But Wait, there's More!

See that purple ribbon?  That is the Reserve Grand Champion Colored Fleece that he's got there in that bag!!!  The judge REALLY liked that fleece - :-) 

Fleece judging at Black Sheep Gathering

We are at The Black Sheep Gathering in Eugene Oregon this weekend.  The Shepherd has three fleeces out of 19, entered for judging in this class , lamb fleeces.  Judith McKenzie is the judge this year.  Judging starts in a few minutes! 

Yes, LOOT!

 (Thanks Michelle for reminding me that I hadn't put a title on this post!!) 

Well, as you surmised from the last post, last week was the Black Sheep Gathering down in Eugene.  Our annual vacation.

Some changes this year - all the vendors were in the concert pavilion - Air conditioned comfort
and lots of room - but more on that soon -








The thing is, to get to Eugene, first you have to go through Seattle, Tacoma, Olympia, Chehalis/Centralia - and then there is Portland.

 

 The land of bridges & tail lights -

Portland is called "The Rose City" and they have bush roses planted all along the freeways there.








It is so dry this year, they look kind of stressed already and all the brown grass in the medians - somebody throws out a cigarette and everything is going to burn to the ground!

But we MADE IT through Portland, with only a few delays - Generally Thursday early afternoons are not too bad (and actually coming home on Sunday morning we breezed right through!) 

 The Lane County Fairgrounds is comprised of this big pavilion, then barns that the animals are in - because they had moved the MarketPlace into the pavilion, they also included alpacas this year. 









 As you can see, lots of wide aisles
and lots and lots of vendors!

 With room left over for three spinning circles!  (no, my wheel stays home - I bring my crochet projects on the road)

 This was one of my favorite booths - she has such pretty colors! 

 How could you pass this up?????

















 So, while The Shepherd shopped for sheep,



I shopped for spinning goods

One lady said she figured that her stash had now exceeded her life expectancy.....  


















Gracie says: "I think mom has EASILY exceeded that mark - she brought home TWO BIG BAGS of spinning stuff!"

 

Introducing - - - Joshua Farm Elliott

Like many sheep & fiber people, we spent this past weekend in Eugene. Oregon at the 2013 Black Sheep Gathering. (more about that later this week, OK)

Occasionally when you have a flock of sheep, you have a plan.  Sometimes that plan goes awry, and sometimes something happens to get you back on your original track. 

Like color - when The Shepherd realized that our little black Ram (Max) was really not what he wanted for fiber color.

So he put his shopping hat on and we headed off to Eugene.  

We arrived Thursday evening - before the show opened and prime time to do a little browsing. 

We looked at a several other rams and ram lambs - but their fleece was either the wrong color (grey/black) or course or moorit (brown) and not really very inspiring. 

Then we spied this little guy.  How could you not fall in love with this sweet face, and look at the pretty apricot color of his wool.

And his name is Elliott - my mom's maiden name - it was a sign - don'tcha think?  .

Arrangements had already been made to bring him back home after the show, with our friends Doug & Yvonne who had some of their flock of C.V.M./ Romeldale sheep there, so The Shepherd's job complete, he was able to relax and enjoy the rest of the show.

This morning, he loaded Max up and hauled him off to the auction.  (He is a cute little guy with fairly nice black fleece, so, hopefully someone will buy him as a flock sire and not as lamb chops.)

Then he went to our friends to collect his new boy, and brought him home.

 

"Hey, you! - you!  Get me outta here"

"Hey Bella -what's making all that racket?"  George asked, keeping an eye on the trailer. 

"I think he brought home another one of those vishus sheeps.  I'm outta here." says Bella...

So, out of the trailer, curious as to all get out as to where the heck he was - and what is with this wet stuff falling out of the sky??? 

Elliott was born and raised in Oroville, CA - the dry northern part of California - His fleece is very soft, and a very pretty color. 

The Shepherd is proud and excited - and "counting his chickens" for next spring's lambs. 

Elliott found his interim accommodations quite acceptable - especially the hay! 












"Hey you, in there - what did you do with my friend. Max?"

Poor Frosty - He was pretty Maaaaaaaaad that he was by himself all morning - it seemed like hours and hours, I'm sure  - He has finally quieted down, and Elliott is quiet too - Maybe all is right with the world...

New "stash" from Black Sheep -

 I'm finally getting around to showing you all the goodies that I brought back from this years Black Sheep Gathering.

I went shopping with the intent of buying fiber to spin for the 2012 Squalicum Valley Artisans Faire in September.  I'm hoping to have at least a dozen skeins of yarn for sale and hopefully some crocheted items too.

BSG is such a feast for the senses!  You can find yarn, fiber, and what ever else in just about every color of the rainbow. 

This picture, taken a couple of years ago, illustrates the magnitude of the decisions that you have to make - what to buy, what to buy? 

I knew for sure that I wanted to go to Crown Mountain Farm  booth to get some grey baby alpaca and baby camel roving to match what I got last year so I'd have enough to finish my project.  But look what I found - mullberry silk sliver, in a 2 ounce package, dyed in the most beautimus colors! (honestly, I could have gotten one of each color, and there were 13 or 14 shades!)








And they had some Blue Faced Leicester dyed in the same color way!  How could I not get this big bundle of deliciousness? ? ?  

And then there was this blue green "lake colors" that are my very favorite colors in the whole world (get the feeling that this one might not make it to the sales table???)

Write it up, Mr. Crown Mountain - I gotta get out of your booth before I spend any more money! 

Then down the way at Carolina Homespun (where their motto seems to be "Spin for Peace and Equality") I found this pretty Mountain Colors BFL .  It JUST MATCHED the silk, don't you think - good fiber karma, I thought...

I also bought a couple of new crochet hooks - you can never have too many crochet hooks, you know.

Other things I got was this 1# bump of blue variegated potluck roving - It is probably corriedale or another fine, soft wool.  I have a couple of projects in mind for it.  







Another place that is a favorite to shop is Dawn's Custom Carding -

This Romney roving will spin up like a dream. 

She always has something to feed my mohair locks addiction...

More Romney in some nice fallish colors - it will be a pretty variegated yarn, that,  hopefully will sell well. 

And of course, I needed a new bar of Fogwash Soap.  Couldn't leave BSG with out that~

Let me know what you think of all my new treasures, OK?

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.