Festival of Fiber, Powhatan, Virginia

It was a glorious day with the weather sunny in the high 60s, low 70s at Powhatan's first Festival of Fiber.  Here's what Aimee and I saw, among other things. 

First, watching a sheep dog work these three sheep. 

This dog seemed to love herding the sheep around.  The sheep, on the other hand, were not amused! 

There were goats, alpacas and more sheep around the field.  Lots of fun to see these animals when all you normally see are dogs and cats. 

A month old kid.  He had tiny horns growing -- they are the light spots you can see in this picture. 

A sheep being hand sheared.  I bet he felt good to get rid of his heavy fur coat. 

For some reason this guy looks like a clown to me! Maybe it's the puffy hair on his head and the rest of him shorn. Lots of alpacas were visiting at the Festival.  And, lots of alpaca wool for sale. 

Here are an alpaca before shearing and his friend after. 

Another pair with and without hair.  We were able to get quite close to these two but they weren't interested in having people pet them.  I love how white the left one is. 

I'm guessing this is a ram but remember, I'm mostly a suburbs type.

Eventually we got a bit overheated and stopped for drinks.  Notice the name of this place -- Carpe Donut.  The donuts looked really good but we were good and didn't get any. 

And, just in case you think it was all sheep and alpacas.  Not at all.  Here is one of the vendors, Unplanned Peacock Studio and a glorious selection of yarn.  

Aimee bought several skeins of yarn from various vendors.  I bought yarn for socks from Wandering Wool. It is a wonderful deep red/cranberry hand dyed super wash wool.  I hope to try knitting two at a time socks with circular needles. 

I felt a lot of the alpaca yarns which are super soft.  But, I didn't buy any.  I did find a great sweater pattern but will hold off on buying either the pattern or any yarn for it for the time being.  Maybe next year I'll get some hand dyed yarn for it.  

I am looking forward to next years Festival of Fiber.  It was much smaller than Howard County, Maryland's Sheep and Wool Festival that I attended years ago. But, how can you argue with a festival 10 minutes from home? Hum, just thought, I haven't made up the yarn I bought at the Sheep and Wool Festival, maybe 10 years ago?  Maybe it would work with the sweater pattern I really liked.  

That's it for today.  I have been quilting but wanted to share all this wool business! 

Happy Quilting All!