Knitfest Maleny 2019 has been and gone, in what feels like the blink of an eye! I always find the more I enjoy something, the faster it goes, and the weekend went on by in a flurry of yarn. Despite the wet conditions for most of the weekend it was still a very busy weekend, and I think I enjoyed it even more than last year.

I had many, many conversations over the weekend about all things yarn and knitting, from what yarn to use for which project, to choosing colours and helping some new to fibre craft understand what the different yarns were for. I heard countless people exclaim over the softness of the Novomerino and the amazing qualities of the Nettle Sock yarn.

Being able to have those conversations in person, see the colour choosing process happen face-to-face and hear about people’s projects is a really lovely thing to experience. Knitfest is truly a fantastic weekend to be a part of. It’s so much more than just a market; the whole town is involved as the yarn-bombing encourages you to walk through Maleny, exploring the many shops and boutiques. Some of the work in the yarn-bombing is very detailed and I can’t help but marvel at the time and effort that has gone into it, all by volunteers coming together to bring the community a weekend of fibre fun. Then there are the workshops at Knitfest ranging from knitting and crochet to felting, weaving and basket making. The whole atmosphere of the weekend is one of shared enthusiasm and love of fibre craft, and it leaves you feeling inspired at the end of the day.

At this year’s event I taught a workshop along with having my stall. My workshop was on Sunday afternoon and was all about stranded colourwork and Fair Isle knitting. I had the loveliest class, and although it was a squeeze to fit ten people around the table everyone walked away with big smiles on their faces, excited to go on and knit more colour work.

It was great to be able to put some names to faces, meeting some of you for the first time or seeing familiar faces from last year. Many new people came along and we did lots of chatting about all the different yarns. I couldn’t fit the whole shop on the stall this year, but the yarns that did make an appearance were very popular.

Along with lots of conversations there was also a lot of time when it was crazy busy, so if you came along to the stall at one of those times my apologies if we didn’t really get to talk! We were run off our feet more than once.

Sadly I also didn’t get the time to photograph any yarn bombing as I was too busy admiring it to remember to pull out the camera!

You can find out more about the Knitfest Maleny event at www.knitfest.com.au and find any of the products pictured here online at www.saylittlehenshop.com