Cards Anyone?

Yep! I want a pair of hand cards. Never, NEVER in my wildest dreams did I ever think that I would want to get into fiber preparation. The thing is, with a wonderful teacher, some fleece that came with a cute baby picture of a sheep name "Susie", ample time to practice over and over, some dyed fleece to try some fiber blending fun, you get hooked! I want some hand cards! If not for the other things that I purchased, I would've gotten a pair. *sigh* What's next?

Last weekend was the "Fabulous Fiber Fest" show. I spent 6 hours on Friday in the "Spinning Wheel A-Z" class, taught by the very wonderful and very thorough John Pitblado. Even though I had started spinning on a borrowed wheel prior to the lessons, it was good to learn what the teacher recommended. I picked up so many new skills. Oh yes, including carding and combing. Combs are scary looking. John dubbed them "Freddy Combs".

The wonderful John Pitblado.

Spinning Class in session.

The yarn I made in class. Other than setting the twist, it was completely done in class. John provided the fiber. I think it was Colonial.

I got this from Carolina Homespun. Click on the photo for a larger view. Know what it is? Sparkles! Sparkly "Angelina" fiber. I had to get it. I've been wanting some for a while. This one is "Crystal Amethyst" with blue/purple flashes when the light hits the fiber. Beautiful. I am hoping to get some "Silver Hologram" in the future. That one looks like it has tiny LED lights embbeded in it. WOW!

I wonder if I can blend this with some roving using hand cards? Can roving be worked again with hand cards?

This is Dave, a member of GLASG, demonstrating wheel spinning and greeting people. I really enjoyed chatting with him, watching him spin, and checking out his goodies during breaks.

This little girl and her mom were also giving demonstration on spinning, plus crocheting. Isn't that an interesting wheel? AND, look over to the left. See the sparkles in the fiber on the table? Yep! Angelina! Oh, I want some more of that!

Here are some of the show pieces. They were hung throughout the space:

This is where a lot of people walked away with empty wallets. Carolina Homespun. I truly enjoyed meeting Morgaine. I loved getting hugs from her. :-) What did I get? Well, not many items. The "Angelina" fiber, some silk for the class, some lubricant for spinning wheel. Oh yeah, I can now be called an owner of a wheel! Yep. Got myself a double-treadle Lendrum and its carrying bag. Couldn't buy anything else after that!

This is the Azabu-ya booth. Tons and tons of fabric. Lots of beautiful Japanese fabric.

More photos of the vendors at the show:

Shawls in the "Shawl Contest":

Alpacas! I was surprised to see them there. I didn't think they could arrange for farm animals to be at the location. They weren't there when I arrived early for the class.

Sunday GLASG spin-in. From 9:30 am to 2 pm. Hours of fun. I was too lazy to take the wheel so I took my spindles. We sat outside next to the entrance and that attracted a lot of people. They stopped to see the spinning action and asked questions. We might have gotten a few new members out of this. :-)

Lisa and Randall. Lisa has a business and travels around to be in shows. Sorry, I can't remember the name of it. Randall is our guild president.

This is Chris. He brought along a few of his English Angora rabbits. Here you can see Chris plucking fur from a rabbit. No, it didn't hurt. I think they rather liked it. :-)

This is Helene, a wonderful lady. I believe we will be carpooling quite often in the future. Her home is only minutes away from me. Oh yeah, you can see that Chris was still plucking away.

A little petting zoo was created. These are two of Chris' rabbits. People just loved them. Chris also had some samples knitted with Angora fur on hand. Sorry, I forgot to take a picture of those.