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Shepherd's Harvest at Twenty Years Old

On Saturday I ventured to Stillwater's Washington County Fairgrounds to take in Shepherd's Harvest, a sheep and wool festival being held for its 20th year.  Last year Mom, Susan and I investigated this event on a windy and thus really chilly mid-May day.  This year I was alone with Mom celebrating a graduation and Susan in Paris.

Photo credit to Shepherd's Harvest FB page
The weather on Saturday was warm, like 80 F/23 C degrees warm.  The venue is about a 30 minute drive east from my condo downtown Minneapolis making it located very close to Wisconsin; thus the vendors come from both Minnesota and Wisconsin.  The variety of vendors include those who spin and dye yarn, those who hand paint or hand dye roving, basket and yarn bowl makers, those selling spinning and weaving tools, many of local yarn shops and all the other types of accessories needed to do yarn crafting.  The vendors fill three large fairground buildings.

Last year the weather kept us from spending any time with the llamas and alpacas or taking in the shearing demonstrations.  Llama and alpaca are both South American Camelids.  Both produce a fiber that is used to make yarn, but there a several differences.  Llama have the longer curved ears and grow to be much bigger than alpaca.  Llama tend to be used as guard or pack animals.  Alpaca are much more social animal and create a more refined fiber. Alpacas have more rounded ears and face when compared to a llama. If you want to read more about their differences check out this grower's website.

I found both species in the barn friendly and curious.  Here's a bunch of photos I took.

Here a llama is being sheared

This llama posed for me

My Holstein coloured llama 

Added this llama to show the variety of their colour
Oh, sure yarn was purchased, despite my efforts at restraint.  A single skein of Nako lace weight, 550 m/600 yards of yarn from Turkey found its way home with me. The colourway is #412 and includes dark blue, dark teal, cooper and rust, a beautiful combination of colours that look good on me.  It contains 10% alpaca and 10% wool, with the remainder in acrylic; it is so very soft I will forgive it for its lack of a pedigree and celebrate its affordability.

Photo credit - Webs
It came with an easy Feather and Fan shawl pattern and I am knitting it on rather large 10.5/6.5 mm sized needles.  Since this shawl has only just been started, I will hold off photos until more of the loveliness of the yarn is visible.

As for the day, it was a satisfying adventure visiting Shepherd's Harvest again this year. Perhaps next year I will see if I can find someone to join me; it is much more fun to enjoy these types of events with others.












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