Baa!

This past weekend, your friendly Desultory Knitter went to the Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival in Jefferson, so I thought I would give you all a rundown.   It's been a little while since I've posted, but my research project for work has kept me quite busy of late and after work there has been much to do that isn't knitting.   Sheep and Wool, however, was awesome, and has restored my will to make beautiful items!  

Upon arriving at the Jefferson County Fairgrounds early Saturday morning, I could tell I was in for some good ol' Wisconsin rural fun.   We were greeted at the entrance by a tractor pulling a little trolley, a shuttle carrying visitors around the fairgrounds, giving a delightful hayride ambience.   Since we arrived so early, the major activity taking place at the time was the sheepdog trials.   This was fascinating, as my husband and I had never seen anything like it.   The dogs are treated like elite athletes, and many are involved in multiple national competitions per year.   There are few dogs in the competition who are not purebred Border collies, though the amount of running they do makes them almost as lean as a greyhound.   Not like my pampered little spaniel!   The dog trainers/handlers stand at a fixed point in the field and whistle, yell, and stomp out commands as the dog runs about after the sheep.   The dogs who were not actively competing at the moment sat on the sidelines and a few perked up their ears and pulled on their leashes at the commands, wishing they were out there with the sheep.   The portion of the competition we saw was mostly "nursery" dogs, pups who were still being trained, though several showed immense promise according to knowledgeable spectators I spoke with.

After watching the competition for some time, we explored the rest of the fairgrounds.   There was a building with fleece auction, a quilt show and "Make It with Wool" competition, a silent auction of roving and handspun yarn.   A separate building held the "Meet the Breeds" hall, full of examples of various sheep breeds, as well as the Blue Faced Leicester show.   I've heard of dog shows and cat shows, but a sheep show?   Ridiculously awesome.   There was a lambing pen in which several newborn lambs lived with their mamas, and a few pregnant ewes lived alongside them.   Two adorable Wisconsin farm kids in classic overalls offered to "catch" a lamb for us to pet, eagerly introduced us to the lambs and explained which one was the oldest in the pen.   They adored farm life and were obviously enamored of the sheep on their family farms.  

 The two "Country Store" barns were jam-packed with knitterly goodness, so I had to go through them very very carefully.   In my haul, I have two skeins of beautiful handspun Romney, some lovely roving for spinning practice, some luxurious cash-merino sock yarn (yes, I splurged a bit, but it was within my budget for the event!) and a copy of Folk Socks and Respect the Spindle, two classic, classic tomes.   There were spinning wheels, tons of handspun, roving, fleeces, and spindles from family farms and more commercial spinneries.   A few booths even sold sheep related farming implements and sheepdog toys/leashes.   The crowd was full of friendly knitters and spinners. 

What did I miss out on?   The classes.   Next year, I'd love to take a class, possibly even an introductory wheel-spinning class, but I just couldn't this year.   It is too bad, because they had a few truly world-class teachers there this year, but oh well.   All this fun was mine to be had for a five dollar admission fee.   Craziness, craziness I say.   Who's with me next year?