My weekend, or, Grapenuts not included

This weekend was positively fantastic. Lots of wool, rest and well, wool!
It started out with waking up too early (but early enough to say bye to my husband before he went to work) Sat. morning and knitting in bed. Then it gets better: My mom and I went to to A Wool Gathering, my very first fiber festival! When I jump around singing the glory of this 'fiber festival' my husband, of course, can only think of fiber/metamucil/grapenuts/old people. He's silly and not as obsessed with all things knitting as I am. No, wait, he's not obsessed at all, I'm pretty sure he doesn't even care, as long as it doesn't attack him when sits down on the couch (which did happen tonite, but it was just a Clover circular, not as bad, say, as metal DPN!)
But back to the festival:
First thing first, the animals. No, wait, let me say this first: My mom doesn't knit, weave, crochet or spin. But she's an 'artiste', a creative soul that loves color and texture, so she had a ball. But honestly, she kept asking silly questions that dumbfounded the vendors and made me giggle (and, I admit, get a little embarrassed, because no matter how old I get, she's my mom and thus, a dork).
Back to the animals: my mom is enamoured with the idea of buying an angora bunny. She wants it as a pet for my lil bros and so that I can spin it's wool (fur? hair?) I'm right there with her, but we didn't have the money to get one at the festival. We do plan, however, to buy one from Somerhill Farm. Here's their bunnies that we met.

Lest you think we're just gonna jump right into a relationship with a furry furball, let me assure you, I've been researching it thoroughly!
Here's a Llama, similar to the Alpaca ( we're not considering buying one of these, although I did buy some alpaca roving!)

There were so many artisans with stunning yarn, spindles and cloth, but the only booth that really tempted my wallet was Twisted Fire, a husband/wife team that spins and makes these beautiful glass spindles. The picture doesn't do it justice.

This is the spindle I ended up buying, from Seedpod, a company run by the sweetest, most helpful girl there. The set came with 2 oz of wool roving, a handmade drop spindle (in cherry) and a helpful Learn To Spin book

My mom fell in love with this shawl and bought the cotton yarn to knit it (guess who's thrillled to be teaching her?)

As if the festival weren't enough, I got lots of knitting done. I made these armwarmers in one hour Sat. morning (before the festival) and one hour Sun morning (before church). The yarn is Lion Brand Landscapes which I've had forever and the pattern is from Weekend Knitting. They're on their way to Sweden to my pal in this Craftster swap.

I was soo excited about my new spindle, I got right to it! I spun some very, very thick/thin wobbly yarn and immediately dyed it with KoolAid. After reading a lot about spinning (this is a great site) I learned I need to ply it with another strand, so I plan to spin some more tonite! What color would go with this?

And to wind up my fiber-filled weekend: I finished the body of my mom's sweater and grafted the shoulders! YAY!