Chic Parisian Sheep

There was an entire barn full of sheep and goats at the Salon de l'Agriculture.

Most of the breeds were meat or milk breeds, but there was a handful of gloriously fibery merinos and Rambouillets. Like the horses, there were a lot of France-specific breeds and some unusual rare breeds.

There were some beautiful bald-faced Bleu du Maine sheep being judged in the showring.

This woman had the most wonderful sheepy vest and chapeau that blended right in with livestock.

Sadly, most of the animals seemed pretty stressed. Unlike Rhinebeck, which is mostly outdoors in covered areans, this was completely indoors in a big heated building. It was hot. I had taken off my winter coat and spent most of the time a bit on the swampy-pits side of my temperature range. Most of the sheep had not been sheared and had been outside for most of the winter, and they were visibly panting and uncomfortable.

Another thing that agitated me is that pretty much every pen had a sign that asked you to not touch the animals and to just let them be (most of them were hiding out of reach anyway) and not only were people poking at any animal within reach, I saw a lot of grown-ass men doing rather dick things taunting the animals- grabbing at a ram's horns and shaking them or lifting their kids into the pens with them. Poor, terrified sheep.

A rather nightmare-inducing Rouge de l'Ouest:

I didn't know sheep could get that ugly. Slap a red, hairless face on one and suddenly an herbivore looks like it's out for blood.

I thought this Mourerous had a lovely, thoughtful face:

Suffolks:

As you can see, I spent hours wandering around the sheep and goat pens. I was hoping there would be more wool/yarn/crafty things. There was a couple- someone had some very nice mohair yarns and another lady had mostly pre-made garments from her wool and a few skeins of millspun yarn, but the rustic yarn craze has yet to really hit France. I'm a merino and cashmere kind of gal in an acrylic kind of crafting scene.

A Rambouillet, keeping clean for the show ring:

There was only one shepherd who brought tiny Ouessant sheep:

These are a fairly rare breed from Brittany- the French version of a Shetland or Icelandic primitive-style sheep. They look lamb-sized, but these are as big as they get. They are almost always black in color.

Oh, and there were lambs!

I have no idea what kind of sheep these are, but they were adorable with their raccoon masks and lop ears. They were shy about all the people around them, but occasionally would ignore the crowd enough to leap around and play and just be as cute as possible.

DC

I was in DC over the weekend. It was hot and humid and perfect for museum hopping and catching up with friends.







Disapproving man DISAPPROVES.




By the way, the National Gallery had a Hieronymus Bosch painting called "Death and the Miser".



Very few of his paintings are outside of Europe. It's always a thrill to see one up close.






These Mules were taking a break from towing a flat-bottom boat down the C&O canal.



The new breakfast of champions:



Sloe Gin fizzes and homemade donuts and whipped cream. What a wonderful way to start the day.

I got to see some of my knitwear recipients, although it was waaay to warm for any of that nonsense.





I did get quite a bit of knitting done on the 4 hour train ride each way. More exciting than that, I went to the Dupont Circle Farmer's Market on Sunday morning and stumbled upon this:



Solitude Farm had a booth there. They specialize in breed-specific yarn from locally raised sheep...Clun Forest, Shropshire, Tunis, Suffolk, Dorset, Karkul, Romney, Border Leicesters and Leicester Longwool yarn. I'm a sucker for breed-specific yarn and I love the fact that they are utilizing rare sheep breeds. Plus, the women who were running the booth were super sweet and knowledgeable about their product and willing to chat and share their enthusiasm. Super score...if you are in DC on a weekend, I would highly recommend checking them out.

Naturally, I couldn't resist taking home a souvenir from my trip:



It's 120 yards of DK weight yarn that's a blend of Clun Forest and Alpaca. Cluns are a hardy,medium-sized sheep from northern England. They are a down breed, meaning they have short, dense, elastic fleece.

I didn't get home until the wee hours of Monday morning, but the sleep deprivation was totally worth it.

FO- Owls

I love owls. There is something so mysterious about a bird that can hide itself so well in plain sight and move with such stealth. Their forward-facing eyes make them eerily human looking.



While owls are solitary creatures, they gathered pretty cutely on my sweater. A rare gathering of owls is known as a parliament. I'm pretty sure George Clinton is somehow involved with this.



I will now drunkenly stagger around and threaten to show everyone my hooters.



The specs:

The Owls pattern is by Kate Davies. The sweater is simple in design and it works up fast...something you could finish in under a week if you put your mind to it. I made long sleeves but it would look cute as a short sleeve top as well.

I used up all 6 skeins of Rowan British Sheep Breeds Blue Face Leicester- about 720 yards- for a size 4 (38"). This is the yarn that I dyed using Brazilwood chips a couple of month ago. It's a worsted-spun round 3-ply chunky-weight yarn with excellent stitch definition- perfect for cables. Of all the yarns in the British Breeds collection (this is a lovely idea as I love breed-specific yarns, especially those that promote rare breeds) the Blue Face is by far the softest- I can wear this next to my skin with absolutely no discomfort. If I were to use a different sheep breed in the line, I would go up a size so I could easily put a layer on underneath and have less skin contact with the fabric. The BFL makes a silky, drapey fabric with gorgeous sheen. I also loved the fact that this yarn was lightly processed- it smells vaguely sheepy, which means I could sit there and huff it in public for hours with no regard to what others might think.

Is it wrong of me to want a few more crisp, cool days so I can wear this before it gets put away for the summer?

Rhinebeck, part trios: Sunday recap

A bunch of us crazies got up early Sunday morning to take the Down Fibers Spinning class.



Cashmere and other tricky [read: expensive] fibers were something I had been wanting to learn, but I was too afraid to waste good fiber on learning. The class booted my ass into getting that cashmere and qiviut and buffalo and angora bunny fiber that has been in my stash out of my stash and onto a bobbin.

Here's KnitHoundBrooklyn and her fabulous yellow socks with a bobbin full of baby camel and cashmere and cashmere silk blend:


Stellina took the whole "high fiber diet" thing literally:


I'm sure Shansays has a picture of me taking a picture of her


After class, I decided to make myself feel like a total slouch and I went to watch the Sheep to Shawl excitement:




Then I had a pretty good internal argument with the philosophy behind my vegetarianism:


Of course, there were more sheep and goats to pet. This Romney from Anchorage Farm in Saugerties was just begging to be shorn. I had to bargain with him: I would take his fleece, but he would have to stay on the farm. No deal.


This blue-eyed cashmere kid wanted a home as well:

He was unhappy living at Black Locust Farm in Maine (!) and wanted to try city life. Adventurous, isn't he?

I had no idea how big in size Rambouillets were. They all seemed really docile, but that's a lot of wool! The rams looked so regal with their curly-q horns.




I encountered a rather friendly Romedale/CVM:




He kept nosing my camera and fogging up my lens!




More pretty Leicester Longwools:


Have I failed to mention that there was shopping to be done? All I have to say is THANK YOU to KnitHound for having the foresight to buy a Volvo!


We were all pretty pleased with ourselves, but I feel as though I missed enough of the vendors so that I'll have to go back next year in order to feel like I've had the full-on Rhinebeck experience.



Back to the big bad city to wash a mountain of wool.