The Saturday – day 5 of our journey was the final full day of trading at the Fibre Festival

Our motel was within walking distance of the venue so we decided to walk as we had no loads to take with us. Our route took us through a pretty little garden area, Seymour Square which had an attractive fountain that was lit up at night. We were interested to see the stone tower in the garden fenced off with warnings about earthquake risk. The Christchurch earthquake is very much still in people’s minds down here and fills the newspaper with rebuilding information as well as the continuing demolition. This barrier was a very graphic reminder of the realities of earthquake risk in the South Island.

Today we were treated to a visit by the lovely Karen Severn who is president of a large club in NSW Australia. Karen is very experienced with wool combing and spent some time on our stand demonstrating this. Our own former national president and good friend, Pat Old also stopped by and showed her skill with the stylus. It is always great to have experts who are willing to help in this way and the many people who stopped to listen appeared to enjoy sharing in their knowledge.

Karen Selk from Canada was a keynote speaker over the festival and I popped out to listen to her speak about textiles in India and other nearby countries.. Her slide show photos were excellent and I felt very inspired to visit India again.It was very interesting and good to have the opportunity to participate in at least some of the activities on offer. Karen was sponsored to NZ by Ashford Handicrafts and we thank Richard and Elizabeth and the team at Ashford for bringing such a high profile person out to educate us all.

We had a little drama later in the evening where there was a punch up on the street outside our motel between two groups of … passionate 🙂 … local guys. The police turned up with several vehicles and helped them work out their differences.

Day 3 of the Fibre Festival trip was focused around setting up our stand. The doors to the Convention Centre were opened to traders at midday so we had some time in the morning to complete other tasks. I had another loom that I wished to warp up in a certain way so we needed to find a yarn shop to source some more yarn. The Warehouse (New Zealand’s answer to Walmart) did not have what was required but we managed to find just the thing in a little shop in the back room of the local Christian bookshop. Finding the shop that is needed in an unfamiliar town is not always easy.

I have a very good long time friend, Jason, who lives near Blenheim with his family. We took a little time to visit Jason, Sarah and the children in their lovely home right on the coast before we had to be back at the show. They have very interesting life stories as he is a Paua diver (NZ shellfish similar to abalone) and she is a general practice family doctor and mum. An hour was not long nearly long enough to visit and we were soon heading back to Blenheim for the festival.

On the way back past the Convention Centre, we noticed traders setting up early so as it seemed time was going to be tight to get everything done, a quick reshuffle of our plans had us lugging all of our gear into the Convention Centre an hour earlier than we expected. For the next three hours it was a bit of a zoo as we arranged stands, assembled wheels, laid out products and tried to get everything in order.

This year we had decided to try something new in the layout of the Majacraft stand. In the past, we have followed the NZ trend of having as many products on display as possible so people can find exactly what they need. What we had in mind this year was trying to go for a much simpler, cleaner design that hopefully presented what was out very elegantly. When it was all set up it looked great and just what I planned on and hoped for.

We finished at 3.30pm so there was time for a quick trip back to the motel to play with the warp on the weaving loom and another cup of tea. Before we knew it, it was time to rush back to the Convention Centre for the opening night of the Fibre Festival.

The evening opening proved to be very busy and bustling. We had the opportunity to meet up with some familiar faces which was very nice. At 6.00 (with some trepidation), I was able to show the new loom to a small gathering of visitors. They seemed very enthusiastic about all the little innovations and overall were very positive about the new creative opportunities that could be made with it. At that point, my best summation would be “phew”!

We packed up at 7.00pm and had a quick meal in the Convention Centre restaurant before finishing up for the day.

I gave myself a late night treat at the end of the evening and went and watched The Avengers in 3D at the local cinema. I thought it was a super fun movie if you are considering seeing it!