This past weekend my family and I went to a Sheepshearing Festival. We had such a great time! I haven’t been to any of the larger ones in the area but this was the perfect size to explore with the littles. The yarn was….so very lovely….and it was hard not to go nuts!! I’m proud of my restraint and only walked away with one skein. (What?? Only one skein??) Yes, only one skein as I am trying to be mindful when purchasing fiber of any sort right now. I had one project in mind and found the perfect wool for it. Too many times I have gone a little nuts and stored something and then decided to purge later on. That’s a story for another time, let’s look at all the fun below!
We watched demonstrations of hand sheering and got to feed some alpaca. There were herding dog demonstrations which were quite interesting. My daughter tried her hand at weaving and we browsed many crafters peddling their wares. The kids were fascinated with the re-enactors, soldiers and historic crafters (basket weavers, lots of spinners, and the blacksmith). It was so very nice to sit and talk about history and discuss our lives now to what life used to be. We had many great conversations.
And then there was the yarn, oooohhhh the yarn…….
I love to go on adventures with my family, such as these. It’s nice to be unplugged (except for photos-ha! 🙂 ) and to see beauty in the natural talents of others. I love to expose them to art of any sort and feel strongly that it’s so essential in our world today when so much of our lives are rush, rush, rush. Although we were at a festival, I have truly noticed a pattern that happens when my clan head out to be in nature or art or crafts or any part of the natural world. We decompress. We laugh and are silly and our bonding happens. I love that. Tell me, how do you decompress? What do you do with your clan? I’d love to hear!