Stories from the Farm

We are officially done showing sheep and attending fiber shows for 2010.  This year’s Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival was a great way to finish the season.  The sun was shining on Saturday and attendance was high. 

All of these bags left early in the morning…

and most of these little buggers left on Saturday…

I love them, but making this many was a little overwhelming.  I felt bad coming home with one lonely little sheep, so she is keeping me company in my office 🙂

I loved the comments I heard about the sheep and the bags – ‘I REALLY don’t need this, but I MUST have it’, ‘This looks just like the sheep I used to have’, ‘My friend just bought a new car and this little sheep is going to be so cute hanging from the mirror’, and many more that I forgot but enjoyed in the moment!  In addition to all of these sheep finding new homes, quite a few people bought the kit so they could learn how to make themselves a little flock.

This year I found myself needing to show sheep and man my vendor booth all at the same time – WHAT???  I can multitask well, but not that well 🙂  Thanks to several good friends, I had plenty of help – this is one of my favorite things about fiber shows!  While I was thinking about who I could ask to help me show sheep, I remembered that Kristine had offered her showing skills to me earlier this year.  Although she had plans on Saturday afternoon, she gladly agreed to help.  She hasn’t shown livestock in quite a few years, but it didn’t show.  Since we were both showing, there aren’t very many pictures to show of the jacob show.  So, I will just say that there were 4 breeders and some very nice sheep 🙂

Kenleigh’s Ironside came home as the Champion ram and Kenleigh’s Mollala was Reserve Champion ewe. 

It has been 14 years since it rained at this event and that is amazing for the end of September in the Northwest.  The sunny stretch ended on Sunday.  We woke up to a drizzle and by mid-morning – it was POURING!!!  About half of the vendors are outside on the lawn, including my booth!  Thanks to some help from my husband, we were able to put walls on my canopy and everything got damp instead of wet 😉

Thanks to some more help from friends and my husband, we had the 7 sheep we brought to the show shorn and then I got to walk around and visit the other vendors!  These two pieces weren’t for sale, but they were some of my favorite things that I saw… 

and another one of my favorites…the blueface…

their ridiculously huge ears and eyes…

and their super shiny curls.

I only bought two fibery items…

this beautiful and super soft blueface roving…

and some colorful goodies.

You’ll have to wait to see the other item I came home with – I am so excited because it is going to make sheep work a lot easier and dare I say… maybe even fun!