Iowa Sheep & Wool Festival: the wet weekend

(Photos by Sue Grant, Jeff Grant and Craig Corson)

June 12 & 13, 2010 weren't the wettest days in the short history of the Iowa Sheep & Wool Festival (the whole show was scrapped in 2008 because the site, the Dallas County Fairgrounds, was flooded), but it must have been the 2nd wettest.  The show went on regardless, and the first order of the day challenged Michelle and Lisa to put up Rose Tree Fiber Shop's show booth in pouring rain (top photo).  It wasn't pretty.  And an outdoor booth definitely would NOT have worked that day anyway, so we were relieved when the show manager moved us to a spot inside a building. The booth, once everything moved inside, looked great.

Rosemary did spinning demonstrations both days, and many of her former students stopped by to say hello.  "You taught me how to spin (weave/dye/weave baskets) years ago, and I'm still doing it" was a common greeting.

Show visitors had a big variety of fiber-related products and equipment from many vendors to choose from, including hand-dyed and handspun yarns, dyed and natural fleece and roving, specialty fibers such as silk, bamboo, soy, corn and cashmere.  Rosemary's handspun dog fiber yarns were a popular item at Rose Tree's booth.

My friend Sue Grant and I led a very successful dye workshop, and participants  created their own self-patterning yarn by painting  pre-knit yarn "canvas." We are anxiously awaiting photos of the finished projects made from the hand-painted "flats".

Sue entered one of her photos in the Photography Contest.  We still haven't heard whether she won or not.  The competition was pretty stiff -- apparently sheep are more photogenic than anybody realized!

Celebrity Chef Ken Dunn put on a lamb cooking demo.  Jeff and Craig got to sample some of the results, and reported that everything was really good.

My favorite event -- which wasn't part of the show schedule but just "happened" -- involved some of the working dogs who had participated in the Sheep Dog Trials.  When the arena was just too wet and muddy for a second day of trials, some of the dogs were put to work in a grassy area of the Fairgrounds herding ducks.  The ducks (who are apparently smarter than sheep) figured out the best route to the pen they were being herded to pretty quickly, and it became necessary to make the route more and more challenging so that the dogs could demonstrate their skills.  The dogs seemed to enjoy the whole thing.