Wool Festival

Last Saturday we went to the Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival. This was our second year. It is about three hours away, east of Madison, so it makes a fun little get away. On the way down we stopped at the Farmer's Market in Madison which is always overwhelming - the market surrounds the capitol building and is brimming over with beautiful displays of fruits and veggies, flowers, cheeses, honey and...well, you get the idea. Knowing that anything we bought would be sitting in the car all day, we limited ourselves to a few things we can't find locally- garlic, a whole bunch to plant in the garden; sweet potatoes, some sheep's milk cheeses and the first apples of the season.

The sheep festival had a barn with different breeds and also brand new baby lambs. This guy is four days old. What a cutie!






This is a shetland lamb. I like shetlands. They have interesting fleeces and they are small. When William dreams of owning sheep, I hope they are shetlands.

William was especially looking for some parts for his new loom and some rug warp. He found both. Coleen is hooked on needle felting, so we bought a new book and some colorful rovings for her to play with. I'll show you our first projects in my next post.




After leaving the festival, it was back to Madison to Oberich Gardens. This is a wonderful set of botanical gardens, set up in a series of rooms. Each with a different feel. Unfortunately, one of my favorites, the herb garden was being renovated but everything else was lovely.

They have a thai pavillion on one side that is surrounded by more tropical plantings.


All in all, it was a great day.