A few weeks ago, one of my knitting friends suggested we check out the big Fiber Festival at the Big E Fairgrounds in Springfield, MA. Everyone thought it looked interesting!  We ended up with five people in two carpools go on Sunday (the second and final day of the fair).

Now is the time that I admit I have never been to ANY fiber/stitching/knitting cons of any kind. I know.

Now that you are over the shock of it all, I want to say how happy I was to smell sheep when I walked in the building! The whole front half of the Mallory complex was devoted to vendors with animals, so we got to meet and greet alpaca, sheep of many flavors, angora bunnies, and even a fainting goat.

I got to cuddle with a friendly and fluffy angora bunny!

I think my favorite stand was Long Island Livestock Company.  I’m sorry to say that their website is a little bare (“under construction”), but I can report that everyone I met at their stand (including the spotty mama llama below) was lovely, helpful, and educational.  They were one of the first stalls I visited, so I made a note … they are the ONLY stand I managed to return to.  Their roving was memorably luscious!

These two are now mine! 🙂

The show had a large variety of items related to fiber without actually being roving or yarn — for example, check out these awesome hats!

But, in the end, we mostly bought yarn and fiber.  Here are a few glamour shots of a five-person haul from a fiber fest:

I personally succumbed to the siren call of drop spindling.  Sigh.  It turns out it is SUPER ADDICTIVE.  Help.  All this is mine.  There is only one skein of yarn in there!  Shout out the A Hundred Ravens (who also dyed the teal braid).  I absolutely loved ALL her color choices.  I also had the pleasure of meeting the Knittink girl.  I discovered her yarns at Gather Here, and I was delighted to buy the bright red-orange roving from her. I know the name of the llama who contributed fleece to the pink-white bag, and I picked up the purple-green “mill ends” bag of roving to practice on.  (I do so love purple!)  I’ve already spun and plied about half the bag.  Did I mention how addictive this is?