Oregon Flock and Fiber

This was an Autumn Joy day - crisp morning air, flannel-shirt temperature, and mixed clouds and sunshine. We awoke early, ate a quick breakfast and checked my Ravelry status (510!!), and set off towards Canby about 8:45. The scenery was beautiful. I wish I could have stopped to take pictures of the Columbia River, but we were on Interstate 205. We walked into the Clackamas County Fairgrounds about 9:30. It was already crowded, but I do live in a fiber-loving part of the world and this was to be expected.

First stop of interest was to a booth representing predator-friendly certified livestock owners. I learned about guard animals like donkeys, guard dogs, and llamas, and how livestock owners use a combination of practices to protect their livestock and avoid killing livestock predators (i.e., wolves, mountain lions, coyotes). I'm very interested in the dog breeds - most of them are dogs I haven't heard about, but are common in Italy, Eastern Europe, and Spain. I would have liked to have stayed longer, but I picked up a quarterly called Home Range and will read that later.

I spent a lot of time in the vendor areas - they were everywhere - out on the lawn, in the barns, and in 2 separate buildings. If there were more, I don't want to know. There was a lot to see.

There was live music with a Celtic band. My husband listened to them while I shopped. He reported a hearing a song about a flock of sheep that froze to death. (Maybe this band should record for the Planet Earth show). I tried out spinning wheels (I'm looking for a traveler) and tried lamb samples.

We visited animals and I had a fleeting moment when I came close to buying an angora rabbit. Here are some alpaca beauties we saw:





And, here's a Shetland sheep whose name might amuse a member of my family (unfortunately, you can't see the sheep very well):



I was really excited by my purchases. Pictures follow:



A Turkish spindle made of carob wood, a booklet to help me learn to spin with a Turkish spindle (from Crown Mountain Farm), a wraps per inch tool kit and knit card, and a yarn gauge spinning control card (to help me keep yarn at a consistent gauge while spinning). Both gauge and WPI tool kit were from Woodland Woolworks.



American cashmere in white, which has a longer staple than Chinese and is thus easier to spin, baby camel/merino blend which is the golden brown and white fiber, and llama which is the darker solid brown (surprisingly soft).




All wool Black Face Leicester top. Machine-knitted blanks were completely gone very quickly, so I got Natures Palette in cream to knit next week in spinning group.



A merino-silk blend to spin for clapotis yarn.



Super-wash merino in I've Got You Babe Sock-Hop yarn colorway.



Sweater pattern from Chrissy Gardiner and Verts Creations Short-Wave Lace Scarf and Stahman's Shawls and Scarves by Myrna A.I. Stahman from Berry Meadow Farm (see below).




It was a wonderful day. I'm going to have to make this a yearly event and am so glad I took the day off to do go to Flock and Fiber. I came home to find my International Scarf Exchange partner info. I may have to return to the fair tomorrow!