In a meeting room on the ground floor of the Vicksburg Convention Center, a yarn spinning class was in full motion.

But this class was not devoted to the telling of tall tales; it was an exercise in transforming wool into yarn, the fiber used to make sweaters, skirts and jackets, and the class was one of many on rug-making, felting, operating looms and knitting at the Magnolia State Fiber Festival at the Vicksburg Convention Center.

“This is our fourth year and our second at the convention center,” said Mike Harrower, who with his wife organized the festival. “We’re expecting 600 to 800 people to attend.”

He said the festival was developed to give local knitters exposure to high quality fibers that aren’t normally available in the area, and has become a magnet for people from other states.

“We have people and vendors coming from East Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri,” he said. “We see the same vendors each year, but we see new faces (from festivalgoers) every year. A lot of the people come because they’ve heard about the festival from others.”

Angela Harrison and Nancy Wallace of Monroe, said they enjoy coming because of the selection of fibers available at the festival.

“We had been to two of the others; it’s great,” said Harrison, who was looking for a particular yarn.

“I’m just looking for anything that catches my eye,” Wallace said.

The convention center exhibition hall had plenty to catch someone’s eye, with booths offering multicolored yarns, wool waiting to be spun, ready made products like socks and sweaters, and other crafts and the tools to knit, spin and make items likes rugs.

Vendor Jennifer Reed of Ruston, La., was making a second appearance with her booth, Sheepdog Yarn.

“It’s not yarn made from sheepdogs,” she said, adding her booth sold natural wool from sheep from Peru, Uruguay and the U.S. “I also have cotton and silk yarn.”

Cindy Bailey, from Pass Christian was offering wool from Gulf Coast Native sheep.

“I’m saving an endangered species,” she said, pointing out Gulf Coast Native sheep were brought to the Gulf Coast by French and Spanish explorers, who left the sheep on the coast when they returned to Europe. The sheep, she said, were left to grow in the wild and adapted to the warm climate.

“When other settlers came, they brought other foreign species of sheep and the coast sheep were forgotten,” she said. “We’re trying to bring them back.”

By the “A Twist in Time” booth, Linda Arment of Wyndotte, Okla., and Joi Chapp of Stella, Mo., were passing the time knitting. The two women were helping Darlene Megli of Loma, Mo., who has A Twist in Time.

“We keep coming back year after year,” Armet said. “We like seeing the booths.”

“And the food is awesome here,” Chapp said.

Not far away, Carol Sweet, of Fort Worth, Texas, was giving Rebekah Mohr of Indianola, an elementary lesson in spinning.

“I’ve been coming here all four years,” Mohr said. “I look for things I can’t find in the local shops, and I’m interested in learning to spin.”

Sweet, who was helping Roiana Buckmaster from Mount Pleasant, Tenn., with her booth, is an engineer.

“I love spinning,” she said. “It’s very relaxing and calming. “