Shepherd's Harvest 2019, Classes and vendors and fun. Oh my!

Shepherd's Harvest Sheep and Wool Festival, located near Stillwater, MN, just east of the Twin Cities, just celebrated its 23rd year of all things fiber including (the most important part to me) three massive barns of vendors.  Maybe next year I will get my act together and post a notice of how cool Shepherd's Harvest is before the event. For now, I can only share a couple pictures.

First off, we had some great classes. This hard working group was part of the Introduction to Pin Loom Weaving class and made woven coasters/mug rugs with bee and flower embellishments. We also did a Pin Loom Patterns and Joins class. I figure that once you can weave a square and have a sense about how to join them, the sky's the limit!

This picture illustrates an extraordinary square. I wanted to share this because it reminds me how important it is to try new things. This weaver added a few more layers of warp and weft than are normally called for, but the result is lovely with a really interesting texture.

I would never have thought to do this on my own because I have been weaving for a long time so I always do it the same. It is really difficult to regain a beginner's mind.

I spent much of the time demonstrating pin loom weaving and showing off the fun things that can be made with pin loom squares. The Wolf Hat/Scarf and the Felted Book Bag in the lower left corner of my display table are both featured in Easy Weaving with Little Looms 2019 . Isn't it great to see a magazine devoted to little looms?!

Did you notice the three Monster Softies posed above in the middle of the display? They are a recent project to be published through Yarn Magazine, from Artwear Publications.

Of course I also was showing off a few of the items from the newest book, Adorable Beasts. You can see a picture of the cover on the right. This is one of the playscapes, a medieval homestead with house, tower, stable, garden, and ornamental pond with trees. The knight, lady, dragon and unicorn sort of go with the setting, but you can add in any animals you like. I included the llama, alpaca and rabbit because I was at a fiber fair. 

My greatest challenge has been finding time to make a few items for sale.  The cats shown below are a fun, simple project that works well as a craft item as well as being a fun class. The Owl Phone Pouches are also a product of working with Yarn Magazine and are going to make a wonderful class!

For those who have actually read to the bottom of this post, here is my favorite thing about Shepherd's Harvest. Every year the Minnesota fishing opener falls on the same weekend as Mother's Day. So for many families around here, Mother's Day weekend is celebrated with all the fishing guys and gals taking off for the lake and all the weaving, spinning, knitting, felting people getting together at Shepherd's Harvest. Everybody ends up happy.