Black Sheep Gathering - "Part two"

Day two dawned early, as The Shepherd wanted to get over to the fairgrounds by 9:00 to see when the Shetland fleece judging would be. At that point they were running about three hours late - ie - the fleeces that are normally judged at 9:00 in the morning - wouldn't be on the table until around noon! 

She still had all these big white fleeces to judge before she would get to the Shetland fleeces, which were on the faaaarrrr right side of the picture.

I offered to be the sacrificial lamb, so to speak, to sit and watch the judging and keep everyone posted on when the Shetland fleeces were up next.  I had my crochet project and a good book if I got tired of crocheting, so I hung out - 

Part of the hold up was the fact that she was a very "thorough" judge - she took every fleece out of the bag - spread it out and went over it from one end to the other, whereas previous judging I've watched, they kind of "pat around" the top and pull some out from the bottom -

Can you believe that this is ALL one BIG fleece!!! - I mean, that must have been one massive sheep.  And she looked over every square inch of that fleece.....

And as you can see by the look on her face, she didn't like this one at all...

By noon they finally got to the Shetland fleeces.  unfortunately, none of the four fleeces that we took placed in the top 5 - and they didn't show placing for any of the others. 

Most of the fleeces in the room are for sale after the judging.  There were people lined up outside waiting for the judging to finish so they could be first in when the sale started. 

This is our friend Rocky Long - his CVM ram won best ram of breed.

Rocky is also in my spinner guild.

After the fleece judging was over we went back over to the main barns.  The Shepherd to talk to some of the other shepherds about markings - gulmoget  - a color pattern that is dark (black or brown) on top and light (gold or grey) on tummy and legs,  and katmoget (the opposite - light on top and dark on tummy and legs) both markings have sort of a "badger face" marking -

Myself - I had a date with the second barn full of vendors - carefully planning my route so I wouldn't forget anything, I missed getting back to a vendor, from Bellingham - Huckleberry Knits,  She has some gorgeous fiber (her yarn is nice too, but, then, I can make my own yarn) - Oh, well, there's always Christmas..



Another fun event at Black Sheep is the BBQ and the Spinner's Lead.   The BBQ was held indoors in the Wool Pavilion because this little bit of sunshine that happened at about 2:00 was all there was for the day. 

This band provided the entertainment during the BBQ/potluck dinner on Saturday night. 

I know this picture is blurry, but I just had to show you the ":magnificent" felted hat that the lady who emcees the Spinner's Lead was wearing - yes those are peacock feathers.  What a hat! 



The Spinner's Lead is where people make an item of the fiber of their choice - hand spun is best, from your own sheep is even better. Then they model it, all the while leading a sheep (of their own or borrowed)  This little guy was dyed using organic dyes - he was the hit of the show.

I haven't had time to photograph all my new goodies yet, but I'll get them on here in a day or two.

Our trip home was uneventful -not quite as smooth as the trip down, but not too bad, all things considered.

However, we got some very sad and shocking news this morning - Marshall Craw, the husband of Jackie from Forest Mountain Sheep  collapsed and died of a heart attack on Monday morning after they returned home from Eugene.  This was the first vacation they'd had since their teenagers were born, and they'd had a wonderful weekend. 

Our hearts ache for Jackie and her kids.  They are in our prayers tonight. Please keep them in your thoughts during this difficult time.