A trip to the Michigan Fiber Festival

Last Friday we decided to take a last minute trip to Michigan. I wanted to attend the Michigan Fiber Festival and it is conveniently located in Allegan just a few minutes from Preston’s cousin’s house. This is a huge festival and I hadn’t attended it since I bought my sheep, so I was going with a new perspective. I also was going as a shopper and not a vendor, so I was able to browse at my leisure.

I knew that one of the fiber processors I use, The Wooly Knob, would be there, so I took 3 bags – 18 pounds total – of my wool with me for them to take back and process. The parents of one of the owners have a spinning mill where they will spin my roving into yarn for me. So I am having that done for the first time. To my surprise, he said they could have the yarn back to me when I see them at The Wool Gathering in September. I will have a booth there, so it will be great to have that for sale!

So after the wool drop, I meandered my way over to the animal barns. I spotted some beautiful Icelandics right away. Their farm was located nearby, so I may visit them next time I am up there. I saw some other Icelandics owned by another farm and I wasn’t as impressed. I guess I am developing a trained eye for quality.

There were other breeds of sheep, but none that stole my heart. So I went over to the other barn where the goats were… mostly Angora goats which were actually what I first intended to purchase when I started my flock, but something changed my mind at the time. I am still in love with these little creatures … they are just adorable.

Check out the horns on this buck (male goat)!!! Both does and bucks have horns, but these were amazing!

They come in different colors ... I think this one is considered black .. maybe gray.
This is a white one ... I think it was a kid (a baby). Oh! I walked up to one pen and there were two very small baby goats in with their mom. I was very surprised that an owner would bring a mom with babies so young ... much too stressful. Turns out she didn't know the doe was pregnant and the babies were born the night before! Surprise!!

This one is considered Red in color. This is the color I bought and mixed it with some white lamb's wool.

I met this young girl holding this goat on a leash. It was the most adorable of them all. So I think it's time I purchased a couple of them. I'll see what I can find when I go to The Wool Gathering next month!

I purchased a pound of mohair (Angora goat fleece) while I was there with the intention of combining it with some of my wool to make a wool-mohair blended roving. It will make it much softer.

On to the booths … I have been wanting to learn to felt, so I purchased a hat form and a needle felter to do needle felting. You basically lay the roving over the form in thin amounts in different directions and poke it with the 10-needle needle felter until the fibers intertwine and make felt. You keep adding layers until it is as thick as you want it.

I also met a lady who did something called nuno felting. It is a very, wispy thin layer of felting into a piece of fabric … something drape-y and loosely woven, silk for example. She had a stunning scarf that she had made unlike anything I’d ever seen. So I decided I needed to learn how to do that too. I found a book that taught all different types of “wet felting” … felting by using water and rubbing to make the wool felt. I experimented yesterday with a small piece of fabric to learn the process. I think it came out correctly; I just didn’t use an appropriate fabric. It wrinkled in the last step of the process, but I have other remnant pieces of fabric to play.

My last purchase was a Coopworth sheep fleece. I had never heard of them … they are a cross between a Romney ewe and a Border Leister ram. The fleece was beautiful and so clean (she puts coats on them) … so I had to have one.

It was a wonderful day and I’m so glad we decided to make the trip. I always learn a lot from my fellow shepherds and fiber crafters.