Shepherd's Harvest

At long last, a fiber festival! Lake Elmo, Minnesota is host to the Shepherd's Harvest Sheep and Wool Festival today and tomorrow. Sally and I went to the event together. As a former knitter and a lifelong animal lover, Sally was enticed to go mostly because of the animals. There was a bountiful amount of yarn, fiber, soap and animals for me to ogle, fondle, smell, pet and appreciate.

Two of the shearers we saw working at the festival were women. One shearer was shearing the sheep and one was working on the alpacas and llamas. It turns out that alpaca look freakish when completely shorn. Here is proof:

Cute, fuzzy, fluffy alpacas

Freakish, skinny-necked, naked alpacas

I wonder if that explains why some of the llama and alpaca were sheared in a band around their middles, like this one:

Besides sheep, alpaca, llamas and goats, there were also angora rabbits. This woman was spinning right from her rabbit. The animal seemed to be loving the rocking of her legs as she worked the treadles.

I got to fondle lots and lots of yarn, see many beautiful projects, meet some new people and knit with curtain rod knitting needles.

Sally got to try on lots of fun things and made best friends with a whole host of goats in the goat barn.

I was incredibly self-disciplined at the festival and bought just one very special skein of yarn, a pattern, a little bar of goat's milk soap and kettle corn.