WI Sheep & Wool Festival

This past weekend, Sept. 11-13, it was once again time for the WI Sheep & Wool Festival, held each year at the fairgrounds in Jefferson, WI. Here, you could find a variety of fiber classes, sheep judging, handspun yarn competition, Sheep to Shawl display, sheep herding, and more, along with two huge barns of vendors. Raw fleece, roving, yarns, books, spinning wheels, and all kinds of fiber-related equipment.

Sara and Hans von Tresckow, of The Woolgatherers, Ltd., Fond du Lac, WI, had a double booth this year to accommodate looms, spinning wheel and spinning stools, cones of linen , books, and more.

From The Woolgatherers, Ltd., I purchased new German threading hook and sleying hooks,…

a cone of 40/2 linen (Henry’s Attic) and two tubes of 20/1 Vaxbo (Swedish) linen for a planned project, and…

a book, “Weave Structures The Swedish Way – volume 1” by Ulla Getzmann, translated and adapted by Becky Ashenden. From another vendor, I picked up “Knitting the Threads of Time, Casting Back to the Heart of Our Craft” by Nora Murphy, which looks like a good read.

I went back to Jefferson on Sunday morning and enjoyed visiting the sheep barns.

On Sunday morning I found a sheep-shearing demonstration. The shearer was so fast the sheep didn’t have time to complain!

Off to the right of the shearing demo were pens holding sheep that had been shorn, and those waiting to be shorn.

In another pen were two lambs, one so very small. I heard a young boy say his dad wasn’t sure the one on the right was going to survive. When I first saw them they were laying down, but after a bit got to their feet.

Mom and babies, future providers of fleece for handspinners.

Another barn had sheep waiting for judging.

All in all, a wonderful weekend, and something to look forward to again next year.

4 thoughts on “WI Sheep & Wool Festival”

Oh how I love festivals! I live an hour from the MD festival and eat sleep and breathe sheep for 2 wonderful days. It looks like you had a wonderful time and came home with treasures great and small!

WOW! Those last sheep are some of the cleanest I've ever seen! So much fun. Wish I could have been along to enjoy it too!LaVonne

Looks like a wonderful festival! I've heard nothing but good things about it. The Weaving Structure's book is a nice addition. I have it and there are some patterns in there marked to try.Those were incredibly clean sheep. Someone put in a ton of effort. Hope the wee lamb makes it.

I love attending the WI Sheep & Wool Festival, though I missed it last year. I go with a list of equipment and book needs/wants so I don't get too carried away, which is easy to do.That little lamb, I so badly wanted to tuck it into my tote bag, take it home, but better it stays with its mom. Those sheep up for judging were wearing coats, had been washed, clipped, in the best condition possible. Wonderful to see.