Of Sheep and More Sheep

The New York Sheep and Wool Festival in pictures (and some narration).


The wonderful, yet still blogless Janine. And her husband, Raj. And Lucy. Janine is wearing a vest she made from three Icelandic pelts with the result that she looked like a little Icelandic sheep running around. She was so cute even Lucy kept saying, "You are so cute!" Janine had entered a number of handspun skeins and three handmade dress shirts into the competitions. She took home many ribbons but we all puzzled over some of the decisions. There must be skills that we aren't aware of because many of the first prize winners were...um...mysteriously so. In any case, we had a short visit with Janine and Raj because they were off to pick up two goats they were buying and driving back to Wisconsin in the back of their Toyota Corolla. Yes, they were driving for 18 hours with two goats in the back of their small sedan. After many jokes about how they could fool B&B owners by telling them it was just them and their two kids for the night, we left them to their business. There's definitely a youtube video in there somewhere.

We then met up with Patti and her lovely family. Patti has a new blog btw. This makes me very happy since I was just not getting enough information about Patti in her few pithy Facebook entries.

Together, we went off and looked at sheep.



And goats (these are angora goats from whom we get mohair).





And bunnies (these are angora bunnies from whom we get angora).



Then it was time to watch the sheep shearer. This is my favourite part of the festival. This guy is just so incredible with the sheep - they are like butter in his hands.











The resulting fleece (a Shetland), weighing about 5 lbs.



There were llamas too.



And yes, I did buy a few things.


This is some Icelandic lamb blended with baby alpaca from Frelsi Farm. I love this farm's fleece and since the only time I can find it is at Rhinebeck, I felt justified in buy a good amount. Plus the owner of the farm looks ever so slightly like my friend Shawn, so that makes it extra nice. La la la, just a little magical thinking to add a dash of sugar to an already sweet thing.


Some merino in colours that I was strangely attracted to considering I don't usually like them. Suddenly Lucy's sweater went from being one made from Lion Brand/Maker Faire leftovers to a handspun merino creation. Fortunately that impulse faded once we got home.


This is some merino/tencel in colours that are a little more my usual style.

So, you see, I was very restrained. Dan even said, "you have more bags in the car, right?" when we got home Saturday evening. No, my dear! Just a tiny stone will be added to the mountain...