Sunday, September 25, 2016

Wisconsin Sheep & Wool Festival 2016



Two weeks ago, I attended the Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival in Jefferson, WI.  I wasn't really looking for anything in particular, and I was overwhelmed by all the yarns and fibers ...  Wow! So many colors and textures and possibilities!

At the show I only purchased a couple of things :
1) a ball of Polworth fiber for spinning into yarn.  This was so soft, it felt like Merino--but heavier.  I'd never heard of Polworth before.  Turns out, it is a derivative of Merino wool.  Nice stuff!
2) a threading hook for my spinning wheel with a nice wooden handle
3) a couple of stick shuttles for weaving

Here's what I saw on display :
*  Beautiful Rag Rugs
*  Wonderful cloak / shawl pins with a little bling very reasonably priced -- I wished I had purchased one, but didn't get back to that stand.
*  Beautiful handspun yarn in blues with silver.  $45 a skein.  Expensive, and I didn't have a project in mind for it when I saw it -- but I did the next day, back at home, and too far away to go back and get it.  Rats!

I was looking for Patty Reedy of  Rainbow Fleece Farm -- according to the show catalog, they were indeed there, but I didn't see them.  When I first started spinning nearly 20 years ago, I got some of her fiber.  It has a sparkle and a sheen (luster) I haven't seen in other fleece.   Really!  I'm wondering what her Fiber looks like now after 20 more years of breeding and genetics.  At that time, she told me she was a Fiber Arts person, and realized she needed to breed sheep in order to get the fiber she wanted.  Amen!

A few stands were actually selling bags of raw fleece -- I was tempted, but I knew I had 2-3 bags at home -- washed and waiting to be carded.    I see a carding day in my near future ...



Susan's Fiber Shop was also there.  Her stand was hopping, as usual!  I bought my Louet S90 Spinning Wheel from her almost 20 years ago.  And it still works like a charm!  I'm so glad I bought a good wheel, not a fixer-upper at a rummage sale.  If it had given me trouble, I would not have kept spinning.  This particular wheel was discontinued, but I just found out it's making a limited edition comeback!  So you could get one if you really wanted it -- and were willing to pay the price.

I bought the new threading hook and stick shuttles at Mielke's Fiber Arts --- So I stuck with the vendors I was familiar with.

I did keep the catalog as a future reference.  Lots of good information within -- and one worth keeping.

They offered lots of classes, too.  Now I wish I would have signed up to attend some of them ...
How to hand-spin your own fancy yarn, for one.   There's always next year!


1 comment:

The Idaho Beauty said...

I'm beginning to think you have way too many cool interests! I'd forgotten that you knew how to spin, am always interested when you get back to weaving, then there's your quilting and photography/photomanipulations, soap making, experiments with paints. I'm sure I've left a few out! Makes for fascinating reading on my end. :-)