This past weekend I was up in Portland and made sure I got to the Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival in Canby. If you have any interest in fibers (which is a good bet if you're looking at this site!), I highly recommend going to one of the festivals in your area. The Spinning and Weaving Association's website has an extensive listing for the US and Canada - and there are still some coming up this fall.
So what's at a fiber festival? Enough animals, displays, demonstrations, and vendors to send you into sensory overload! I love looking at the animals, so I started there. Pygora goats are big in Oregon and there were some beautiful ones! What's a pygora goat?!! They're a cross between angora and pygmy goats and produce a fleece that varies from mohair to cashmere and different variations of each.
The Pygora Breeder's Association has good information about the goats if you want to learn more.
And I want a couple of them so badly, my husband lived in fear knowing I'd be around so many. I was pretty sure Southwest Airlines wouldn't let me count them as my two carry-on's, though, so he was safe!
They come in so many gorgeous fleece types and colors - I love them all, but I think my favorite was this rust colored beauty ...
I didn't come home with a whole goat, but did buy some fleece from "Reggie." I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it besides pet it - it's so incredibly soft!
Actually, I managed to leave with only Reggie's fleece and three braids of dyed roving (the opening photograph) I plan on using for felting. There were many, many booths of gorgeous yarns from every fiber source imaginable and fun demonstrations to watch, such as spinning. Spinning is the one fiber activity I've never tried. Someday!
This year's focus fiber art was lace making with several nice displays. This antique lace is called "Gravenmoere" and is named for a Dutch village near Antwerp that was active in lace making from the 17th to 19th centuries. It was worn by upper class people on their caps. This is a type of bobbin lace - Jo Edkins has a good explanation of making bobbin lace here.
Sylvia Murariu's display of Romanian Point Lace was beautiful! She learned the craft while in school in her native Romania.
If you happen to live near Oregon City, Oregon, Sylvia does teach classes in lace making there. She sells instruction booklets and DVD's and also sells her lace on her website here.
I've been working at learning felting for awhile now and was blown away by two of the felted work entries. Below is K. Elfer's felted grape wall hanging ....
And I'll end with Teresa Cavender's amazing needlefelted katsina.
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