This weekend, my pal Lauren and I went to YarnCon , Chicago's independent fiber festival that features several local and regional indie dyers, spinners, and other fiber-related folks. This year, they are kicking off the fiber festival season (at least for me), rather than waiting til the fall - a clever move, since there are already many fibery events in the region from August-October (Stitches, Wisconsin Sheep & Wool Festival, Michigan Fiber Festival and VK Live all come to mind). Their new venue in the west loop is a little roomier, too, boasting plenty of parking; another exciting development for this year's show was moving to a two-day format! I had a small budget which I managed to stick to, amazingly enough. There were many temptations, of course, but in the end I made just a few purchases: a skein of Seda Sock from the Grinning Gargoyle booth (in Signature Red to coordinate with the Espresso Seda Sock yarn I purchased at VK Live last fall), some hand-dyed organi...