Thursday, September 17, 2009

Wisconsin Sheep & Wool Festival

We spent a wonderful relaxed Sunday at the Wisconsin Sheep & Wool Festival, held two hours northeast of our farm. It was a perfect day, driving through countryside of rolling hills, old barns and leaves just starting to turn color. At the festival, we wandered through the two big barns full of vendors. I love the endless assortment of products, from raw skirted fleeces, to yarn, roving, wheels, looms and everything in between. I got a jumbo flyer kit for my Kromski Polonaise wheel from Wool, Warp & Wheel. The bobbins can hold twice the amount of fiber as the regular sized ones. It will also be great for plying.
I bought a new set of combs from Lone Tree Wools. I'll be using them to comb out my fibers before putting them on my Strauch drum carder. The combs are smaller than some, and the curved handles make them very comfortable to use.

I bought a pair of Forsyth mini combs at the Midwest Fiber & Folk Art Fair a couple of years ago. I do enjoy using them, but I think the wide set teeth on my new combs will work well for pulling apart (picking) heavy fleeces. Our shearer, David Kier was there, doing his traditional sheep shearing demos, which always draw a big crowd. He also did a demo on shearing the sheep while standing, with lots of great tips. He will be here NEXT WEEK! to shear our sheep!!! Oh NO! I'm not ready! Here's a YouTube video,
and and excellent article on David
There were a lot of different sheep breeds to look at. I especially enjoyed the Mule show. The BFL crosses are so interesting. Lambing was going on in a pen nearby.
There was a hooked rug exhibit too.
I would love to learn more about making them. Isn't this sheepy one cute?

1 comment:

thecrazysheeplady said...

I missed the sheep rug...luckily ;-).

What a fun blog. Great photos and your sheep are lovely!