Check out the DFW Fiber Fest

If you live in or near Texas, you’ll probably want to check out and hopefully make plans to attend the DFW Fiber Fest, which takes place Sept. 14-17 at the Irving Convention Center.

In addition to the vendor hall with more than 100 vendors, there will be morning and afternoon on the Thursday and Friday of the festival, as well as morning, afternoon and evening classes on Saturday, and classes on Sunday morning. Some of the classes are all day deep dives into projects or techniques.

Jean over at Bead Biz sent me information about the festival, so I wanted to mention her classes in particular (she’s also a vendor). She’s teaching different ways to add beads to a cast on and bind off (two different classes; that’s her shawl above) as well as wisdom on starting a craft business.

In addition you’ll find a ton of other classes such as how to cross stitch on knitting, different ways to shape the top of a hat, spinning Shetland wool, felted mermaids, punch needle bees, loom knitting, double knitting, ergonomics and more.

As part of the event there’s a makealong for both knitters and crocheters, who can get a special discount on a shawl pattern to make prior to the event.

I know a lot of these vendors and teachers have lost money because of Stitches shutting down, so if you’re in the area it would be great to show them some support. (The beginning of that story, where Stitches reported it was closing, is here, with more details here if you’re not caught up on it.)

Have you ever been to DFW Fiber Fest? It sounds like a great event but I’d love to hear about your experience if you have gone or are planning to attend this year.

[Photo: Jean Elizabeth Glass.]

A few years ago I wrote a post that was full of patterns for knit mushrooms, but I don’t think I ever did a post that was knitting patterns with mushrooms on them, so today’s the day.

I love the Fungi Beanie from Jacki Bean, which calls for worsted weight yarn and uses duplicate stitch to add the mushrooms and other details. I think the colors she used for the design are tonal/multicolor so it doesn’t use as many colors as it looks like, but you can use whatever red, green, brown and white yarn you have in your stash for those details.

How about some mushroom socks? The Magic Toadstool sock form Stone Knits includes a ring of mushrooms around the leg, contrasting heel and toe and a little more colorwork at the toe for extra cuteness. As shown it uses four colors and comes in three sizes.

Or there’s the Fairy Ring Socks from Katie Green, which have mushrooms of two sizes on the legs, plus a bit of wavy grass. They have a contrasting cuff, heel and toe and some colorwork flecks in the body of the sock as well. This one is available in eight sizes to fit everyone from a baby to an XL adult.

This trippy cowl from Hunt Hand Knits looks like a lot of fun to knit. The Fungus Among Us Cowl is shown using four colors of DK weight yarn, though you can do it with as few as two if you’d rather.

Stitch some mushroom mittens with this cute pattern from Holly C Watson. This design uses three colors, and it’s shown with a self-striping yarn on the mushroom caps, which makes the colors change without you having to do any work. The pattern is charted but it’s a pretty easy repeat. The mittens are one size.

If you don’t feel like knitting mushrooms but still want to give your project a touch of the forest, the Toadstools Cardigan from Julie Taylor may be what you’re looking for. It’s stitched as a plain cardigan worked in DK weight yarn and sized for newborns up to 4 years old. The mushrooms are added with embroidery and the pattern includes the design, which you can trace onto water soluble stabilizer to stitch the mushrooms onto your sweater. Or anything else you want. You can find this pattern on Ravelry.

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