Waynesburg Sheep & Fiber Fest Fun!

Customers At Michelle's Assortment & Kim Goodman's Punch Needle Design

It seemed that the crowds picked up on Sunday after the rain threatened all day Saturday.  The festival only got about 15 minutes of rain on Saturday!  Not so for the rest of Western PA, but the folks on Sunday said, "enough" and came carrying umbrellas just in case ...  :)

See The Little Sheep In The Middle & In The Sheep Bowl?

It seems that no one can resist touching the yarn from the unique Annadele Alpacas booth set-up running down the center aisle of the building!

Annadele Alpacas - Feel The Alpaca Yarn! 

River Ridge Fiberworks has fantastic handspun yarns, felted flowers & purses, sock yarn, and their famous, great smelling "Mothzilla" sachets, but take a look at these great glass window hangings & mirrors!

River Ridge Fiberworks - Wow!

We had several vendors spinning, felting, rug hooking, pottery decorating, & treenware carving during the festival ...

Spinning At Barbara's Weave 'N Wear

Finally, we have pictures of our fantastic Vendor Booth Award winners.  Vendors are "secretly" judged during the festival by a couple of young adults in 4-H or perhaps a mother/daughter pair who visit each booth.  Booths are judged on signage, visibility of pricing, product display, and ability of the vendor to relate to the public and describe their product or craft.  And the winners are:

HipStrings - 2015 Waynesburg Sheep & Fiber Fest - Best Fiber Booth - 2nd Year Vendor

CasDesigns - 2015 Waynesburg Sheep & Fiber Fest - Best Craft Booth - 2nd Year Vendor

2015 Waynesburg Sheep & Fiber Fest Day One

Fleece Sold At 2015 Waynesburg Sheep & Fiber Fest

I spent all day yesterday in vendor set up activities for the Waynesburg Sheep & Fiber Fest ...whew!  Today was the 1st day of the weekend festival.  The weather was generally good - one rain shower around lunch time and then no more rain all day.  The fleece above from Rambouillet #410 was entered into the fleece contest and was sold at the fleece tent.

Rambouillet Fleece For Sale At Waynesburg  Sheep & Fiber Fest!

 We still have spinning fleeces available for sale along with our fine wool combed top.  There are some really great vendors at the festival this year.   After locking up the vendor buildings, I walked down to the Breed Pavillion to take a few pictures at sunset.  This ewe seems to be saying "where is everybody?".

Horned Dorset Ewe - Waynesburg Sheep & Fiber Fest Breed Pavillion

See you tomorrow at the festival!

First Lambpede Of The Season!

Wild Rose Farm Lambpede !

Well, there they go!  The first unrestrained, full scale lambpede of the season was underway ...  The temperatures dropped from the 80's on Monday to the 50's tonight with cloudy & overcast skies.  Perfect weather for a lambpede.  By the time I got closer, the lambs had made another lap and were tired and stood panting with their little sides heaving.  I bet they're in the barn taking a nap now!
I spotted them while I was at the kitchen window rinsing indigo dyed yarn for the 2015 Waynesburg Sheep & Fiber Fest this weekend May 16th & 17th.   Stay tuned & I'll have some pics of the yarn and some spinning fleeces that will be going to the show!

Going In Order ...

Wild Rose Farm #99 With Twins

We had a set of twins on Tuesday and carried them to the barn in the morning after the rain tapered off. Mom & babies are doing well.  Today, we found a newborn set of twins with x-bred ewe #99 in the Loafing Shed.  Here they are pictured above ... the ewe lamb is smaller than the ram lamb, but not nearly as small as she appears all curled up in the picture!
The 2015 Waynesburg Sheep & Fiber Fest is approaching fast - May 16th & 17th - so the fiber activity is picking up too.   There will be fleeces to skirt later this week, but for now I've started a dyebath.

"Somerset Sweets" Onion Skins

 Years ago, like 10 years ago, Rick & Rita of Laurel Vista Farm in Somerset County, PA gave me a huge bag of onion skin sweepings from their processing building.  Here's a label to prove it!   I'll finally finish using these skins this summer.  The color starts to soak out very quickly.   I'll probably boil the onion skins & extract the dye tomorrow.

Somerset Sweets - Color After 15 Minutes Of Soaking 

    

Anybody Out There?

Wild Rose Farm - Whiteout @ 1:39 PM Today!

For all we know, the sheep are trailing down to the water tank, but you couldn't prove it from this picture! The current temperature is 22 degrees F & dropping.  It's looked like this several times today and we've gotten a couple of inches of new snow.
In other news, the applications are flowing in from the vendors for the 2015 Waynesburg Sheep & Fiber Fest.  As the Craft Show Chairman, it's great to see the long time vendors coming back and new vendors sending their pictures in with their application.  A new vendor application came in today - she wrote about her fiber and felted offerings and mentioned that her "fairies have a following"!   It puts a smile on your face on a cold winter day ...   Is the 3rd weekend in May far away now?  ;~)

Wild Rose Farm - Glad to Have Indoor Plumbing!

You can't even see the barn from the porch ...