Stasia's Place Of Grace

Saturday, September 06, 2003

 

I Went To The Wool Fest!

After finally recovering from going to Stitches Midwest a couple of weeks ago (and being completely overwhelmed by all the STUFF), I thought I was up to going to the Wisconsin Sheep & Wool Festival in Jefferson (between Madison and Milwaukee) today!

Jeff and I had a great time - the highlights were getting to see Nels Wiberg of Babe's Fiber Garden, and Adam, Andrea, and Amy Mielke of Mielke's Farm.

Along with the regular sheep judging, sheep shearing, exhibits, and sales taking place at the festival, the Midwest Shetland Sheep Show was going on, and we were lucky enough to see the final judging.

Ewes Being Judged

Judging For Champion And Reserve Champion
Note Sheep On Far Left... Her Name Is "Sparx"

The Champion Is Chosen

Champion And Reserve Champion

Jeff and I discovered that Shetland sheep are easy to care for, as well as being intelligent and inquisitive - when we stopped by all of the pens, they were incredibly friendly and curious, compared to the other breeds of sheep represented. You can even pick them up and carry them! Even children were able to show them in the ring. If we ever have sheep, we will go with this breed!

Just look at all these friendly faces:

A Friendly Ram And Two Ewes...

...And Their Friendly Shepherdess

A Shetland With A Lovely Fleece...

...And One With Impressive Horns

When Jeff saw a certain brown sheep ("Sparx" in the second judging photo, above), he said he loved her fleece color... so off we went to find her, and see if her wool was spoken for. We met Lael Wilson of Maplewood North Farm and were introduced to:

"Maplewood Sparx"

She had won this ribbon in an earlier class:

Sparx' Ribbon

Her fleece was not yet spoken for, so we reserved it for next spring!

What else did we see?

The "Make It With Wool" contest:

Some lovely, all-naturally-colored Shetland wool mittens, knit with an Alice Starmore pattern:

And lots and lots of vendors. I behaved myself, getting a kit to make another moose hat for Jeff (in addition to the Bea Ellis one I've already started for him! How many moose hats can one guy have?) and some gifts for friends. I even passed up the single Hatchtown spindle I saw! (It was at The Fold, if anyone's interested!)

---

Finished Object!

Here is my own winter hat from a Bea Ellis kit:

Even though I'm not a good two-color knitter, it only took a couple of days to complete, and has a soft, cotton lining as well (provided with the kit). I'm happy with it (my scrunchy parts blocked out successfully!)

---

I have lots of other things to show you, but have photos to edit and projects to finish and too many irons in the fire, and it's my birthday weekend (!) so the sheep show update will have to "do you" for now!

Have a wonderful week, and please TAG me and say, "Hi!"

Stasia Permalink | Archives | |

		Animal	All Bird Cat Dog Horse Pig Rabbit Reptile Small&Furry	Breed		Zip Code