Sheep Shearing Day

Well you couldn't have asked for a nicer day for the Sheep to get their haircuts at the Sheep Shearing Day at the Peter Wentz Farmstead. It actually got pretty hot - 87 degrees - no wonder I got a sunburn!


Today I, along with Karl G. from my guild, demonstrated rug hooking. We had a nice spot with some shade in front of the summer kitchen of the old house and by the garden. From our spot we could see when they were shearing the sheep. There was a woman doing the "egg scratching" around the corner, a spinner down the path, some stitchers and sewers, wood chopping and on and on.


There were a lot of people interested in what we were doing and also people that told us how they have hooked a few rugs (of course after talking to them most of them were "latch" hooked rugs) so we described and showed them the wool and I talked about dyeing the wool and met some people that are rug hookers. It's always interesting to hear what they are working on - one woman was into dyeing her own wool but wanted to do only natural dyeing, others were interested where to buy supplies, etc.


Here's some pics from the day in no particular order:


This is the fence to the garden - Karl and I both brought a sampling of our rugs to show - here are some of Karl's - he generally does Tavern Signs and today was working on the "Green Dragon" tavern sign - this apparently is where the Boston Tea Party was being planned - there is a always a story to his rugs - I forgot to snap a pic of it!



Here's a pic of two "bald" sheep - after their haircuts - I bet they were happy to have all that wool off their backs on a day like today! It wasn't until i loaded up and was leaving the lambs came out of the barn - of course my camera was buried in my stuff in the back of the car:


Here's Darlene spinning her flax - You can't tell from the picture - but she weaved the ribbon that goes around her bonnet and holds her bonnet on - it was very pretty:


Here are some of the eggs from the woman that is doing the "egg scratching" - Very cool - they are onion skin dyed. In the other basket she has two - one dyed in coffee and one dyed in tea, another dyed in blueberries - the pink one was food coloring:

Here's another woman spinning:

Here's a pic of Karl being interviewed by the local radio station!

Here's a pic of showing a group how to strip the wool and showing them how he takes apart recycled garments:

Here's another pic of the rugs hung on the fence:

A sheep being sheared: (there was such a crowd it was hard to get closer to get a good pic)

Just another shot near the sheep shearing area:

I took my chairpads I drew up to hook but didn't get much hooking because I decided to take the rug I finished last week to finish the edges - So I'm happy to say it took most of the day but i finally got it whipped! Hard to tell in the pic but i whipped with an old gold yarn. I'm glad it's done - it was big and heavy and hot to be working on today! (Oh wait a minute - my friend Kathy would say it's not finished - it's not labeled yet! LOL!)

The volunteers are allowed to go to the summer kitchen and have lunch the demonstrators in there have prepared - One of the dishes they had was lamb stew - just couldn't bring myself to trying that sitting so close to those sheep! I went and bought a soft pretzel instead!

So that was my day - felt good to be outside even if it did get a little too hot but at least it wasn't raining. Last year it was cold - i remember wearing long johns under my dress and apron!

It will be an early night for me - getting up early and loading and unloading and being out in the air all day - I'm tuckered out!

Just had to share this little video - it's just too cute:

Happy Weekend - Joanne