Day 1 - Weaving and Wool

Yesterday's activities at the NY Sheep and Wool Festival were amazing. Before we went to the festival we found a lovely diner in Red Hook, NY called An Apple A Day....awesome, awesome food. A simple, quaint place that has lots of stuff with fresh veggies, fruits, and best of all home made apple and pumpkin pie...OMG YUM! I had a garden omelette with fresh zucchini, eggplant, asparagus and other veggies. Then we went back for lunch.

I started the day by taking an Inkle weaving class. I picked up a hand made floor Inkle loom from someone in our spinners guild last year. It was a steal so I had to get it even though I didn't know how to use it. So it sat around for a year mostly holding my circular knitting needles. But when I saw the festival offered this class, I had to take it. So I found a new place for my cirs and packed the loom in the truck for the trip. Here are a few pics from yesterday's class:

Me weaving. I finally got it warped!

Not bad. I have to watch my edges.

Top view. The ideas swirling in my head are endless.

This is Michelle from our "Flock U" spinners guild. It was nice having a familiar face in the class. Her band is awesome.

After the weaving class and lunch at An Apple A Day (I had the yummy, cinnamony apple pie) I headed to the wool show. I volunteered with the fleece check in. Over 400 fleeces were entered...a handspinner's heaven! I love raw fleeces probably because it's as close to its natural state (growing on the sheep, alpaca, or goats' back) as you can get. 

Then the judging was from 5:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. Three judges judged the wool fleeces, one judge for alpaca, and one judge for mohair. I was the scribe for one of the wool judges. She judged the primitive breeds and the natural colored fine wool. As a scribe you get to see the fleeces from a judges perspective, hear their comments, and learn a helluva lot. Here are a few pics from the wool show:

The hard working show organizers.

Some of the fleeces. More were coming in.

Judge Elaine and me. She's an excellent judge.

Listening to and writing scores and comments.

Critiquing the fleece.

Saturday morning is the fleece sale. Picture handspinners rushing into the fleece area trying to find and secure their desired fleece. I want to get there early this morning just to watch. I don't plan to buy a fleece this time, but I do want to watch the craziness. I envision something similar to a mob of bride-zillas rushing into a bridal shop on 50% off day.