Michigan Fiber Festival--2008

Braved the road construction around Chicago again this year so I could attend the Michigan Fiber Festival in Allegan, MI

The Spinning Guru, Patsy Z, was teaching once again and this time I took her class on spinning Angora bunny.

Pictured here is fiber from four different breeds of Angora bunnies.
From left to right: Giant, German, English and French. All but the German are plucked fiber, the cut end on the German sample is clearly evident. Spinning samples from all four breeds really established their differences to me. The French and Giant definitely have more Awn fibers or the really long hair like fibers. The English basically had none and the German was somewhere in between.

Here are my class samples and a few more blends I tried after getting home.
A fun, fun class as usual, from a great teacher.

Didn't buy too much--guess going through and organizing the stash this summer helped after all.

Wasn't going to buy a fleece unless I saw one that stole my heart. And, this one, did.
It's a CVM from Moonshadow Farm of Chisholm, MN. Loved the two-toned quality of the lock and it's wonderfully soft and springy. Haven't decided the best way to spin it, yet.

Another stand out booth (for the second year running) was Yarn Hollow. She does wonderful hand painted yarns and rovings. This one is Alpaca/Merino/Tussah. Mmmmm! She has a shop on Etsy, but has everything down right now during fiberfest season. But, be sure to bookmark for later because her colorways are beautiful.
My other favorite booth for the second year running was that of a local shepherd. She raises Columbia sheep, dyes their fleece and then has it processed. This year she had pink!
She hadn't even had the chance to roll it into balls as the processor had just dropped off a huge bag of it before opening up Saturday morning. I happily waited for them to measure out enough for a sweater. Can't wait to get spinning on it!