Fun at the fiber festival

My parents and I went to the Middle Tennessee Sheep, Wool, and Fiber Festival on Saturday. It was total blast. It's a small festival, but there was plenty of space to walk around and see everything--it wasn't crowded or cramped like some I've been to. And we got to talk to a lot of great people. I love how friendly and helpful fiber people are!
We talked to one lady at length about angora bunnies and what's involved in taking care of them. Here are some of her super-fuzzy bunnies.


We even got to watch her shear one of her bunnies. The bunny sat patiently and did not resist being clipped. The big question everyone seems to have around these bunnies is "how much of that is fur, and how much is actual bunny?" To answer that question, here's a before-and-after comparison.


They sure like a lot more ordinary without all that fluff!
Of course I had to get some fiber treats while I was there. There were a lot of beautiful choices.
This one is a 60% merino, 40% bamboo mix from Daily Fibers.


I love how the bamboo gives it a sheen. I've never tried spinning anything but pure wool, but this was too beautiful to pass up, and variety is the spice of life.
And then, I saw this one.


It was love at first sight, and I just had to have it too. It's a 50/50 blend of wool and tencel, dyed by Chasing Rainbows Dyeworks in their Crocus colorway. I talked with these folks at length and was assured that it will be easy to spin. It's so beautiful and so soft, and the tencel gives it a gorgeous luster. I can't wait to try it.
My spinning has fallen by the wayside this past week, between my parents visiting, all the yarn arriving, the tire incident, and all that mania, but last night I got out the plain BFL to get back in practice. It mostly went well. I had an audience: my mom developed a sudden interest in spinning after talking with everyone at the fiber festival, and I knew she'd want to watch. It probably would have been a little easier holed up in a room by myself, but my secret plan is to get her hooked on spinning too. So far she just wants to watch, though.
Maybe tonight I'll start spinning one of the new pretties. They're so beautiful, I almost hesitate to spin them in case I mess it up somehow. That was one good thing about getting rovings in colors that I wouldn't normally pick--I didn't feel this pressure to do the best spinning possible to do justice to the gorgeous fiber. But I'm going to spin it anyway--that's what it's for!