Thursday, November 20, 2003
Fun at the Rhinebeck Sheep and Wool Fair
LOOKING AHEAD by Wally Dobelis
If you want to know where the 1960's hippies have gone, long time passing, I can tell you some. Now I have more to offer, about their mates, the flower children, the beautiful anti-war girls with long hair who stuck daffodils into the muzzles of guns. Joan Baez has a new record out, there may be explanations of the rites of passage of that disenchanted generation .
Anyway, Mallory Pier in Key West attracts the street- arts- talented , and Sturges, ND draws the adventurous, and various flea markets and crafts fairs in the more remote locales of the country are where you can find more of them, men and women. And also, at the convocation venue I stumbled into, the 31st Annual Sheep and Wool Festival, at the spread-out Dutchess County Fairgrounds in Rhinebeck, one of several such unrelated events held throughout the country. Sort of endearingly anarchist, if you know what I mean.
The mid -October S&WF strained the capacity of the extended facilities, a dozen buildings and more tents and booths and fields for sheep-herding events. We truly are people close to the ground, friends of the earth, lovers of the natural. The proof is the huge attendance at this event . New Yorkers rear sheep (and goats and rabbits and llamas) for wool (also cheese, but that's another country), shear them, clean and card the wool, spin the yarn, and knit woolen clothing, the best and warmest, maybe even too much so, in this climate- controlled unnatural environment that we have come to love. Most visitors at the Fair are what I'd call Phase IV people, knitters, who buy patterns and matching wool not only in the US but also from Canada, a major wool producer and importer, and from New Zealand. Some get more exotic wool and yarn, South African merino and Falkland Islands top white, and occasionally scour the earth for rarer specials, certain yak wool, vicunas and alpacas. Long-haired Angora rabbits abound domestically. It turns out that a single bunny can can produce wool for one or two exquisite scarves, every year.
The Dutchess Fair brings producers from the entire Eastern Seaboard, all the way to Canada. Growers of sheep bring raw sheared wool, $5 a pound, and roving - long tubes of parallel long fiber, washed and combed - at $16 (the washing out of lanolin and carding of dirt and other reduces the yield by a half.) The vendors of finished wool yarn for knitters have varieties, in all colors, plain and multi-fiber, some with sparkles thrown in. Packaged sets of wool matched to interesting patterns are popular
Spinning gear makers also range from Virginia to Maine and Canada. Their pedal or treadle- driven wheels cost upwards from $200, although purists can use the Navajo spindle, a long shaft with a heavy wooden spinning head. The spinner activates it every few seconds with her left hand, imparting a spin by rubbing the stem against her thigh, while the right feeds wool to the process. A slow and demanding multitasking process, compared to the treadle-driven spinning, which leaves both hands free to manipulate the wool. The charms of the process that seduce people into hand- spinning wool stem from the total control and the artistry - the spinner creates twisted yarn of any thickness and density that she chooses, and of any color combination and consistency. Skeins of yarn at the show, for sale from S5 to $28 show the varieties, from hairy short-fiber to fine "tops." The character and quality of wool ranges from coarse "belly" fiber for carpets to material for hairy woolens and smooth worsteds. As to llama vs. alpaca wool - it is same animal, different breeding. The llamas in Peru were pack animals, alpacas were bred for wool. Remind you of another species? Imported mass-produced llama wool will be coarser, and may have less "memory" (bounceback quality to retain shape after washing) than the US product.
What about Angora? Well, Angora wool is the lightest, fluffiest fiber, pleasant to the touch, and allegedly healthy. It is produced by rabbits. The Angora goats produce mohair, next best, and after that comes cashmere, a goat product, as explained to me by Claudia of countrywool.com, our upstate purveyor of wool and airtravel-safe knitting needles, who has a little shop and knittery/spinnery way back in the woods. The harvesting process of long-hair rabbits is either by natural moulting or by shearing, both renewable and harmless to the animals, I'm told.
Now back to the wool people. The ladies of the trade, particularly those in spinning, remind me of the flower children of yore, although slightly aged - tall, long grey hair, plain homespun costumes, slow measured speech, occasionally offering an anti-war calendar for sale. The spinning wheel men tend to have ponytails, wear overalls and carry carpenters' gear. Those in knitting and in selling of wool, of both sexes, include a modern contingent, not as colorful but well-equipped with computerized knitting instructions and portable credit card machinery. Some have web-sites for mailorder trading facilities. Keep this Fair in mind for next October's entertainment.
