Nevada Territory Fair

Our fair started yesterday. It's been renamed from the Nevada State Fair to the Wild West Nevada Territory Fair, since it never had State funding to start with. It's on pretty rocky footing and undercapitalized. Our guild is little concerned because if it fails, there are no other fair options. Anyway, I took this basket full of locks I had dyed and these are the last, flicked and ready to spin.
I dyed the Border Leicester locks a number years ago and slightly felted them, enough that I couldn't make me work on them. I just found a piece of leather which makes the flick carding much easier. I thought they would be a good demonstration of how fleece becomes yarn. Tomorrow I'll ply this from both ends of the ball.

Ian and I are gearing up for the Gathering next weekend, so I really can't go to the fair this weekend. We start Friday and go through Sunday and include family, friends and neighbors. It takes a week to get ready.
The thing I like most about the change in the fair is the emphasis on agriculture and especially 4Hers - they are front and center. Seven 4H rabbit clubs had booths and I couldn't resist this one with the fiddly sign. It showed me that these kids are passionate about their bunnies.
I laughed at this central display of another club's booth. They have velco strips on the rabbits and names of the parts, also with velcro - an educational puzzle. I suspect a leader put this together. There were rabbit kids all through the cages, cleaning, feeding, answering questions. That tells me there are pretty awesome leaders and very devoted kids. Rabbits and horses were to the two largest 4H club groups, though there were plenty of pigs, sheep and goats. One girl was practicing leading her Nubian by us, and you would have thought it was being tortured, loudly protesting as only a Nubian goat can do. And then there was the girl who lost control of her pig, who actually seemed to know where the exit gate was. It was a 20 minutes chase that ultimately involved a dozen people before she got him under control. At one point, it was barrelling right into our disiplay, and I didn't have the presence of mind to pull out my camera.
The 4H chicken competi-
tion was even larger than the rabbits, but I didn't see the fawning and doting on the chickens, like I did in the rabbit section. Those kids love the rabbits like cats. I wouldn't want to hug this hen. I wouldn't want to hug anything with a beak.
I think this Barred Rock rooster is drop dead gorgeous, which why I collect roosters as pieces of art. They are scary, like something left over from the dinosaurs. I'm thrilled that I have neighbors who do have them, like Mim. I gave her my empty egg cartons this morning and said - fill 'em up! She said she'll talk to the girls. I'm out of eggs and too spoiled to buy them from the store.

Tomorrow I'll spin alpaca. I took my drum carder today and have washed locks to card. I think that will be a good demonstration of the process as well.