"Baa! Baa! Black Sheep.....Have You Any Wool?"
Yesterday was great fun! For the 3rd year, the Purls of Distinction Knitting Guild was asked to participate in Frying Pan Park's Sheep and Wool Day. Jo, Jerry, and I brought our spinning wheels and demonstrated how yarn is made. We had numerous samples of our hand spun skeins in various colors.....including natural colors. We also brought samples of some knitted items. Pamela and her daughter Ella demonstrated knitting. They also provided a nice variety of yarn, patterns, and knitting needles for sale.....just in case someone got infected with "the knitting bug".
The Sheep and Wool Day was a small festival focused on families. Activities included sheep shearing demonstrations, spinning demonstrations, dyeing demonstrations (this year's focus was on the natural dyes), and various activities for the kids. This year, Capital Alpacas brought a couple of alpacas and demonstrated the preparation and spinning of the alpaca wool. As always, since part of Frying Pan Park is a working farm, there were lots of young farm animals around to entertain - the young pigs and little lambs were favorites.
I brought my older Lendrum spinning wheel (one I'd picked up second hand) and let anyone who wanted try their hand at spinning. I also put together some "Make your own knitting needle" kits with chopsticks, yarn, and sandpaper for the younger kids. Capital Yarns donated some knitting needles and yarn that we gave to the teenage/adult visitors that were interested in learning to knit. The remaining needles and yarn were donated to the park district for use with their youth and summer programs.
And now for the "Black Sheep" part......Every year, I buy some roving prepared from the previous year's shearings. I generally buy the Black Welsh Mountain wool. Last year's wool was a nice black....in previous years it had been more of a grey. The two lambs' wool had been included with the "greying" mom's wool to produce the very rich black wool that I bought this year. Part of what makes this wool purchase extra special to me is that it's wool from the sheep that live at the park....I'm such a sentimental fool!
The Sheep and Wool Day was a small festival focused on families. Activities included sheep shearing demonstrations, spinning demonstrations, dyeing demonstrations (this year's focus was on the natural dyes), and various activities for the kids. This year, Capital Alpacas brought a couple of alpacas and demonstrated the preparation and spinning of the alpaca wool. As always, since part of Frying Pan Park is a working farm, there were lots of young farm animals around to entertain - the young pigs and little lambs were favorites.
I brought my older Lendrum spinning wheel (one I'd picked up second hand) and let anyone who wanted try their hand at spinning. I also put together some "Make your own knitting needle" kits with chopsticks, yarn, and sandpaper for the younger kids. Capital Yarns donated some knitting needles and yarn that we gave to the teenage/adult visitors that were interested in learning to knit. The remaining needles and yarn were donated to the park district for use with their youth and summer programs.
And now for the "Black Sheep" part......Every year, I buy some roving prepared from the previous year's shearings. I generally buy the Black Welsh Mountain wool. Last year's wool was a nice black....in previous years it had been more of a grey. The two lambs' wool had been included with the "greying" mom's wool to produce the very rich black wool that I bought this year. Part of what makes this wool purchase extra special to me is that it's wool from the sheep that live at the park....I'm such a sentimental fool!
posted by Jinann @ 5:33 PM
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