving, go ahead and tuck that in. A cooler filled with ice and bottled water, along with some light fruit snacks, will come in handy. Although I'm a firm believer in supporting festival vendors, including food vendors, sometimes the lines can be long at the festivals. A bottle of water tucked into your tote from your own cooler will help keep you hydrated through the day, and the light snacks will keep you going if you just can't get to the food vendors because of the lines. Taking along a notebook is helpful, to make a list of items to look for at the festival. You can make notes as you make a circuit of the vendors, comparing prices and noting who carries what items before making a final purchase.

Naturally you'll take along your knitting or other handwork, and most festivals provide an area to set up for spin-ins. So it's fine to take your wheel along, if you have the space and want to bring it. Some workshops will require that you bring your own wheel, so take the space needed and requirement for carrying the wheel around into consideration. If this is an overnight trip you'll of course bring along the necessitates for your comfort. If you're a reader bring along a book for the evenings.

Reaching the festival can be overwhelming, especially if it's the first time you've attended. Reading about the festival on the web site or in the booklet before you arrive will help, but the range of activity that is going on can still be intimidating. Parking is readily available at the festivals, and there will usually be signs and staff to direct you to a parking area. A popular festival may run out of room, though, so arriving early at the festival grounds is a good idea. Besides giving you more time for the activities and shopping, getting there in time to get a good place to park will help make the day go easier. If you brought a cooler arriving earlier and parking closer will make going back and forth to the car to replenish your bottled water easier, and going back to the car to tuck away your purchases will be less of a burden.

Many festivals are becoming quite crowded and the crowds make it more difficult for the individual. Bathroom lines and food vendor lines can be long, and it's frustrating to feel that you're wasting valuable festival time standing around waiting. Sometimes an interesting booth will be packed to the point that you simply can't get near it. Keep in mind that the crowds make it possible for the festival to be successful; good vendors are attracted to festivals that can count on a large attendance. Planning for food breaks at less busy times helps; and although the bathroom issue is not as easy to control, patience and courtesy will make the waiting more pleasant for everyone. There will generally be an opportunity to shop even the most popular booths, especially if you've been able to allow yourself plenty of shopping time.

The absolute best thing to bring along to a fiber festival is a congenial friend. A pleasure shared is a pleasure doubled, and having a good friend along, with the same interests and roughly the same viewpoints, enriches the festival experience. The two of you can better figure out the best way to tackle the festival, especially if one of you has attended previous events on the site. Shopping is a lot of fun with someone else, and it's often easier to resist temptation with a friend along that has been armed with the information to prevent over-spending. Sharing the costs of gas and lodging conserves resources for stash enhancement and evenings at the motel are a fun time to look over purchases together and enjoy planning the uses for fiber and yarn. There's no need to stay together every minute; good companions will go their own way for individual workshops and interests without recrimination and meet later to discuss their adventures.

Festivals offer many activities besides workshops. Be sure to visit the fleece show, where you'll see the best fleeces submitted by shepherds vying for recognition of the quality of their wool. Even if you manage to get away without purchasing, you will learn a lot about good wool while examining the fleece. Volunteers are usually in the area to help with questions and purchases. Also, there is generally a show featuring hand made fiber items; checking out the work of others is inspiring! Visiting the animal barns is informative and fun and often the shepherds are available for discussion. Look for posted signs throughout the festival that might announce activities that might not have made the official booklet. Some festivals offer demonstrations by fiber guilds or historical groups and they are well worth visiting.

And then there are the vendors. Rows and rows of quality fiber merchandise, tools, wool, roving, felting equipment, knitting needles, yarn, spinning wheels, looms...the list could go on for pages. Temptation lurks everywhere, disguised in beautiful colors and soft, soft fiber that caresses the skin and boggles the brain. The best suggestion I've heard lately to prevent spending too much is to decide ahead of time how much money you want to invest in fiber and fiber equipment. Then withdraw that much money from the bank and leave the credit card at home. If the perfect wheel, loom or other expensive item shows up, generally you can work out something with the vendor, or wait to order it when you get back to your credit card. A little time to consider a larger purchase might prevent an impulse buy that could be regretted later.

Vendors are generally enthusiastic and knowledgeable about their products. Most of them are fiber artists and often began selling an item that they found useful for themselves. If the opportunity arises talk with the sellers about their wares; odds are you'll make a new friend and enjoy your purchases even more after getting to know a bit about the seller and the product. Sometimes in the crowd it is difficult to get individual attention; if you're really interested in a discussion with that particular person make a note and try to come back when the booth is not as busy.

It is becoming customary for members of Internet email lists and blogger groups to meet at fiber festivals. These events provide a wonderful and relatively safe means of getting to know in person other fiber enthusiasts that you have communicated with on-line. Check into your Internet groups before a festival and find out when and where they might be meeting. Allowing time during the festival for these get-togethers can be rewarding and result in new friendships and new inspirations.

Pace yourself. Rushing from workshop to workshop or trying to visit every vendor in a morning will only lead to frustration and exhaustion. Take some time to sit and knit, while watching a little of the sheep show, or drop in where spinners are gathered with their wheels for a little quiet spinning time. You'll be welcomed and the quiet moments to collect your thoughts and rest are essential. If you're the type of person that pushes yourself too hard and brought a friend along, cue the friend to slow you down if you get too intense.

Fiber festivals are wonderful places to meet friends, learn new techniques and buy many wonderful fiber items. With a little thought the fiber festival experience can be one of the most rewarding opportunities of your creative life. Here's hoping you have the opportunity to attend a fiber festival soon, and that you enjoy every moment!

______________________________

Leslie Shelor of Greenberry House, a native of the Blue Ridge Mountains of southwest Virginia, grew up surrounded with artistic and musical people around her.  An interest in fiber arts developed early, and she learned to spin in Maine with the shed coat of her Samoyed dogs.  Returning home in the 1990s, she was given her great-grandmother's spinning wheel and became interested in learning much more about fiber and fiber arts.  Eventually she became a breeder of German Angora rabbits and produces quantities of luxury Angora fiber, spinning and creating unique designer yarns and apparel. She blogs At the Top of Squirrel Spur and is co-editor of Fiber Femmes.