Farm Club at Lambtown and the Sheep-to-Shawl Debut

I wrote about my experience at this year’s Lambtown in Dixon, California here.

On Sunday morning while I was getting my vendor booth ready for the day the Sheep to Shawl (S2S) teams were gathering. There were to be seven under this tent and one of them was the Farm Club team! Before Lambtown opened for business I looked for the other Farm Club members who were supporting Lambtown one way or another. We had pretty good representation!

Gynna and Roy (along with Hank this year) were the brains behind Lambtown the last few years and responsible for it’s revival and success.

Jackie helped in the Fibershed Coop booth but was also staffing the booth for Solano County CART (Community Animal Response Team). Stephany spent most of her time helping to organize and then staff the Fibershed booth.

Shoppers are an important part of the event. Dona and Mary exemplify the best kind of shopper.

Lisa volunteered at Lambtown and did her share of shopping as well, finding the naturally colored cotton that I was selling.

As I got back to the Sheep-to-Shawl tent I found five more Farm Club members. Alison and Marina were already committed to the Silverado Spinster’s team, but it was Alison that got the Farm Club team organized back in July.

Here Kathleen has joined them, also on the Silverado team.

The all-important tea for Alison.

I didn’t get a photo of Carol but she is represented on this team.

Farm Club member, Deborah, was also on a different team—Spindles and Flyers.

This is the Meridian Jacobs’ Farm Club team (and me) just before the competition started. There are 4 spinners, 1 plyer, 1 “go-fer”, 1 educator, and the weaver. They can all work on fiber prep but they all have to stick to their other jobs. The loom was warped with handspun Jacob wool of course.

Here are the posters that the team prepared as part of the education component of the contest.

When the call to start was made, the team all began fiber prep.

Opening locks before putting them through the drum carder.

Note the bandaid box. Safety first!

Seen on a spinning wheel.

Spinning is underway.

Brenda seemed to be having a good time.

The weaver, Reba, had to focus since she had a rather long treadling sequence to get the pattern she planned.

I love that our team thought up the “secret message” that unrolls as the warp is woven.

Alison, on the neighboring team, used headphones to help her concentration while weaving.

This is the beautiful pattern that Reba wove. The shawl was not finished in the allotted time, and the team agreed that it was better to leave it on the loom and finish it later rather than cut if off just to make a time limit.

I can’t wait to see this when it is really finished! Go Team!