Having made it to my first fiber fest of the year, once I had taken in the sights at Conni Tögel’s display, I moved along the aisles in search of specific tools that I wanted to purchase.

Because I am working with reclaimed wool on two of my current projects I wanted to be able to join the yarn ends in a tidier more efficient manner, so I was looking for a Clover pen style needle felting tool and a small needle felting mat to speed the process of joining ends.

After making my way past an array of very tempting yarns, I found myself at the Asheville Home~Crafts booth.

With a store located at 1 Page Avenue in Asheville, North Carolina, proprietors Marie Hendrix and Judy Bryson Quinn, had a nice selection of Clover products, and I was able to find both of the items I was looking for:

In addition to the products I was specifically seeking, they also had a Clover hair pin lace tool (which can be adjusted to widths of 1, 2, or 3 inches) as well as a hair pin lace tool that is specially crafted for their store and has a width of 8 inches. To learn more about their store and what is available you can check out their website:

Having found the tools I came to get, I continued wending my way through the displays to see what other craft treats awaited me. In no time, I found myself facing a wall of buttons:

Crafted by Gail Hughes, these epoxy resin buttons are not only colorful, they are also durable and can be used on garments that will be machine washed and dried.

With so many colors, I found it hard to choose, but I eventually selected these seven:

After that color extravaganza, I found myself at The Buffalo Wool Company booth. I was not familiar with buffalo fibers, but Ron Miskin, an owner along with his wife, Theresa, was more than happy to tell me a few things about this interesting product.

The two things that intrigued me most about this product is that it is 12 times warmer than wool, and it has no histamines or lanolin. As someone who is cold most of the year and who has allergies, these two properties were of great interest to me:

In addition to a good selection of the various bison down products, The Buffalo Wool Company also had some of the most attractive shawl pins I have come across:

My last photo stop of the day was at the Unplanned Peacock Studio booth.

Natasha Laity Snyder is the artist/proprietor, and her yarns (many of which can be used for socks) are a riot of color:

Clearly, I need to learn how to crochet socks.

This is hardly an exhaustive tour of all that was available at the 2011 Carolina Fiber Fest, so your best bet is to get yourself to a Fiber Fest near you to see what you can see.