Sampson's Fleece

This weekend I attended my favorite part of the Mountain State Fair, the regional fair for Western North Carolina. Saturday was a busy day, but since the fleece show is the first order of the day, it fit quite nicely.  We got there while judging is still going on and I met up with Tami.  Tami runs the sheep show for SAFF and raises mostly Border Leicester sheep.    She had only entered a couple of fleeces, in the show but took a first & second in natural colored Border Leicester.  I took home Sampson's fleece, the blue ribbon winner.  It is soft and sweet in a lovely grey with brown tips.  It isn't very big - maybe 2 pounds and I already washed about half of it.  This will be my demo fleece at the Madison County Heritage Festival where I take my drum carder and let kids run the drum carder.

So what will I do with this not-very-big fleece? Well, I'm not sure.  My guess is that it will become yarn that will become hats that will go out in the universe.  In the mean time this will be my demo fleece at the Madison County Heritage Festival where I take my drum carder and let kids do a bit of carding.  It's a little Tom Sawyer-ish, but everybody enjoys it, including me.

In any case, I will happily wash, pick, card and spin this lovely fleece.  Thanks, Sampson and Tami!

A Bit of the Fair

Yes, there were sheep.  Yes, there were giant pumpkins. But for me, the main event was going with my friends Sally and Jeff and Sally's grandson Nate.  Nate just turned 2 and everything was wonderful - baby chicks and ducks, the big veggies, the petting zoo, a baby tiger  - all the cute stuff tiny people love.  Who knew he'd be captivated by the dioramas - those shoeboxes depicting farm scenes make by grade school kids around western NC.  But for all of us, it was the Carousel.  Let this be the official documentation of Nate's first ride on the merry-go-round.  Too sweet!

Official fiber content:  I did not enter hand spun yarn or knitted goodies, but I wish I had.  There were very few entries, and although some were very nice (and would have kicked my behind) I could have been a contender!