In which I attend Shepherd's Harvest Festival

What a fabulous weekend we had at the Shepherd's Harvest Fiber Festival My 8-9th!  The weather was cold, especially Saturday, as it usually is, but Sunday the sun came out and everyone was feeling wonderful!

Here are some pictures of our Northern Lights Handspinner's Guild booth.  Here's our fearless leader Pauline:

Here is my Gone Batty Fibers inventory.  I was pleased to fill an 18 gallon tote with my batts for the show, and I sold quite a few.

I spent most of my time working on the Fiber Sandwich.  This is an event where we collect donations of fiber from the vendors, lay them out on a table in layers, like a big lasagna, and then split off 4 oz chunks for volunteer spinners to spin.  We then auction off the finished skeins to benefit the Heifer Project.  It is a great cause, and we love our donors and volunteer spinners, as well as the people who bid on the skeins.  Here's the auction in progress:

 
We raised almost $400 this year for Heifer, which is very exciting.

Here's my skein(s).  I spun a single Corriedale ply to ply with it, and make the finished skeins a bit more cohesive.  Others chose to do the same, and it was really fun to see what people did.

Someone spun a novelty yarn that was gorgeous--it was a bestseller.

The Minnesota Knitter's Guild also had a booth, at which I worked on Sunday morning.

I should have more weekends like this--good friends and lots of fiber and fibery activities!

Getting Ready for Shepherd's Harvest!

I am getting so excited for Shepherd's Harvest, the fiber festival held every Mother's Day weekend at the Washington County Fairgrounds in Lake Elmo, MN.   The event lasts for two days, and I plan to spend every minute of my weekend there.

I have a class on Saturday morning in--what else?--Drum Carding.  It should be great fun to get tips from someone I really respect, Carol Wagner of Hidden Valley Farm Woolen Mill.  I have purchased a lot of her roving in the past, as well as having her process raw fleeces for me.  I'm very excited about the chance to "pick her brain" about the carding process.

I will also have space at my guild's table to sell my product, so I have been frantically making batts to sell at the Festival.  Not too many pictures of the batts, since my lighting doesn't do them justice, but here's some ingredients:

Many more to follow.  I am keeping my drum carder busy!

Another exciting event for the weekend is the Fiber Sandwich.  Many vendors will donate fiber to this cause.  What we do is lay out the donated fiber, which will be anything from hand-dyed roving to raw, washed fiber, into a huge "lasagna" of fiber layers.  It usually takes up a full 8' banquet table, to a depth of at least 12 inches!  It's quite a sight.  From there, we have volunteer spinners who take 4 oz sections and spin skeins of yarn.  The skeins are auctioned off on Sunday in a silent auction to benefit The Heifer Project.  Great fun for a great cause!  We are still looking for volunteer spinners if you are going to be in the area.