Another One for the Record Books

The 6th Annual Waynesburg Sheep and Fiber Festival is now history. This was a year of change for the festival. We moved from downtown Waynesburg to the Greene County Fairgrounds due to a scheduling conflict with the Waynesburg University Commencement festivities. We had more vendors than in prior years and what a quality group they were! There were some last minute changes, but the concensus from visitors & vendors alike was that it was a great weekend!

We started off Saturday morning before the festival officially opened with the sheep shearing for the Sheep to Shawl Contest.
Three teams competed for first prize with a shawl that they created from freshly shorn sheep. Two women were shearing this year. One of them was the Greene County Lamb & Wool Queen, Rachel Finnegan. After the sheep were sheared, the fleeces went to be carded, spun into yarn, and woven into shawls on a prewarped loom.

The shawls were judged by a panel and then auctioned off Saturday afternoon.

The Lamb & Wool Queen wasn't done for the day though ..... she and her escort also judged the vendor booths. There's an award for the best fiber booth and the best non-fiber booth. Rachel & her escort are making their way through the building to check booths and talk with each vendor. Best fiber booth went to Aboundingful Farm and best non-fiber booth went to Wilson Stained & Fused Glass. Here's a shot of one side of the Wild Rose Farm booth and some of our naturally dyed Rambouillet yarn. The gorgeous fleece on the floor was the one that was reserved on shearing day this spring and it was picked up by Misty at the festival. Looking back at the records, this fleece came from the same ewe who had the Reserve Grand Champion Fleece at the Hookstown Fair in 2008.
Next to the Wild Rose Farm booth was Shipyard Point Glassworks. They had a fantastic selection of image art glass buttons, stitch markers, beads, earrings, and glass embellished knitting needles, crochet hooks, needle threaders, and orifice hooks for spinners. I kept going back and looking at all of the buttons ..... I finally settled on the bright yellow button with blue dots and millefiore accent at the bottom middle of the picture. Go ahead & zoom in on it! I couldn't resist & also bought a button and a fun cat's head bead for a knitting friend.

For the spinners out there, the festival had some rare breed wool for sale ..... hope you got some! Wensleydale was available from Flying Fibers and Navajo-Churro was available from Walks Far Acres.