Saturday and Sunday, September 12th - 13th was the Annual Sheep & Fiber Festival in Lambertville, NJ. It is a smaller festival and that is what makes it great for those that can't walk a lot and have never been to a festival before. It's like the Turtle Back zoo in New Jersey I use to volunteer at. It was big enough to get a taste of a zoo especially for really young kids without traveling to New York to the Bronx Zoo which is huge. So for those that live in NJ this is great. Start small then go big.
I really looked forward to going to the festival and I always get a kick out of one of the events there the sheep dogs gathering the sheep show. The dogs are so dedicated to their job and almost don't want to listen to command because they don't want to take their eyes off of the sheep. The dog they had stood like a statue. He actually didn't move for a long time but he finally laid down.
I went with a former student of mine that has never been to a festival before. She has been purchasing wool and it was good that she could see parts of the process including how yarn is spun and sheared. She was fascinated over how the spinner could get the proper weight of the yarn. Skill is needed since I tried hand spinning, in fact at this festival several years ago. I quickly put it down on my bucket list when I find more time to work with it. We both really enjoyed the road trip. Now she knows what to expect when the larger festival comes in October.
And of course you look forward to seeing what vendors will be here. I'm sure there are those that look forward to their favorite vendors to see what they have.
It only rained once which was a downpour but only lasted a few minutes. We had just finished watching the dog and sheep herding show so that was great timing. This festival has four barns that are closely connected to each other which makes it good for rainy days.
When it came to purchases I was very good. I got one hank of hand-dyed DK weight 100% superwash merino wool from the vendor Traveller. It is a beautiful green variegated yarn which has an appropriate name - Moss Man. And there was a vendor Lynchings modern neck wear there that weaves scarves and I loved the colors and had to get this one that has speckles of colors throughout. And for some reason I think I will have time to get into the needle felting so I brought three bags of roving. But as you can see they are very small because you only need small amounts of it for facial things on stuffed projects like animals and you need eyes or a mouth. Yes I keep dreaming and hopefully I will be able to do it one day. But I knew that Rhinebeck was right around the corner in October so I needed to be good. And I still work at the yarn shop and there is still Michael's. Oh and I forgot about the ball made out of felt with a bell inside I purchased for my baby Shadow (my cat).
Here are a few pictures from our trip.
We had a good time and now we are looking forward to another road trip to Rhinebeck in October.
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