Sheep to Shawl 2012

It's that time of year again -- fiber festival season! Some of us went down to the Willamette Heritage Center, a.k.a. the Mission Mill museum, site of the historic Kay Woolen mill and many historic houses, for the annual Sheep to Shawl festival. I didn't get it all in pictures, but captured some of it.

Inside the historic mill itself are the equipment, which was all powered by water power from the mill race that runs under the mill, that once turned raw fleece into finished blankets and wool fabric. These are the spinning machines, all in a row down one side of the mill, with rolls of fine roving to the right.

The carding machines took the cleaned fleece and turned it into carded wool, and to fine roving:

The loom is still fired up now and then to demonstrate how the mechanisms worked. There's white woolen cloth on it that the machine wove:

The old punch clock, where workers punched in all up until the 1960s when the mill finally closed.

The forge, where expert machinists made and fixed parts for the machines.

Outdoors, we met these lovely cashmere goats.

Llamas always look like they're way too cool for this kind of thing.

A teeny yarn bombing -- a mere yarn firecracker -- the sheep statue sported a red scarf.

Though in color, the sheep statue wasn't too far from these Shetlands. The baby boy had a lovely black-and-white face.

I forgot to ask what breed these were, but their long, crimpy locks looked lovely for spinning.

These alpaca youngsters had their first haircut:

The best part was meeting up with friends and knitting the afternoon away. Helen and Andrea at the cafe:

Andrea, Nanci, and her beekeeping friend admire the yarns and animals.