GLEICHEN, Alta. – When Cara Sheppard went to her first fibre festival in Ontario last year, she knew she wanted a similar event on her southern Alberta farm.
“I had such a good time, I decided I’m going to do this in Alberta,” she said.
She and her husband Bill own a small flock of Texel sheep, selling the wool for quilt batting.
Spinners, weavers, quilters and anyone who enjoys fibre arts were invited to the farm near Gleichen Aug. 6 to sell everything from wool spun from dog hair to showing elaborate quilting techniques.
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To collect dog hair, owners are encouraged to comb their pets and save the fibre so spinners like Sylvia Jay of Calgary can turn the hair into a soft wool with a variety of colours. For some, this is a special keepsake of a well loved pet, said Jay.
Besides a variety of wools spun from sheep, llama, alpaca, bison and dog, herding and shearing demonstrations were offered to give crafters a sense of the processes involved from pasture to finished garment.
Wool buyer Zenk Matkowski of Innisfail, Alta., demonstrated shearing. Trained in Poland, he was once part of a six man team responsible for shearing six million head per year.
Next year’s event is planned for the end of July with more live animal demonstrations and a possible sheep to shawl competition where animals are shorn, wool is spun and a final garment is handmade in a single day.
