Shepard's Extravaganza

We took a break from our brief camping trip to go to the Spring Fair in Puyallup. This was a carefully crafted plan by me to make sure I got to do a little wool shopping - I picked the camp ground location because of its proximity to the fair, and its advertised Shepard's Extravaganza.

I'd never been to the Spring Fair before - it turned out to be a scaled down version of the Fall, really a perfect size for J & Roni who don't feel the need to look at every cow, every chicken, and every wonder gadget selling booth, which is the tradition in my family.

J's favorite part was the rides, Roni's was the sour dough chili bowl, and mine was the wonderful shopping opportunity in the wool barn. J unexpectedly turned out to be terrified of the tractor moving wood chips into the barn at one end, so Roni had to take our sobbing, clinging boy out to wait, so I rushed a bit, but I still managed to get some fabulous fiber - an emerald green/black romney & alpaca mix, some hand painted BFL, and the softest thing I've ever felt in a fiber, a baby camel blend. I spent some time talking to a woman about her jacob sheep flock, so I got 4 ounces of a soft grey from her sheep as well to try.

I spent some time looking at the fleeces as well that were for sale after the judging, but I'm not prepared yet to try to process a whole fleece, not with my little hand carders. But it was interesting to read the judges' comments to learn what they look for in a fleece, and also to see the completely different types of locks the different breeds have. Someday, when I have a drum carder and I've learned to spin woolen using a long draw instead of my usual short draw, I'll jump into fleece buying. But for now, the fiber storage dresser is going to be hard pressed to fit my already processed purchases as it is.

We came back to the wool barn as our last stop of the day to watch a herding dog demonstration. No sheep to be herded, however, (oddly, sheep were the only animals that we never saw at the fair - horses, cows, multitudes of goats and chickens, even lamas and pheasants, but nary a sheep to be found) so the dogs demonstrated their skills at moving small duck flocks about the pen, through a tunnel and over ramps. The dogs seemed dedicated, but the ducks were very unhappy about their adventure in bridge climbing.