How I spent my Mother's Day

Actually, I spent a good bit of the whole weekend here--9 hours over 2 days. The weather was absolutely perfect, and I had such a great time! Sheep judging, sheepdog demonstrations, great lamb to eat, and HUNDREDS of vendors selling everything a fiber lover could possibly want!

So what was there to see? There were sheep:



And more sheep:



And more sheep!



Somehow I got an awful lot of pictures of sheep behinds. They also have some very cute fronts of course:



Awwwww! And there were alpacas too! I love alpacas.





And there were so many beautiful things to look at. Some were on display by vendors:





Some were entered in a judged competition. These next two pictures are felted--they look like watercolor paintings!





And other things were being worn by their creators!



On Sunday I watched the Sheep to Shawl competition--amazing! Each competing team has 5 members--a shearer, three spinners, and a weaver. And they have 4 hours to shear a sheep, comb and spin the fleece into yarn, and weave it into a shawl! Each team comes with their loom already warped (all strung with the threads needed to make the shawl), then as the spinners get yarn made, the weaver creates the shawl. It was so cool to watch.

Combing out fleece:



Three spinners and a weaver in action:



There was a junior team too:



Their finished shawl:



The 2nd place winner--isn't this gorgeous?



And the winning shawl on the right:



I have more photos up on my Flickr page if you'd like to see them. I had an absolutely MARVELOUS time, and I can't wait till next year!