Monday, June 25, 2012

Black Sheep Festival

Seven ladies set out on a 5 hour tour, of the Black Sheep Festival in Eugene, this weekend. Fyber Cafe was joined by some wonderful, talented spinning and weaving ladies, that are friends of Jana's. Several of us had never been to the festival before, and were greatly impressed by over 100 vendors, with clouds of soft wool, silk, and angora roving, felt, weavings, and yarn. The colors achieved by the dyers art was astounding, rainbows would have had competition. The artwork in competition was varied, from scarves, to felted figures, yarn and sweaters, needle felted pictures and art. The lily pad art, was the "Best of Show" and the others were my favorites, as I am not a judge of what makes good yarn, so did not take photos of those winners. The Husky and the lady with cat, were delicate needle felting and the eyes were very expressive. The sheep with hat was a booth mascot, and the boy with sheep was richly detailed, and had a lot of depth, and very realistic. Many other pieces of artwork were impressive, but I can only post so many pictures. One pic of the balls of wool roving, will give you any idea of the multitude of colors to choose from while shopping. After lunch under huge awnings, with BBQ chicken and pulled pork from the vendors, and some with our humble sandwiches, we visited and shared the treasures we had purchased, and decided we needed more time to see everything. I strolled through the sheep and goat barns, and wanted to pet them all. They were all very friendly, and wanted attention, and had big blue or gold eyes. Many varieties of sheep were represented, and ribbons and signs were on the stalls. The Angora goats were very impressive with their large twisting horns, and soft curls. And of coarse someone had to dye lambs peach and pink. The pink one was vibrant, cute and friendly, and all the kids wanted one. Outside, they were shearing one large sheep or goat, after another, it was quiet a wrestling match for some of them. Two alpacas kept an eye on everyone, as they chewed their hay, the llama and alpaca show was not at the event this year. We had a great time, and all went home with a little bit of wool or yarn, or fibers for felting. Join us next year!

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