Baldwin City Maple Leaf Festival

What better way to ween myself off of my crafty Ren Fest weekends than to surround myself in crafty goodness at a fall festival!

The Maple Leaf Festival in Baldwin City, KS occurs in third full weekend in October. It started as a craft show in the late 1950s, to celebrate the leaves turning and the harvest coming in. I couldn’t believe how much there was to see. It spread across the whole city of Baldwin! Over 300 vendors, a 5k run, a parade, it had it all.

There were quite a few fiber-related booths out too! I saw a lot of the microwave bowl cozies, those super-simple table runners, one fair-trade Peruvian alpaca booth, and so many American Girl doll clothes.

However, I ended up mostly buying perishables: homemade salsa, pickles, candied jalapeños, maple wild boar jerky, a hard apple cider slush with caramel vodka, and some particularly amazing kettle corn.

I did get to celebrate the festival in my own, fibery way:

I first saw this Leafy Autumn Hat on Pinterest, and knew I had to make it for this festival! (and I got to use up a bunch of scraps!) I didn’t like how the original looked like open work, so I did bring down the hook size to an I, and to make up for that I added an extra stitch repeat. I love how it turn out (and so did these Shetland sheep!)

If you find yourself near Baldwin during the 3rd weekend in October, it’s well worth your time! I found out there’s also a quilt show that I completely missed! That just means I’ll have to go back next year (and get some more of that kettle corn!).