SAFF - Southeast Animal Fiber Fair

Yesterday I went to the SAFF at the Asheville, NC Fairgrounds. This event is held annually; there are lots of vendors selling rovings, yarn, knitting and felting supplies and many other things. It's an amazing event and if you love fiber and color, you'll think you've died and gone to Heaven. Sad to say, I have never been able to attend until yesterday and was it worth waiting for. It was hard to find a spot to park and I wound up way in the back near a tent of vendors. They had some amazing things - so many fibers I was not familiar with - both hand dyed and natural.

This is the large tent where I thought the entire event took place until someone pointed to a large building across the way and said - there's lots more vendors over there and a TOP and BOTTOM level!

So many of the rovings are hand dyed and braided for display purposes. They are so luscious!

Racks of rovings - beautiful colors,

natural fibers you can dye yourself. The vendors were saying they use an acid dye - makes sense as they are animal fibers like silk which also uses an acid dye.

I loved these racks of yarns. Some of the yarns and fibers were dyed with natural dyes and had a beautiful soft color.

These little bears might have been my favorite - made from fibers like alpaca which is incredibly soft. I couldn't put them down.

Many of the vendors had these little goat curls - all hand dyed. Just running your hands through these soft and colorful curls was such fun and purchased by the ounce.

At one point, I stopped and took some pictures of the huge building where SAFF took place, quite impressive and every bit filled with color, fiber, books etc. There were vendors from all over the country - this is a very big event.

And I don't knit or crochet but I do a little felting so I did bring home a treasure - some goat curls. I REALLY wanted a Teddy bear (am I too old for a Teddy bear?) maybe next year!

And the animals, an added highlight. Angora rabbits in some of the booths; some were taken out of their cages so you could pet them. They were precious. One woman was spinning angora fur as she pulled the excess off the rabbits - from rabbit to spinning wheel - no inbetween!

On to the outside to see, feed and pet the Llamas and Alpacas. I love the way they sit with their feet straight out in front of them or completely tucked underneath. It reminds me of my cats.

I couldn't stop taking pictures of these beautiful, gentle creatures.

Is this the cutest/funniest face?

I loved this handsome boy - caught him eating.

They are so tame and comfortable with people.

You could reach in and pet them. They especially loved you when you gave them food! This little Alpaca below is loving all the treats we were giving him.

Mother and baby, how sweet is this!

It was a wonderful day. I also forgot to mention - there are classes ongoing all day on everything you can imagine related to fiber - next year!

Until next time