Sheep To Shawl

By Leigh

For the past several years my guild has been doing a Sheep To Shawl at SAFF (Southeastern Animal Fiber Fair) at the WNC Ag Center in Asheville, NC. This year I was able to participate.

We had a great location and gorgeous autumn weather. Since this is a local event, most of our active guild members were volunteering in other aspects of the Fiber Fair, but we had four spinners and a weaver to demonstrate the process.

We started with a donated, washed Border Leicester Fleece. Charlene, who coordinated the event, did the drum carding.

A lot of folks were interested in the entire process. This is Barbara, demonstrating spinning and answering questions.

Old fashioned wheel spinning.

Teena demonstrated on her electric spinner.

Ellen did the weaving.

The warp was a combination of 2-ply handspun and commercial wool yarn. There was a little alpaca thrown in as well. The singles we spun that day were used for the weft. The plan for the shawl is to raffle it with proceeds going toward the Blue Ridge Fiber Show.

In the afternoon, we had a shearing demonstration. This is Elspeth, a rescue sheep. She is a registered Shetland, who other than not having been sheared for at least two years, was healthy.

Paula, who owns Shetlands, did the shearing. She used a shearing stand and started at the tail.

As she sheared her way to the front, Elspeth's fleece was rolled up toward her head.

The fleece was in amazingly good condition, with very little cotting or felting. It weighted 11 pounds! Other than a break indicating the next year's growth, it was lovely. 

Elspeth got a massage after her ordeal. She wasn't too happy about being there, but calmed down considerably as the shearing progressed.

And the rest of the Fiber Fair?

It was bigger, better, and busier than ever, with more vendors, more classes, and more folks coming to look, buy, learn, and see.

My haul?

Just this, a 20.5 inch Schacht rag shuttle for the rag rug I plan to weave for our bedroom.

I didn't stay till the end because I had a pretty good drive home. It just felt good to get my wheel out and spin again. Hopefully this winter I can resume spinning as a daily activity. By the fire. Sounds good, doesn't it?

© 25 October 2009 at http://leighsfiberjournal.blogspot.com

SAFF

Originally, I had hoped to entitle this post "Sheep To Shawl," because that's what I participated in at SAFF this year. The WNCF/H Guild hosted a Sheep to Shawl demonstration again, and this year was the first time I took part. My plan was to take photos of every step in the process, and post them in this blog post. Unfortunately, things didn't turn out that way, mostly because the crowds were so huge that good photographic opportunities were difficult (for this amateur photographer anyway.)

I started by trying to get a pic of the shearing demo, but due to the crowds I couldn't get close enough and at a good enough angle for a good shot. Then too, the area we had to spin and weave in, was long and narrow; the long part running from the public area to a door in back. That meant that it wasn't easy to set up the spinning wheels in any orderly fashion, especially as the ground wasn't level. We were set up in a crowded, hodge podge arrangement, and with the steady stream of curious onlookers, I never could figure out how to get some good shots.

I did have fun though. Besides the shearing demo, there was a fleece skirting demonstration. We had a good number of volunteers carding and spinning. We spun worsted weight singles, which were immediately wound off onto weaving bobbins. Our weaver used these as weft on a pre-warped loom, to weave a lovely shawl. No photos of that either, *sigh*.

What I can show you however, are the goodies that followed me home. Unfortunately, this won't be your typical fiber fair eye candy, as I had decided that fiber and yarn weren't at the top of my list. Consequently, my purchases are visually boring, but very useful.

Any type of fiber is usually a temptation for me, but I decided to close my eyes to all of it and focus on some items that I didn't want to have to mail order later, and pay shipping on. I used to do a lot of mail order shopping, but as shipping costs have gone up, my mail ordering has gone down. Fiberwise however, I couldn't resist this package of silk hankies.

I had so much fun knitting them, that I wanted to dye some of my own and do that again. Or maybe try weaving with them.

What I mainly wanted to focus on were dye supplies. I have done very little dyeing these past two years, but now with the prospect of moving to a larger place where I can have room to set up and get outdoors, I want to get back into dyeing.

