Wisconsin Sheep & Wool Festival 2016

Two weeks ago, I attended the Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival in Jefferson, WI.  I wasn't really looking for anything in particular, and I was overwhelmed by all the yarns and fibers ...  Wow! So many colors and textures and possibilities!

At the show I only purchased a couple of things :
1) a ball of Polworth fiber for spinning into yarn.  This was so soft, it felt like Merino--but heavier.  I'd never heard of Polworth before.  Turns out, it is a derivative of Merino wool.  Nice stuff!
2) a threading hook for my spinning wheel with a nice wooden handle
3) a couple of stick shuttles for weaving

Here's what I saw on display :
*  Beautiful Rag Rugs
*  Wonderful cloak / shawl pins with a little bling very reasonably priced -- I wished I had purchased one, but didn't get back to that stand.
*  Beautiful handspun yarn in blues with silver.  $45 a skein.  Expensive, and I didn't have a project in mind for it when I saw it -- but I did the next day, back at home, and too far away to go back and get it.  Rats!

I was looking for Patty Reedy of  Rainbow Fleece Farm -- according to the show catalog, they were indeed there, but I didn't see them.  When I first started spinning nearly 20 years ago, I got some of her fiber.  It has a sparkle and a sheen (luster) I haven't seen in other fleece.   Really!  I'm wondering what her Fiber looks like now after 20 more years of breeding and genetics.  At that time, she told me she was a Fiber Arts person, and realized she needed to breed sheep in order to get the fiber she wanted.  Amen!

A few stands were actually selling bags of raw fleece -- I was tempted, but I knew I had 2-3 bags at home -- washed and waiting to be carded.    I see a carding day in my near future ...

Susan's Fiber Shop was also there.  Her stand was hopping, as usual!  I bought my Louet S90 Spinning Wheel from her almost 20 years ago.  And it still works like a charm!  I'm so glad I bought a good wheel, not a fixer-upper at a rummage sale.  If it had given me trouble, I would not have kept spinning.  This particular wheel was discontinued, but I just found out it's making a limited edition comeback!  So you could get one if you really wanted it -- and were willing to pay the price.

I bought the new threading hook and stick shuttles at Mielke's Fiber Arts --- So I stuck with the vendors I was familiar with.

I did keep the catalog as a future reference.  Lots of good information within -- and one worth keeping.

They offered lots of classes, too.  Now I wish I would have signed up to attend some of them ...
How to hand-spin your own fancy yarn, for one.   There's always next year!