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 Galen's fleece -- great crimp, lustre & hand...and the pewter blue color is amazing! Once again…photos have held this up. I’m so sorry but I’m having a heck of a time with this photo thing…it shouldn’t be difficult but I just can’t seem to get the hang of it. BUT here they are — shots of the winning fleeces from Maryland S&W Festival. I’m SO excited!  Bandita's coloring is "English Blue" so her fleece is darkers greys around the edges and she has a saddle blanket of pale silver blue. Here it is Friday and I’m finally sitting down to write about Maryland. I haven’t a clue where the week has gone and on top of that, I just realized that two posts I did before I left weren’t published…ugh…guess I must’ve been more panicked than I thought! Because I spend far too much time obsessing about the weather, I’ll sum up the festival weather report in one word — WET! — and now we can move on to more enjoyable topics. The ACR booth was well stocked with glorious Coopworth fiber and I really had to work at not buying one of everything.  Deb, Kris & Nina at the ACR booth. What I did come home with was a couple of small bags of dyed roving (Martha M) and a sweet needle felted sheep (Deb M) for my collection. I really wanted to bring home a few of Kris B‘s handmade sheep cards but never got around to choosing which ones…good thing I know how to find her! At other booths I found some lovely yarn for a Lynne Vogel pattern that I really like, a skein of small farm (Suffolk/Dorset) sock yarn from Solitude — love what they’re doing for their local wool growers — and some dyes to play with. At Spinner’s Hill, I found a pair of socks I couldn’t leave behind and at Kiparoo Wool, a pair of fingerless mitts for Jim. I know…I could knit these but the fact is that I probably wouldn’t so…now he has a pair. In my wanderings, I ran into old friends and chatted with total stangers while waiting in various lines. I stuffed myself full of fresh squeezed lemonade, leg of lamb sandwiches and kettle corn and fell into bed on Saturday night after a dinner of a few slices of cheddar cheese, a handful of peanut M&M’s and a half glass of wine…exhausted! We tried to get some enthusiasm for the World’s Longest Scarf project going at the booth but it was difficult — the weather kept us from being able to set up a comfy spot for people to rest their bones while knitting a row or two.  This young lady is knitting a row on the World's Longest Scarf. This is the first fiber festival she's ever been to. What a great memory for her to take home! Between showers, we managed to get a few people to knit a bit, tho. What’s this Longest Scarf thing? As part of the celebration of the International Year of Natural Fibres, teams around the world will knit sections of the World’s Longest Scarf that will all be joined together at the New York Sheep & Wool Festival Oct. 17-18, 2009. The goal is to raise $250,000.00 that Heifer Intenational will use to donate fleece-bearing animals of all kinds to needy families all around the world. Heifer not only donates the animals, but provides the necessary training so that the families can nurture and grow their herds and become self-sufficient. www.heifer.org The money will be raised by donation of $1.00 per row knitted/crocheted or $10.00 per inch woven/felted.
 Letty showed us what to check for. At the ACR’s annual meeting on Saturday night, we talked about all the usual stuff but the best part was a Conformation Clinic that Martha arranged with Letty Klein. We went into the sheep barns where we were able to get some hands on experience. Letty was delightful and so knowledgeable. I learned some new points and have been looking at my sheep in a whole new way! More Festival news coming soon…
Our breed registry, ACR, has a co-operative retail booth at the Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival and we’ve signed up to contribute product. I’ve been washing assorted fleece for our “Flicking Kits.”  drying natural colored locks Each kit includes 6 ounces of clean locks of many natural colors, a little dog comb and instructions on how to flick and spin the locks. This is such an easy way to make a randomly colored yarn and it’s fun, too! Great for overdyeing, too… I’m also taking some of our new notecards and a few Hatchtown spindle kits along with the usual roving and yarn. I can’t wait to see all the goodies the other members are bringing! This will be the ACR’s first experience in an outside space and the smaller size (10 X10) tent. Nina and I are loaning the ACR our newly acquired EZ Up and Jim designed a really cool banner for us.  The ACR has a new banner! So the past couple of days haven’t been the best weather-wise… grey, drizzily, raw and just generally pretty miserable. I think this qualifies as one of those 2 steps forward, 1 step back moments. While I’ve had to abandon the idea of playing outside, I’ve been a busy bee in the barn. I’ve been working on batching fleeces to go to the mill and I’m so-o-o-o excited!! Our CSA members are going to have some be-e-ea-u-tiful fiber to play with! The fleeces are even better than I’d originally thought now that I’m seeing them for a second time and really getting my hands into them! In preparation for the Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival, I’m on the prowl for a few fleeces with “the right stuff”…the ones I’ll take to the Fleece Show. I try to take a couple every year. We don’t show our sheep (prefer to keep them on the home turf…because of the quarentine thing I’ve talked about in previous post) so showing fleeces at least gets the fiber out into the fiber public’s eye. Because many of our fleeces are destined to go into roving and yarn for the CSA, I’ll be bringing the show fleeces back home with me. Keeping fingers (& toes!) crossed and I’ll post the results when I get back. I’ve been to an island! OK — not the warm, tropical kind. North Haven is just an hour and a bit out by ferry, and Becky & Bill live there year round. Of course its population grows by leaps and bounds in the summer but at this time of year it’s fairly quiet. Becky met me and as we drove from the ferry to the house, I drooled over the wide expanses of open land. North Haven used to be an agricultural island and sheep were kept in great numbers. At one time, North Haven lamb was prized in the markets in Boston. Today, there are only a handful of people keeping sheep and there’s a feral flock of mouflon that’s sighted from time to time. Sadly, most of the pasture land is privately owned by people who aren’t full time residents and it’s just mowed annually to keep it from closing in…aka keeping the views open. It’d be beneficial in so many ways to put that land into production…just dreaming. I’d heard from Becky that the day before I arrived, three sets of twins had been born to her Coopworth ewes so I was very excited to see them and their Moms. She and Bill started their flock with Coopworths from us and then a year later they bought our Border Leicester ewe, Imogene, too.  The view from Cider Hill Farm on North Haven Island. I think the girls may have remembered me just a little…at least they weren’t too concerned with me hanging around in the lambing shed and handling their babies. Imogene let me scratch her forehead and rub her back a bit…she always liked that. And the lambs — very sweet. The three sets of twins were made up of one natural colored & one white. I’m not sure whether that’s significant but it’s certainly interesting and very cute. Becky offered that it is in honor of our new administration. When we weren’t playing with the sheep, we picked away at fleeces. All were beautiful and really very clean considering they’d not been covered for a good part of the year. She was a little worried about their condition but I’d be very happy to have any of the ones I saw! Last year she had some yarn made from her fleeces and sold it at a shop on the island. It disappeared…knitters know exceptionally nice yarn when they see it!! It sounds like this year there may be some roving available, too.  This ancient apple tree couldn't be identified by the experts during a recent census. It produces apples that weigh about a pound each! Becky & Bill have been asked to name it.  Becky's white Coopworth wether, Oatie, and his replacement ewe friends.  Its always takes a few minutes for everyone to adjust on their first day out!  Marion's lambs sticking by her while she picks at every little green thing she can find.  This little one has found a warm spot to wait while mom snacks on hay. Back to reality and my own fleeces to sort through for the CSA. We have just a few roving shares left but there are still a number of yarn shares available.
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Hatchtown Farm — Pam & Jim Child — pamjim@hatchtown.com
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