friends, dahlias, spinning, judging

Sheep to Shawl 2010

This ended up by being the Winner!

Another busy week, I am looking forward to a slow week coming up, I hope. However this week had two fun things that I want to tell you about. Our Weaving guild had its second 'Sheep to Shawl' contest which took place in Shell Beach, on a bluff above the Ocean. The location is a park that hosts an Arts and Crafts event once a month, so we were there during one of their events. The day started out with overcast coastal skies.  There was 6 people on each of the three  teams; a carder person to card the wool to ready it for spinning, three spinners, spinning the carded wool and one weaver. The sixth person was a gofer, which was to talk to the public and tell them what was happening and to make sure all the team members got what they needed. They had 4 hours to finished the shawl and I think the winning team finished their shawl in about 2.5 hours. The finished shawls were all beautiful! The sun came out for a few hours, yet wasn't to hot. It was a super day, and I heard one person walk by, then stop to look at all that was happening and said. "Wow, this is  the real deal". Great job Weavers!

This was also the week of AGventures of which I take some Pygora goats and present a hands on talk to 5, 4th grade classes. 20 minutes each with a 5 min break between. It is fast. And it was the first year of the about 6 years I have done this, that it rained the all day. My goats don't do wet well, so we were moved from our favorite grassy area to the barn. It worked out great. I talked about goat care, goat poop, what they 'do' eat, not cans, and shearing, spinning and knitting - wow. Sounds like a lot, but the kids did great and so did Margarit, Leah and Yt, the three does that I took. It was their first time at this event and they really did well - I was happy.

So, now I would like to get back to the Oregon trip to tell you about Day 2 which was a Friday, so here goes:

Day 1, ended with meeting up with my friend Fran Bishop from New York and my new friend Elaine Deegan from Rhode Island as their flights came in almost the same time as mine to Portland thanks to Fran's careful timing. We got our rental car, then drove down to Oregon City and our hotel room. We had a great dinner at our hotel's restaurant of which Chris Utterback from Canby Oregon joined us. After an early night, we were off to bed, the two from the east coast had been traveling since about 4am, they were tired and had a right to be!

Day 2 started with the fact, I didn't have to be anywhere until about 5:30 in the evening, which was when I was to judge the Pygora Sanction Fleece show. So I said, whatever, where ever, ok with me. The first thing was that my roomies need to do some goat stuff at the show, so I went to check on the timing of my judging for the Pygora fiber show and while there was invited to take a class on Alpaca fiber. I  got to spin the two different types of Alpaca. There is Suri and Huacaya. Turns out I like spinning on my support spindle the huacaya alpaca, which to me was very similar to Pygora fiber. I met some nice ladies in this class and the instructor Barbara, who also has a mill to process Alpaca, was very knowledgeable about her topic.

After my class Chris met up with us and took us to a wonderful local dahlia farm with so many colors of dahlais. (Swan Island Dahlias)  Big ones and little ones, giant ones and tiny one. And in the distance we were treated to a view of Mount Hood. WOW! To think that this dahlia farm was only a few miles from the fairgrounds and I never knew it, I could have been stopping here every year I have come to this show. This was a treat to see.

yummy lamb in pita with peppers

Then  Chris, Elaine, Fran and I went to a restaurant were we had some great grub. Was really nice to set and visit and not have to rush back to goats that need cleaning up for a show.

Back at the festival, I started doing my wish. I sat down with some other ladies and started knitting and sharing fiber stories. One lady was a sheep raiser that was a spinner and a weaver. Another lived in a town house and had more fiber then she thought she should have.

Then finally it was time to go judge some fabulous Pygora fleeces. There was great entries of the three fiber types that make up the different Pygora types of fiber. And since all the boxes of fleece have no owners, ranch or goat's name on them, it is truly an anonymous judging. And I was very surprised when I found out that I had chosen one of Fran's goats fleeces for Reserve Grand Champion and she was very thrilled to learn about her win as well.  Then off to dinner and back to our hotel room. We ate at the hotel again, really good food and the prices are good. Day 2 ended - very well. I will continue with this trip on the next blog.

Hey got those bucks allllllll sheared, finally, so now I need to finish tractor cleaning their pen and fix the hot-wire to keep them in. All the goats are acting frisky - it is that time of the year, bucks in rut, and does looking for bucks, and wethers just confused. My graphic Web work is going good - so life is good.