Third Coast Fiber Festival

This was a multi-day festival, but I only had Saturday to visit..  I attended a class on drop-spindle spinning in the morning and a class called "Tapas" by Candice Eisner-Strick in the afternoon. 
Both were well worth the fee. 

I learned that the spindle I received in the "lot" when I purchased my new-to-me, but gently used, LeClerc 4-harness loom was a "plying spindle" that should only be used to ply, because the heft of it was too great to allow single-ply yarns.

I purchased the smaller and lighter drop spindle supplied with the course.

I find that my spinning wheel is far more efficient than drop-spindle spinning, so fear I will only use  it for demonstrations. 

The class in the afternoon discussed many "small bites" of things that knitters might find useful.  The most useful to me was the method of alternate left/right increases by yarnover on one row and twisted stitches on the next.

I ripped the socks I had already started on two circulars back to the beginning.  This new method makes infinitely more sense to me.  By making 1/2 the increase on the first row, and the 2nd half of the increase on the second row, you never lose track of where you are on rows of alternate increases.  Since I feared I had increased on "every row" a few times, the toes of these socks were starting to look very lumpy, so I am thankful to have a method that automatically checks my increases. 

I also liked the butterfly stitch.  Looking forward to adapting it on the machine.