Midwest Fiber Festival 2026!
- Infiniti
- 15 minutes ago
- 5 min read
Hello Crafties!
It's been an adventurous few weeks for sure but I'm glad to be here with you all again. Through the years, I've been aware of a certain event in my city with mounting interest. Every April, we have the Midwest Fiber Festival at the end of April and either my schedule or my memory fails me every time. Whoops! I remember in 2023 having the inkling to teach a crochet class there but ultimately, I ended up publishing The Ultimate Beginner Crochet Course instead.
Last year, I made a commitment to show this year to check out the event! So here we are. The event is held at STLCC - Meramec (my alma mater!) and features several classes and events. This year's course offerings included basket weaving, crochet, felting, Nalbinding & more! I didn't take a class this go around, especially since I had to get back and feed the kittens like a good benefactor. As I sit to write this blog, I would like to say "maybe next year" but I'll let that be a future concern for now.
Disclaimer: This blog contains affiliate links which means I earn a small commission on qualifying purchases, at no additional cost to you!
On Saturday April 25th, 2026, I was fortunate and well enough to venture out to the 5th Annual Midwest Fiber Festival. I had a couple of goals in mind:
Have a good time!
Find some yarn for a sweater I'm planning to make.
The admission fee to shop had been $10.
I just knew the vendors here would offer some variety to all the big box stores around town and I was right! There were roughly 50 vendors hosted in the community college's gym that sold a variety of fibers/crafts including felting, spinning, knitting/crochet yarns, & weaving. I experimented with my new little thumb camera around the event as to capture some B-roll for Channel Chat 158. I feel like I learned a lot about my little equip but will be making adjustments for future videos like this!
I started off with a cursory walk around the event before purchasing anything. After all, there were so many vendors there and it'd been a 20ish mile drive there. I wanted to take it all in. Entering the space on the right side, I was immediately greeted by the speaker stage to my right, a woven basket stall in front of me, and the knitting needle shot to my left. I didn't discover the latter until the end of my time there. 😆
From there, I just hung left and began to wander. Despite wearing one of my Nearly Solid shawls, I hadn't quite anticipated just how many people there would be wearing knits of their own! It was refreshing to see and appreciate the creativity of others in such a concentrated dose. Similarly, I
was refreshed to see a fairly even mix of elderly and young adults in attendance. The fiber arts are so often referred to as "granny crafts" and while they've seen a resurgence in online spaces, I rarely ever meet anyone in person, around my age, that deals in the craft.
On my initial pass, I ran across several vendors offering spinning fiber/roving. My excitement had been palpable, though I'm still kicking myself for not grabbing any! I ran across many different yarns, from your standard super wash merino to alpaca and yak yarns. There was even a stall that sold angora yarn.
As with anything artisan, there were definitely some price tags out there. They were fair over all, I just had a couple inhibitors:
I was there initially looking for a sweater quantity for a very specific gray. And nothing quiiiite spoke to me on that front.
When I did find that one magical color with the yardage I needed? It was $45/ball 😂.
Nothing wrong with the latter point but when your girl needed roughly 6 balls for a pattern I've never attempted before, I had to make some life choices!
I understand and respect indie dyers and the process it takes to get that yarn right. Likewise, I understand the intricacies of harvesting different fibers (alpaca, yak, angora, etc.) to have yarns made out of them.
That being said, I made off with a few items that brought me some particular joy and inspiration so I'm grateful for that. A girl can dream though! Plus, what if I start this sweater with a fancy natural fiber and have to frog?! So I settled on scouting for contrast colors for the project instead, which I did find success in!
The shops I bought from were:
I'd spill the beans on what I'm planning to knit but, who knows when I'll cast it on? Also, embarrassingly, once I got home and looked at the pattern again, it called for sport weight, not the DK that I'd bought. And as I'd mentioned in the Super Crafty exclusive last week, I'm already knitting on 2.75mm needles. I don't think I'm ready to do that a second time! So I'll make the adjustments and hopefully the sweater I'm planning will work up quickly, as I want to wear it in the fall!
However, you'll note that the colorway I got from Leading Men Fiber Arts is a sport weight but, come on! Look at that color!
I'd been hoping to run into the lady I know who runs this event, as she has a shop of her own here in St. Louis but that didn't work out. Over all, it was a good time and as I mentioned on X, perhaps if I go next year, I'll have something specific to make and a better budget/game plan to reap havoc with! The vendors were all pretty friendly and easy to shop with; I was really glad that everyone had a card reader too!
There were also food trucks and an ice coffee truck but your girl was wiped by the end of everything so, I just hoped in my car to run some errands and head home.
Some honorable mentions
I visited these stalls but didn't get the chance to nab anything. Thankfully, many of the vendors have their own websites where purchases can be made. One of the cool things about the event is that many of the sellers are location exclusive so there were quite a few things there that you'd only find during the event.
Honey Girl Farms and Laughing Cat Fibers were two more vendors with amazing colors. The former even had hand spun yarns, made from her own sheep and alpaca! Before leaving the festival, I stopped by the Yarn Adventure Truck to grab some business cards as well.
Next year, the Midwest Fiber Festival will have the theme: Cosmic Threads and would be held from April 23rd - 25th!
Anyhoo, that's about it for today, hope you all are doing well and I'll catch you next time!
Happy Making!
Comments