Jolene is excited about Maryland Sheep and WOOL!!!

This is the 5th Sheep and Wool that I have worked on. Can you believe 4 years ago today, I purchased Cloverhill Yarn Shop. Not only did I have a 4 month old baby! but sheep and wool was only 4 days away. Crazy. It must of been either the wool fumes or postpartum hormones but we had SO MUCH FUN! It is great to be at the festival and support the fiber arts all the way from sheep to finished projects. I can’ t wait to do it for many more years.

Maybe Coleen will wear her sheep hat again this year!

Friday we will be closed as we load the truck and move all the AWESOME goodies to the festival. Then you will find us at the festival on Sat and Sun. Come stop by and say hi and check out what we have.

Abby tries to buy her wool from small farms and support local businesses.  Most of the wool and mohair she uses is   raw, right off the animal, which she washes, dyes, and cards herself.  Here is a quote from her site regarding her Falkland Islands wool:

My processed Falkland/merino cross wool top comes from the DHF farm in the Falkland islands. They don’t use any herbicides, pesticides, dips, footbaths or regular injections on their sheep, and no bleach or other chemicals in the processing of the wool - so it is, according to them, some of the purest, cleanest wool you will find on the planet. It’s also extremely soft and fine, with the loftiness of merino.

In addition to her multi-hued skeins of yarn, you will find some whimsical skeins with flowers or leaves, as shown in the photos above, as well as a sampling of small project bags that are the perfect size to hold a pair of socks, hat or other small projects in the works.  We look forward to seeing you this weekend at Sheep and Wool.  Don’t forget that Cloverhill’s booth will be in the main exhibition hall.  See you there!

We are pleased to have Ann Weaver with us this year for a book signing, Sunday morning at the Cloverhill Booth in the main building.
Her first book Craft Work Knit was inspired by the people closest to her, family and friends.   Craft Work Knit is a collection of patterns of practical garments which one could wear in their everyday lives.

Ann’s newest Book White Whale includes patterns inspired from the pages of Ann’s favorite novel Moby-Dick.

Stop by the booth at Sheep and Wool to meet Ann on Sunday morning. As an awesome added bonus! Karida from Neighborhood Fibers (yarns/patterns in Ann’s book) will be there as well with some samples. So both yarn and books will be available for you.

“The wildest thing that I have ever seen at MDSW was “hot pants guy” in his interesting knitted hot pants. Not a sight I really ever want to see again, but to each his own!”

We hope you get as big of a chuckle from Doris’ story as we did! Who knows what zany and hilarious things we may see at Sheep & Wool this year…

Be sure to join our Ravelry contest for a chance to win this yarn!

As we enter the single digits (!!) it is time to announce our final Sheep & Wool contest!

This one is a Ravelry contest, and the prize is 400 yds. of Jolene’s hand-dyed sock yarn!
To enter, go to our Ravelry page and respond to the thread titled, “Countdown to Sheep and Wool started!” with a brief account of the funniest or craziest thing that has ever happened to you at the Maryland Sheep & Wool festival. Did your husband get goosed? Did your kid fall into the llama pen? Tell us about it!

We will announce the winner for this contest on Friday, April 25, 2012. Good luck, everyone! We look forward to reading your stories!

Thank you Nora for taking a beautiful image of Rose spinning.

Thank you Nora for taking a beautiful image of Jen Spinning

Thank you Nora for this lovely image of Gregory's wheel

There is an event at the Maryland Sheep and Wool festival that requires coordination and much practice. The festival has a Sheep to Shawl competition on Sunday morning of the festival. The idea of this contest is to take a sheep, shear it, process then spin the fleece, and weave into a shawl on a loom. The teams and shawls are graded within the time limit and awarded prizes. I am so excited this year! Cloverhill Spinners (we usually meet the 2nd and last Friday of the month at 6pm at Cloverhill) is going to have a team competing!!!

The images above were taken by a member of the team, Nora and they contain a couple members of the team and/or their equipment. These team members are really knowledgeable in their fiber prep, spinning and weaving.  The wheels they use are called CPW wheels and they are antiques, some of these team members also spin on modern wheels but between them all the CPW is a common bond.

Come on Sunday morning to the festival and cheer the team on! If you can’t make it on Sunday morning, come join us at the shop on a spinning night.

Neighborhood Fiber Co. began in the kitchen of a basement apartment in the LeDroit Park neighborhood of DC. Stirred by her surroundings, Karida Collins

set out to provide the world with hand-dyed yarns inspired by and named to reflect the natural beauty and diverse neighborhoods throughout the nation’s capital. Since then, she has added many more colors to reflect a multitude of neighborhoods, both inside and outside of DC. Now based in an artists’ community in Baltimore, MD, Neighborhood Fiber Co. continues to offer vibrant, one-of-a-kind colors inspired by urban landscapes.

Enchanted Knoll is back for their second year at Cloverhill’s Sheep and Wool booth.

A little about Josette and Enchanted Wool: “I've been a shepherd in Maine for nearly 15 years - raising my own sheep, living off the grid on a solar powered farm. Recently, I've left behind the shepherding aspect of my life, moved to a little farm on the grid, and now only farm veggies, eggs, and herbs. But, I keep the love of wool in my heart and in my life and still derive the greatest pride from making beautiful products that you can spin/knit/felt with ease and pleasure. You can be sure that everything you buy from us has been made here by the experienced hands of spinners, knitters, a seamstress, and a shepherd.”

Stop by Cloverhill Yarn’s booth in the main hall at Sheep and Wool on May 5 and 6 to see what Enchanted Knoll is offering.

We are pleased to have Ashton Studio Arts back with us at Sheep and Wool this year.  Jo and Carl have provided us with high quality yarns in an endless array of beautiful semi solid and variegated colors.   Fiber contents include Merino, silk, bamboo, tencel and cashmere.

Some of our favorites are Capri, a merino and silk blend in fingering and DK weights which is just lovely to work with.  We also love Bella, a merino and tencel blend the provides a nice sheen to any work.  Be sure the check out their Ravelry page for more information about Ashton Studio Arts and all their yarn.