The tall bottle on the back right is supposed to be Synthrapol. It isn't. It's Retayne, which isn't the same thing. I just noticed this when I set up for the photo! Grrrr. Don't ya just love it when someone shelves an odd bottle without watching where they're putting it. *sigh*

The other items include a few Cushings dyes, a pound of alum, 4 ounces of cream of tartar, and a Procion Starter Set from Earth Guild. I got the Procion kit because I want to experiment painting some cotton warps. All my dye experience has been with wool and silk, so this will be something new for me.

The other thing I looked for and found, was buttons for my Rare Breed Sweater, which I was unable to find locally. This project has been set aside since last April, when I completed everything but the neck and front bands. I knitted the neck band last week, but had to wait until I got some buttons before I could knit the front bands.

I don't know why, but I always agonize over choosing buttons. I had something sheepy in mind, but wasn't able to find anything with this theme that I really liked. I know that buttons can either compliment or distract from a finished project, so I am usually hesitant when it comes to fancy buttons. Most of the time I opt for something plain, just to be safe. I really liked these however .....

What do you think? Are they a good choice for this sweater? Knitting on the button bands will commence soon.

So that's it. That's the SAFF report. It was a fun day with beautiful weather and good friends. I thoroughly enjoyed myself.

© 2007 Leigh's Fiber Journal

SAFF

Yippee, it's good to have things back to normal again! Computer problems over the weekend had me in a mad scramble to try and copy all irreplaceable files, not knowing whether I'd be losing this computer and having to buy a new one or not. But, thanks to the consistently super-fantastic eMachines tech support, I can hang in there with this machine for awhile longer. And it runs so much better.

Enough of that and on to the fiber stuff.

Dan made it possible for me to attend the Southeastern Animal Fiber Fair (SAFF) over the weekend. It's been 2 years since I've been able to go so I was delighted to spend the day seeing old friends and immersing myself in all things fibery.

The drive to Asheville, NC was lovely. The weather was perfect and the autumn color, though just past peak, was still glorious.

This year's SAFF was the best I've seen. There were more vendors, more workshops, more demonstrations, more people, and less parking than before.

This is a shot of the inside of the main arena, where the vendors and workshops are. The workshops are held in the partitioned areas in the center, and vendors are packed into the different levels. The nice thing is that the arena is covered, so that rain isn't a problem.

I would have liked to have taken Eileen Hallman's point spinning workshop, but our transportation situation prevented me from knowing whether or not I'd have a vehicle for the weekend. As it was, it was a last minute spontaneous decision to go anyway.

Here is the Beginning Spinning workshop.....

..... I loved the spinning wheels and couldn't resist taking a pic.

I went with a shopping list but didn't buy a lot. Typical for me, I got quite overwhelmed at all the beautiful fibers, yarns, tools, garments, projects, etc., and become exceptionally indecisive.

Some things I was looking for I found, other things I didn't. And I saw some things I wished I'd added to my list and planned on getting. I did buy more Cushings acid dyes and weaving bobbins. My luxury purchase was this......

...... some clean California Variegated Mutant fleece from Delly's Delights Farm who traveled all the way from Trappe, MD. Now I'm trying to figure out how to squeeze it into my Rare Breed Sweater, for which I already have plenty of samples!

We also had a chance to visit the barns. My favorite (besides the angora bunnies who were all in the main arena) is this......

I love alpacas. We were introduced to them at Alpaca Magic USA when we lived in Florida and my dream then was an Alpaca ranch............ which will probably always remain a dream. :)

The best part of SAFF was getting to see friends. From the Blue Ridge Spinners I saw Carol, Mary, and Eva. From the Western North Carolina Fiber/Handweavers Guild I saw Betsy, Pat, and Charlene (though Mary and Eva are members of this too.) Betsy was my weaving teacher, so I was especially glad to visit with her. She is still just as encouraging as ever.

It's fun how an event like this can be so inspirational. It's refreshing as well as energizing. Now all I have to do is put that inspiration and energy to work.

© 2006 Leigh's Fiber Journal