If you want to know where the 1960's hippies have gone, long time passing, I can tell you some. Now I have more to offer, about their mates, the flower children, the beautiful anti-war girls with long hair who stuck daffodils into the muzzles of guns. Joan Baez has a new record out, there may be explanations of the rites of passage of that disenchanted generation .
Anyway, Mallory Pier in Key West attracts the street- arts- talented , and Sturges, ND draws the adventurous, and various flea markets and crafts fairs in the more remote locales of the country are where you can find more of them, men and women. And also, at the convocation venue I stumbled into, the 31st Annual Sheep and Wool Festival, at the spread-out Dutchess County Fairgrounds in Rhinebeck, one of several such unrelated events held throughout the country. Sort of endearingly anarchist, if you know what I mean.
The mid -October S&WF strained the capacity of the extended facilities, a dozen buildings and more tents and booths and fields for sheep-herding events. We truly are people close to the ground, friends of the earth, lovers of the natural. The proof is the huge attendance at this event . New Yorkers rear sheep (and goats and rabbits and llamas) for wool (also cheese, but that's another country), shear them, clean and card the wool, spin the yarn, and knit woolen clothing, the best and warmest, maybe even too much so, in this climate- controlled unnatural environment that we have come to love. Most visitors at the Fair are what I'd call Phase IV people, knitters, who buy patterns and matching wool not only in the US but also from Canada, a major wool producer and importer, and from New Zealand. Some get more exotic wool and yarn, South African merino and Falkland Islands top white, and occasionally scour the earth for rarer specials, certain yak wool, vicunas and alpacas. Long-haired Angora rabbits abound domestically. It turns out that a single bunny can can produce wool for one or two exquisite scarves, every year.
The Dutchess Fair brings producers from the entire Eastern Seaboard, all the way to Canada. Growers of sheep bring raw sheared wool, $5 a pound, and roving - long tubes of parallel long fiber, washed and combed - at $16 (the washing out of lanolin and carding of dirt and other reduces the yield by a half.) The vendors of finished wool yarn for knitters have varieties, in all colors, plain and multi-fiber, some with sparkles thrown in. Packaged sets of wool matched to interesting patterns are popular
Spinning gear makers also range from Virginia to Maine and Canada. Their pedal or treadle- driven wheels cost upwards from $200, although purists can use the Navajo spindle, a long shaft with a heavy wooden spinning head. The spinner activates it every few seconds with her left hand, imparting a spin by rubbing the stem against her thigh, while the right feeds wool to the process. A slow and demanding multitasking process, compared to the treadle-driven spinning, which leaves both hands free to manipulate the wool. The charms of the process that seduce people into hand- spinning wool stem from the total control and the artistry - the spinner creates twisted yarn of any thickness and density that she chooses, and of any color combination and consistency. Skeins of yarn at the show, for sale from S5 to $28 show the varieties, from hairy short-fiber to fine "tops." The character and quality of wool ranges from coarse "belly" fiber for carpets to material for hairy woolens and smooth worsteds. As to llama vs. alpaca wool - it is same animal, different breeding. The llamas in Peru were pack animals, alpacas were bred for wool. Remind you of another species? Imported mass-produced llama wool will be coarser, and may have less "memory" (bounceback quality to retain shape after washing) than the US product.
What about Angora? Well, Angora wool is the lightest, fluffiest fiber, pleasant to the touch, and allegedly healthy. It is produced by rabbits. The Angora goats produce mohair, next best, and after that comes cashmere, a goat product, as explained to me by Claudia of countrywool.com, our upstate purveyor of wool and airtravel-safe knitting needles, who has a little shop and knittery/spinnery way back in the woods. The harvesting process of long-hair rabbits is either by natural moulting or by shearing, both renewable and harmless to the animals, I'm told.
Now back to the wool people. The ladies of the trade, particularly those in spinning, remind me of the flower children of yore, although slightly aged - tall, long grey hair, plain homespun costumes, slow measured speech, occasionally offering an anti-war calendar for sale. The spinning wheel men tend to have ponytails, wear overalls and carry carpenters' gear. Those in knitting and in selling of wool, of both sexes, include a modern contingent, not as colorful but well-equipped with computerized knitting instructions and portable credit card machinery. Some have web-sites for mailorder trading facilities. Keep this Fair in mind for next October's entertainment.
# posted by Wally Dobelis @ 4:44 PM 
