A week before Hurricane Sandy headed toward New York and New Jersey, we reveled in the glorious autumn weather at Rhinebeck for the annual New York State Sheep and Wool Festival.  It was a fantastic weekend: Saturday afternoon was so warm that most of the usual suspects had to shed their fabulous hand-knitted apparel.  The resulting lack of gorgeous sweaters, shawls, hats, and wristlets to gawk at, and absence of the famous chicken pot pie man for the second year, were perhaps the only two reasons to complain.

Yes, the warm temperatures and blue skies brought out what seemed like record crowds, but there are ways to work around the onslaught of fiber enthusiasts.  This year, I spent Saturday with my cousin and our combined four children.  We ate lunch at 10:15 on Saturday, beating the long lines for artichokes and other treats.  We took turns taking the kids to events they liked, so that Eve and I each could have some fun shopping!  The highlight of the day was surely the chop-stick knitting contest: Eve’s 12-year old daughter placed third in the kids’ category, knitting up a storm in the allotted 15 minutes.  She had a big cheering section!  It was fun to be there with some newcomers this time around – they took me to some events I had yet to experience in the ten years I have been going to Rhinebeck.  We all loved the Sheep to Shawl Fashion Show, where kids and adults alike model the clothes they have designed and sewn themselves – all from wool, of course.  The winners head to the national competition in January.  We will see some of these kids on Project Runway in a few years!

Sharon Valley Shepherds received excellent scores in the fleece contest, but brought no ribbons home this year.  There was a large increase in the number of fleece entered, especially in the primitive class, in which we compete.  It looked as though there were two to three times as many primitive fleece than in the previous few years.  Perhaps this year’s judges preferred a shorter-stapled crimpier wool to the very long, straighter fibers of my flock.  We sold seven out of ten fleece entered, and I have  heard from one spinner who is already working on Matilda’s fall clip.  Lulu, our biggest and only non-Shetland ewe, competed in the long wool category and received excellent scores and comments:

Lulu’s Fleece Scores

Her tag says, “Nice large fleece.  Beautiful handle.”

Here is the tag from Scrooge’s beautiful bag of wool:

In case you are wondering, the six scores, from top to bottom are: uniformity, density, handle, crimp, length, and weight.  Each is given a score from 1 to 5.  A blue sticker is for a good fleece.  Red stickers indicate inferior fleeces.

I am already looking forward to next year.  Mark your calendars: October 19 and 20, 2013.

We are thankful to have been spared by Hurricane Sandy, but are thinking all of those people  who were affected, not so far  from here.  Earlier this fall I reported on the death of many sheep in a blizzard in northwestern Iceland.  Perhaps these links to stories of sheep found alive, after up to 45 days buried in the snow, will remind us of the resilience of our natural world and its creatures.

A border collie locating a buried sheep.

A clip from Icelandic television  news about a sheep found after 45 days in the snow.  

The  Iceland Review on sheep found after 45 days.

The Iceland Review on sheep found after 4o days.