This past weekend, on October 21, Andy and I went to the 2006 New York Sheep and Wool Festival in Rhinebeck, NY. Check out the website for the annual fair at www.sheepandwool.com
For those of you who haven’t been to any Sheep and Wool or Fiber Festivals yet, there is a full range of activities for literally everyone in the family. There are petting zoos for children, as well as sheep, alpaca, and llama exhibits for those that have been entered into the various animal competitions. There are also sheep-herding demonstrations — unfortunately I did not have the time to check one out at this Sheep and Wool Festival, but I did when I went to the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival in the spring. And of course, the best part….yarn and fiber vendors from all over the country!
[Oh yeah, and if you are meat-inclined (which I am not), there is also generally a lot of fresh-cooked lamb and other meats.]
I have to admit though that I found the NY festival to be a lot more limited in selection than the MD festival, especially because the NY festival seemed to have a lot of non-knitting related goods including weaving materials and a TON of finished products which aren’t that helpful for one who likes to make their own finished products.
But, I did buy two different types of yarn. The first was a skein of some simple brown baby alpaca wool for making Andy a soft winter hat. The second was some super-light weight lace yarn (a merino and tencel blend) to make a lace-weight shawl in the classic Orenburg style. I also bought a book "The Gossamer Webs Design Collection" to assist me in learning this new style of knitting. For more information about the lace-weight yarn and the Orenburg style of knitting, check out the vendor I bought those products from: www.skaska.com.
Hopefully, I’ll start work on both the hat and scarf soon so you’ll be able to check out the full experience of the 2006 NY Sheep and Wool Festival.
And as Andy remarked at the festival, "These sheep aren’t up to any good!"
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