There's so much to see at the festival. They have sheep dog trials, sheep shows, fleece judging, auctions, a display of hooked rugs and demonstrations, a sheep to shawl competition, lots of vendors, and lots of classes to take and more. One of my favorites is the Hall of Breeds, where sheep breeds from all over the world are brought in for everyone to see. Another favorite is seeing the lambs that are born at the festival.
I took 2 classes, and I enjoyed both of them. The first class was Intermediate Brioche taught by Javier Jara. We knit a sample of 2-color brioche and used increases and decreases to create a design in the brioche. Brioche is reversible, and it usually has a light side and a dark side.
And the dark side of the same sample.
The 2nd class I took was on Sami Mitten Techniques, taught by Laura Ricketts. Laura brought lots of samples of mittens to show us and they were all based on her research of the historical Sami mitten knitting techniques.
Sami Mittens usually have a braided cord at the cuff, often with a tassel. Some of them have knitted braids near the cuff that are similar to Latvian braids. They have a pointed top and pointed thumb top, and the mittens have a "peasant thumb," which is a straight thumb without a thumb gore.
We knit a little sample minus the thumb, which has the same decreases as the top of the mitten.
There were lots of different sheep at the festival and also some baby lambs that were born at the festival.
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