The Day Finally Came!!!

As you know, I've been chompin' at the bit to get to Sheep and Wool this year. I woke up this morning and it was POURING rain-harder than cats and dogs....more like rhinos and wildebeests. The first think I though was, "Great! If this keeps up, the sheep will be the size of chiuauas by the time I get there!" But by the time Miss Mary got to my nest and we hit the open road, it had let up to a drizzle, then a mist, and as we were pulling into Jefferson, it was just gloomy. By then the damage had been done though. Yesterday this sheep won a prize for being the largest sheep in all the land....and today..shrunken to a shadow of his former self.

It was only gloomy outside lemme tell ya. The shop barns were positively vibrating with happy shoppers and color! Color!! COLOR!!!

Multicolored Roving

Solid colored roving

Cones of yarn and more solid roving...

And ummm...some cute kid that I made pose in a dorky felted hat...You can't really tell, but it has these ridiculous, little, white, squigglet thingies on the top. But I think he rocked it don't you?

We shopped one barn and then went to lunch. Miss Mary had the lamb sandwich she was after. I tried not to slap Mary for eating poor defenseless baby sheep. I had the Fully-Grown-And-Therefore-Able-To-Defend-Himself-If-He-Really-Wanted-To Pork Loin sandwich which was marvelous. (Those of you out there who know how the slaughter process works, please don't leave me comments. Just let me live in my own little world where eating baby lambies and cowies is wrong and where fully grown animals throw themselves in front of the ax willingly for our nutritional needs! Thanks!)

After lunch, we shopped the other barn. I got a roadkill sheep toy for Ben (Sheldon Cooper Sheep) at the Border Collie booth and visited the lady who painted the sock blank I just finished. She told me that folks had been looking at the blanks and saying that they had seen the pics of the socks I finished on my blog. Once again, I had forgotten that other folks read this rambling other than Mum!

After Shopping-Round-Two, we went to watch the sheep shearing demonstration or as I like to call it...The "There Was A Sheep? I Didn't See Any Sheep!" Demonstration. This guy picks up the sheep and walks it on its hind legs from the holding pen to where the cutter is.

I know these pics make it look kind of brutal, but the sheep go with him willingly and just lay there while he manipulates them every which way to get the quickest, most efficient, cut.
I mean, just LOOK at those bulging muscles. I'd lay there too wouldn't you? :Blush: My! Is it getting warm in here.....?

Yup. There is no such thing as a bad angle with this guy!

It was Miss Mary's first time at The "There Was A Sheep? I Didn't See Any Sheep!" Demonstration and it was fun to watch her reaction. I think I had to tell her to breath more than once and she may have drooled a little!

We made it home in fine fettle. Tomorrow I'll share the treasures I found while shopping; bobbins and roving and yarn-Oh My! But it's time to rest now. I'm going to count sheep (shearers) as I drift off tonight!