Fiber festival season that is. Here in New England, the first show is in early April and the last was this past weekend at the Big E in Springfield, MA. This is the 5th year for this particular show and it keeps getting better and better. We went on Sunday (me and my long suffering husband). There was a fleece sale that I resisted but I didn't resist a fleece. Here are a couple of pics of a Romney Cormo cross fleece from a sheep named Mercy that I bought from a familiar farm.
The Cormo will make this fleece a little harder to wash because there is so much lanolin in it. The results will be well worth it. I bought a fleece from this farmer earlier this year and it is just wonderful. Now, I should have enough raw fleece to last through the long winter! (All told, that's over 14 pounds....)
Here are a few pictures from the festival:
I love wool and fiber festivals and so I'm lucky to live in New England. There are about eight shows that are within reasonable driving distance (including Rhinebeck!). This past week was the New Hampshire show. We (dear long-suffering husband and I) hadn't been to this one in two years so it was great to go. One of the nice things about this show is the fleece sale. The fleeces are from 4H kids and the two that I have bought in years past were clean, clean, clean. I didn't get to the sale this year because I had already reserved a lilac fleece from Kisikanari's Jacobs and just couldn't justify another full fleece (gotta hate it and yes, it was painful).
It was pouring rain when we got there so the grounds were empty. My dear Aunt Polly wanted some kid mohair so I got about a 1/2 pound for her from Cobblerock Ridge Farm and I also got her a pretty Jacob fleece as a surprise. For me, I got the most delicious lilac Jacob fleece. As usual my photos are terrible, few and mostly of sheep. The last photograph is of the fleeces.
