Fiber at the Fair
I’m always overcome by the predominance of wool at the fair as an agricultural product. I know now there are other fairs that focus on fleece, wool, yarn, etc. But this fair was the first time I saw it live. I just wander the aisles and run my fingers through the fleeces. I don’t think I’ll ever buy one because I’m not a spinner. But it is a really mystical process to me and I love being around it.
I went to a few lectures. Two of my fiber heros, Susan Barrett Merrill and Susanne Grosjean, spoke about “The History of Spinning.” Susan talked about the origins of spinning – on a stone and on a spindle. I will give it a try. Then Susanne demonstrated the Great Wheel and talked about household spinning and the gradual industrialization. Note: they are both dressed in complete woolly goodness. It was a cold and windy morning!
Meanwhile, the fair went on around us. The sheepdog demos were behind us and the presenter used a microphone. And the bike parade passed by, making a lot of noise.
She said she has 40 great wheels! They call them “her herd.” I found a really good blog post from a UK expert, explaining the Great Wheel and puncturing many misconceptions:
A group known as The Wednesday Spinners is always present at the fair. Here’s an article about them from 2016: Ellsworth American. I was told this is their last year… They line up and preside over the fair and seem to spin it into existence (in my mind, anyway). It’s almost mythological. They draw a curious crowd, many young people.
Being an agricultural fair, there are a few sheep in the livestock area, an angora rabbit or two, but also this beautiful field of flax.
They have erected a permanent granite loom on the fairgrounds based on Merrill’s “Journey Loom” design. (I think it used to be wooden, needing to be replaced often.) Every year at the fair there’s a communal weaving done on it. It’s in the middle of the dye garden. I think that’s the indigo patch at the lower right in the photo. The dye garden could use some TLC.
It was a very satisfying experience hanging out with a lot of fiber folk and their products. Strangely, there was not a wide variety of yarn for sale, mostly worsted weight. A little hand-dyed. I don’t need a lot of yarn though, I’m more interested in dyeing cloth, paper, and thread. From one booth, I got the idea to mix goldenrod and cochineal for orange. I want to give that a try before my goldenrod fades away. My favorite dyer “Forage Color” (Jackie Ottino) didn’t have a booth this year.
Tomorrow, another fair post, more food related.
What a great blog post, thank you. I so enjoyed the photos and writing because we love going to fairs and festivals but since Covid, we have not been able to. Looking forward to your next fair post I am all about sheep as my Dad came to America from Spain as a contract sheepherder. Our state fair in New Mexico has a Sheep to Shawl event with weaving demonstrations and dyeing fiber but the fleece are kept under glass so you cannot touch them.
The best festival is always the Harvest Festival in Santa Fe at El Rancho de Las Golondrinas (translates to the Ranch of the Swallows) one of the best living history places in all of the United States. On Oct 1, our daughter, who is visiting from California, will go with us to celebrate their 50th Harvest Festival. Among the many activities are making your own Chile ristra, using a spindle to weave (our grand kids visited us a few years ago on a non festival day but El Rancho stays open until the end of October so they got to get in on the spindle action and both our granddaughter and grandson who were8 at the time had a terrific time.
You can also make a wreath from foraged materials, go on a guided forage walk, witness blacksmithing, fiber dyeing, make your own tortilla on a comal, watch bread baking in an outdoor mud oven,on called an Horno, stomp grapes, watch mules turn the heavy stone that crushes sorghum, see alpacas, pick pumpkins, go on hayrides, make corn husk crafts, grind corn, etc.
Among other activities will be Native American hoop dancing, colonial New Mexican dancing, story tellers and music and songs of the Southwest.
After being away from all of this for two years, we can’t wait for this festival! I am a little concerned, however, about crowds and covid but most all of the activities will be held outdoors..
Aren’t fairs wonderful? Especially those with hands-on learning opportunities. I don’t have any Covid symptoms yet, I was mostly masked and outdoors. Just tired from 3 days on my feet!
gosh I love that granite loom!
I used to have one of those big “walking” wheels way back.
wool is really great.
When you post about weaving a rug, maybe outdoors, I always think of that loom.
oh, I could practically smell the lanolin in your post! … and the article on great wheels made my head spin (pun absolutely intended) … which leads me to tell my own tale
my mom gave me a great wheel that had been on the porch of her family’s summer house in the Catskills of New York … it was old beyond telling in the 1930s and even more so by the time I got it in the 1990s … no functional mechanism remained and it was, well, rather large … still, it followed us from Virginia to Texas and thence from one house to the next … the wood incredibly dense and aged to a dark dark brown … it finally succumbed to the blade when Don took up assemblage making and is therefore once again “functional” if no longer recognizable
Keeping the wheels in repair sounded quite intricate, according to Suzanne. There are different heads for them, etc. It’s amazing to think of how prevalent they were at one time and how adept people (women?) were at using them and keeping them going.
What a great post! i would love a fair like this! Besides the speakers, wool, spinning and everything Fiber…It looks like it was a beautiful day! Thank you so much for sharing 🙂
Glad I could share my experiences – it was a really fun time. Part of why we moved to Maine.