This past weekend I went to the Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival. It was my first such event….and wow I wasn’t disappointed!
We entered the first building of the Country Store, and didn’t make it any further for awhile, as these Angora bunnies were there. I would love to have another (I had a pretty brown doe about 14 years ago, and she was a great pet and fiber critter)…..someday. Looks like she’d like one now!!
After drooling over yarn & fibers & spinning wheels, we were off to see the lambing barn. Cute!
And the cubs were very interested in watching the sheep being shorn. We watched him do about 6, and I had to tear them away so we could see everything else. Here’s a pictoral from start to finish.
Ah, one cool sheep! (Um, did you notice the muscles up a picture there? No….well go back and look, silly!)
Here’s a Jacob ram in his full four horned glory! One of the cubs said he was ‘fierce’, but he seemed reasonably friendly to me….for a ram with huge horns, anyway.
On Sunday, I took an all day class called ‘Creating the Yarn You Want’ by Amy Tyler. She too is living the fiber dream, and has a science background. It was great to know I’m not the only crazy person out there!! Here’s a quick tip from her that I can pass along as it was ‘casual’ and not part of the class……you should actually cut off pills instead of pulling them (either by hand or via stone). The idea is that pulling them yanks out more fibers and will result in a new pill. Hard for me to resist just pulling off a pill or two, but if cutting is going to reduce them coming back, I’ll do it!
Amy gave us an extra long lunch so she (and we) could shop. During that time, this batch of triplets was born. I missed the actual event, but slipped over during a later break and snapped a picture or two. Here’s Mama and two of the lambs…..
And here is the third and smallest lamb.
I did do some shopping at the market, and came home with these treats…..
Some cotton top in natural brown and green, some cotswold curls to dye (if you guys like them, I’ll source more).
And finally this delicious batt. It is 4 or 5 shades of blue from deep sapphire to turquoise, with one layer of fucshia in there, and a liberal sprinkling of angelina. Corriedale, merino, tussah….yum. The current plan is to spin it up fine and ply with something navy to stretch it into a good sized shawl to wear with a navy dress I have.
