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a review of sheep
Oct. 5th, 2008 10:07 pmAbout two weeks ago I heard about the New Jersey Sheep and Wool Festival and decided to go. I told friends about it, but universally the response was "but I'm doing something that weekend!"
Saturday I got up early enough to go, but between the post office and the bank, I got started almost an hour later than I wanted to. The drive was nice, autumn is doing nice things to the foliage, and the weather was crisp and clear. The fairgrounds weren't too hard to find, though the entrance was on the wrong side of the road. I was looking right, it was on the left. I paid my way, parked, and walked into the barns. The first barn was listed as vendors and exhibits, the second was the exhibiting ring, the third was where the animals were, the fourth was a petting zoo and where the musicians performed.
There were vendors in the first and third barns, and demonstrations in the second barn. I saw llamas (great guard critters) and alpacas (not that I could tell the difference) and bunnies (I got to scritch an angora bunny behind the ears) and sheep (I was introduced to a ram who was "smart, for a sheep"), priced pelts and fleeces and rovings and yarns and patterns, I picked up some cards and a brochure for a friend, I bought some fiber, and yarn (silk and cashmere) and a pattern for a shrug/shawl, a pencil roving in blended fibers, including alpaca, because it looked neat and was a nice shade of purple, some almost black pure merino roving, some hand cream, and a magazine. Then I got out of there because my money was running out.
Talked to a lot of the vendors, and most of them were small farms or family farms. I could've bought a bunny (the cat would've liked that, lunch!), a llama (in an apartment, I don't think so), or a shetland sheep (they were so cute, barely hip high!), I could've bought an inkle loom (I already had one, thought I told the person offering it about the Spanish Peacock and his tinkle looms, any number of fleeces, angora scarves or mittens or cashmere hats, I could've bought knitting needles (still waiting on![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
fabricdragon though), crochet hooks, felting needles, baskets, books of patterns, magazines, carding brushes, a drum carder, soaps, a memoir from an actress who moved to Nova Scotia and kept sheep, drop spindles in any number of weights and types, from lace to turkish. I talked to a woman who'd made her first pair of argyle socks and was embarassed to show them off (I thought they were great) and chatted with her about the tofuties socks I'm working on.
I approved of it, it was small enough to not be overwhelming, and more focussed than I found Rhinebeck last year. I didn't go for any of the classes, though I did stop and watch a sheep shearing demonstration for a while, it was interesting to find out that you have to trim the wool from between the cloven halves of the sheep's hoof, though the fiber you get isn't useable.
Saturday I got up early enough to go, but between the post office and the bank, I got started almost an hour later than I wanted to. The drive was nice, autumn is doing nice things to the foliage, and the weather was crisp and clear. The fairgrounds weren't too hard to find, though the entrance was on the wrong side of the road. I was looking right, it was on the left. I paid my way, parked, and walked into the barns. The first barn was listed as vendors and exhibits, the second was the exhibiting ring, the third was where the animals were, the fourth was a petting zoo and where the musicians performed.
There were vendors in the first and third barns, and demonstrations in the second barn. I saw llamas (great guard critters) and alpacas (not that I could tell the difference) and bunnies (I got to scritch an angora bunny behind the ears) and sheep (I was introduced to a ram who was "smart, for a sheep"), priced pelts and fleeces and rovings and yarns and patterns, I picked up some cards and a brochure for a friend, I bought some fiber, and yarn (silk and cashmere) and a pattern for a shrug/shawl, a pencil roving in blended fibers, including alpaca, because it looked neat and was a nice shade of purple, some almost black pure merino roving, some hand cream, and a magazine. Then I got out of there because my money was running out.
Talked to a lot of the vendors, and most of them were small farms or family farms. I could've bought a bunny (the cat would've liked that, lunch!), a llama (in an apartment, I don't think so), or a shetland sheep (they were so cute, barely hip high!), I could've bought an inkle loom (I already had one, thought I told the person offering it about the Spanish Peacock and his tinkle looms, any number of fleeces, angora scarves or mittens or cashmere hats, I could've bought knitting needles (still waiting on
fabricdragon though), crochet hooks, felting needles, baskets, books of patterns, magazines, carding brushes, a drum carder, soaps, a memoir from an actress who moved to Nova Scotia and kept sheep, drop spindles in any number of weights and types, from lace to turkish. I talked to a woman who'd made her first pair of argyle socks and was embarassed to show them off (I thought they were great) and chatted with her about the tofuties socks I'm working on.I approved of it, it was small enough to not be overwhelming, and more focussed than I found Rhinebeck last year. I didn't go for any of the classes, though I did stop and watch a sheep shearing demonstration for a while, it was interesting to find out that you have to trim the wool from between the cloven halves of the sheep's hoof, though the fiber you get isn't useable.
