Great Lakes Fiber Festival

This past weekend was the Great Lakes Sheep and Fiber Festival in Wooster, OH (about 2.5 hours from our farm).  What a time we had.  All of my baskets went and were a big hit (this is why there are currently none listed in my shop, but don't worry, more to come!).  Above is some of the beautiful roving in one of the booths.  The colors were fantastic!  Here's some other pictures from the festival.

Our booth.  It was shared between Stramba Fiber Mill who is a local alpaca farm and fiber processing mill and Alpaca Fiber Studio and Friends who specializes in beautiful hand dyed and painted yarns, batts, and wearable art.  

Here's one of my newest creations!  I call it the "Zombie Scarf".  Maybe because of the colors.  Some people call them Fairy Scarves, but the zombie name just stuck in my head!  I'm fairly new to water/needle felting, but folks, this is fairly simple!  For those of you looking for a way to take your own wools and process them into something beautiful without having to spin them, felting is it!  There is so much potential with felting.  I never knew.  Check out this book if you need some tips and ideas: Fabulous Felted Scarves by Chad Alice Hagan and Jorie Johnson.  And there's one of my baskets hiding down there.

Here's one of the fabulous hand felted works of art by Robbie Grodin of Alpaca Fiber Studio and Friends.  She has an amazing talent for color!  We bartered a basket for some yarn.  A good trade.

 Another shot from the front of our booth.  There was just SO much wonderful color there!  I especially love the colors in the alpaca rug in the center.  I was able to be a part of the process.  It was so neat to see it come together.  Terri from Stramba Fiber Mill processed the rug yarn, I dyed it, and my friend Lisel from the Harmony Weaver's Cabin wove it all together.  How amazing when you get to see a work of art that used the talents of so many hands come together like that.

 Here's some lock spun yarn from another vendor's booth.  This was spun from Wensleydale sheep.  Another of my favorite which I hope to own some day.  I bought a few fleeces at the show and hope to combine it with some other fleeces waiting to be spun to create some yarn like this.  I had to post this as a large picture so you could see better all curly locks spun into a strand of yarn! 

Here are a couple Border Leicester Ewes in the barn.  I bought a couple of Border Leicester fleeces in what we like to call a 'behind the barn' sale.   It's not as mischievous as it sounds.  Many shepherds bring their fleeces to festivals to sell.  They are somewhat confined to the barns with their animals (as opposed to a booth in one of the buildings), so we simple asks ask them if they have any fleeces for sale.  Most of them do, and you can get them for a great price that way.  

A few of the finds from the festival.  The huge ball of roving was used to make another zombie scarf.  It in the process right now.  I'll post pictures of it when it's finished.  There was so much fiber there though that I think I'll spin the remainder into yarn.  Same with the smaller green/gray ball.  They yarn was my barter!  I also found a needle felting kit, and some silk hankies to spin, which I've never done yet.  This along with the three raw fleeces I found, should keep me pretty busy all summer!


On another note, I'm recovering from having my wisdom teeth removed yesterday and two other upper molars.  I lost a front tooth as well!  It was an old root canal from trauma as a kid.  Seven all together - Yikes!   Sounds so, for lack of a better word, Redneck.  It was the first time I had ever had anesthesia before.  What a weird experience.  Took eight sticks to find a vein.  I inherited my mother's veins, apparently.  But once they got it, I was given something that made me pretty loopy.  I started talking about all sorts of things!  I remember that, but I don't remember going to sleep, just waking up.  It was pretty quick.  In and out in two hours.  And surprisingly, I'm not even noticeable swollen this morning, nor did I have to take some of the stronger pain meds, just Motrin.  Tomorrow I will have that front tooth replaced.  I'll try not to smile until then.  Might scare someone away!  =)  No rest for the weary, though.  I've got potatoes and onions still to get in the garden, herbs and lettuces to plant, and another bed to weed and plant.  Add that to basket-making, felting, laundry, and washing fleeces and you've got one busy girl.  
Lastly, on a 'better' note - we got some rain!  And the plants soaked it right up.  It was nice to not have to water the garden, at least for one night.  

8th Annual Waynesburg Sheep and Fiber Festival

(60% Merino, 30% Bamboo, 10% Nylon)

Today we travelled down to Greene County for the 8th annual Sheep and Fiber Festival.  Last year was our first time attending and we met so many great people that we went back again this year.  It is really a great little festival with a medley of different vendors and fiber animals.   We got to chat with some of the people we met last year, eat some lamb, and fetch some fiber to spin.   I even bought a Dorset fleece right of they newly sheared sheep.  We chatted with the couple from the llama farm we visited last spring, who invited us back out for another visit, and I bought some of their llama roving to spin.  I've yet to spin llama.

 (new lamb)

 (Babydoll Southdown Sheep)

(introducing the pygmys to the new pygoras)

We also acquired two pygora lambs (not me, my friend Cheryl).  Pygora means a cross between an angora goat and a pygmy goat.  Their fiber is wonderful!  It is softer than just the angora goat, yet the pygmy gives the goat it's hardiness.  Cheryl already has two adorable pygmy goats (seen above - on left); these two were a perfect addition to her little farm.  It was quite a ride home with these two in the back of the car.  They actually did pretty well.

