Even though I have been knitting for over 15 years now and love love love wool I somehow was out of the loop about the Shepherd’s Harvest Festival every Mother’s Day Weekend at the Washington County Fairgrounds. I first heard about it this February and have been eagerly anticipating ever since. Even when early forecasts for the weekend predicted a washout I was determined to go. Luckily the weather proved us wrong once again and it was a beautiful weekend. Here are some highlights.
 

Stock dog demonstrations. The herding skills of these dogs were amazing!.

Bunnies. I was told I would be lucky to leave the festival without a rabbit. I have been toying with the idea of rabbits for awhile as a possible “gateway” fiber animal. But we did leave without a rabbit, much to Two’s disappointment.

The German Angora rabbits were quite impressive.

As were the llamas and alpacas at the Llama Magic Festival also on the fairgrounds. This one was recently sheared. Unfortunately I missed the shearing. Well my camera missed the shearing, maybe next year.
 

One of the things I saw over and over again was labeled wool. Labels with actually names of sheep, names like Percy, and Sarah and Yoda.

Here’s Yoda of EKSheep. He’s a Lincoln Longwool. If I were to ever purchase sheep I think this breed is in the lead. It is a heritage breed from England with only about 1,000 sheep in this country.

Yoda’s fleece. He was last sheared in October. EKSheep shear their animals twice a year.

The weekend really sparked my interest in spinning. I bought some Blue Faced Leicester locks to card and spin and some Lincoln Longwool roving. I also bought some beautiful worsted weight wool from the CVM-Romeldale of Winterwind farm. Here the wool is weighed.

Babies are always a plus. Here are some sheep from Kindred Spirit Farm. They have a fiber CSA I am really interested in, I’ll keep you posted. So that was our weekend, much fun was had by all.