Lastly (no pictures yet) we found a table loom for sixty bucks!  We couldn't decide which was the better deal of the day: the goats or the loom.  Both were amazing finds.  Stay tuned for some loom productions!

Victorian Farm - A MUST See!

I've just finished this series, and it was absolutely wonderful! If you, like me, have an interest in living a simpler life, a life of old, seemingly long and forgotten, you will love this. The documentary was shown on BBC in 2009, spanning six, hour long episodes. However you can find the series on YouTube broken into 36 roughly 10 minute segments.

The story follows a British team of three who recreate the lives of those living in the mid-19th century for one year. They must learn to farm, cook, and survive only on the resources available during this time period. You get to share in their struggles and triumphs, watching them grow crops, raise livestock (sheep, pigs, chickens/ducks, a dairy cow), cook, clean, and fellowship with others of this era. People were so connected to the land, their animals, and others; something I think we've unfortunately lost over the years.

Two Busy Weekends and Another to Come

("smile for the camera" - a cute goat from the fiber festival)

Goodness how busy I've been! So much to write that I think I'll have to do it in segments. Where to start:

This weekend we travelled ALOT! On Friday we travelled an hour and a half (one way) across the state line to pick up a new partridge silkie hen. I lost my Eleanor a few months back and have been looking for another, as one silkie hen just doesn't seem like enough. She's pretty cute and we refer to her as the "new" Eleanor. Some may think that recycling a name is a dumb thing to do, especially if you're other one died, but I have to tell you...new names are more difficult to come by that one might think. So she's 'Eleanor the second' in memory of my wonderful first partridge silkie hen.

Saturday we went BACK across state lines to a fiber festival in upstate Ohio. It was quite the drive (120 miles one way!), but I came home with 10 pounds of unprocessed sheep's wool and 5 pounds of a gorgeous gray alpaca fleece. Give me fiber, and I'm a happy girl! I've been processing a good bit of alpaca fleece lately. Today was my first experience washing a sheep fleece. For what it lacks in cost, it sure makes up for in washing. It's very different to process. It will take some practice, but I can't wait to dye and spin it. Our travels were extended another 60 or so miles on the way home as we swung up to Butler to pick up a dozen silkie eggs to stick under my broody silkie hen, Delilah. She just finished raising a clutch of six (who need to find new homes) and had already been found in the coop making nest. It's a little crowded in the coop right now with all the new chickens, so we've created her own little protected sanctuary in the corner in a big old dog cage that keeps everyone else out. Though her chicks are certainly old enough to be on their own (and almost twice her size now), they still seem to want to be close to mom sometime.

Last weekend was an exciting one on the alpaca farm. But that will have to wait for another day, as my bedtime has come and gone, and 6am will come far too soon for my liking.

Sheep and Fiber Fest

This past weekend we attended the Sheep and Fiber Fest in Waynesburg, PA. It wasn't a big festival, but you could tell that all the vendors and exhibitors were passionate about what they were doing. We saw various breeds of sheep, llamas, alpacas, and bunnies. And these were only the fiber species. They also had Border Collie herding demonstrations with both sheep and ducks (the ducks were so funny!).

The first exhibitor we visited was a shepherding couple (pictured below) giving a sheep shearing demonstration. It's amazing to watch how they are sheared so that their fleece comes off in one big blanket. We got to take a look at those shears; they are wicked! One wrong move and you could cut off an utter or leave a gouge the size of the San Andreas Fault. Still, I think I would like to learn how to shear. This fella has quite a few years on me (and no, I'm not talking about age); he's been shearing since he was 15. No wonder he's so quick and efficient!

After the demonstration we meandered our way down through the other exhibits, checking out all the different breeds of sheep that were brought for show or sale. My next goal is alpaca, but I would like to raise some sheep as well. They are good not only for fiber, but also for meat. My favorite sheep's wool to spin thus far is BFL, short for Blue-Faced Leicester (pronounced "lester"). It has a great staple length and crimp, making it a good fiber to learn on. Though there are better sheep for fiber, BFL (I'm told) is also a good meat producer, which in my opinion makes it a good breed.

Further down the line we finally ran into some alpaca. Ah, the wonderful sound of their nervous little humming. I must have been mesmerized by their cuteness, because I didn't take any pictures. We did however meet the owners and hope to schedule a time to go and visit their farm. I will remember to take pictures. To date, we have visited three alpaca farms. And each time solidifies how passionate I am about these animals.

In other news, the garden is slowly going in. I would have loved to have gotten it in much sooner, but life happens. All that means at this point is that I will have to buy my plants instead of sprouting them from seeds. We have in corn and sunflowers, which we sowed right in the ground. There are two other 4 X 4 plots ready, and hopefully we'll get 4 more of those plots ready soon. I also want to try my hand in container gardening as well. So many projects! I'm sure there will be a lot of trial and error this summer.