Shepherd's Harvest Festival -
Shepherding has a lot of lonely moments from lambing in the dark nights of late winter to hauling hay and grain in the high heat of July. We find great solace in the country and in the peace of the animals but much of our experience happens in solitary.

Until festival time!

Shepherds, spinners, knitters and other magical folk come out of the woodwork for a celebration of spring and the bounty that this year’s wool harvest brings.

A county fairground in Lake Elmo, MN comes to life with musicians, shepherds, and artists. Booths overflow with all the fixings a fiber artist or just a fiber lover could dream of. There is raw fleece, roving, combed top, handspun yarns, woven rugs, knitted shawls, felted hats and slippers and more then the eye or the mind can inhale. Alpaca, llama, buffalo, goat, rabbit and sheep fill the outbuildings with their charm and unabashed personality. And musicians delight and relieve shoppers and vendors alike. Commercial America melts into the background and the peculiarities and extraordinary talents of this melting pot bubble to the surface and swirl around in a dazzling display.

My son Christopher said it looked like Diagon Alley – the great street in Harry Potter where witches and wizards go to shop. It’s true everyone had some magnificent woolen art to wear. Felted bags, woven shawls, knit sweaters, everything made with love from the hands. One vendor remarked that it was the only time of year when it was acceptable to pet a stranger! Something as simple as wool and plant dye becomes art and wraps you in a wonderful spirit of creativity, peace and nature.

It was also a celebration of family for this world often presents multiple generations both in shepherding and artistry. For our part, we had the Loomis family wheel, circa 1870, to anchor the booth and attract onlookers. My daughter Heather (see picture above) wore a hat and sweater I made from our yarn, and spun our wool on one side of our booth while my daughter Kelsey knit her handspun to the delight of the shoppers on the other. Every grandmother in the world wanted to know if Kelsey’s large wooden needles – a gift from her own grandmother – was the secret to her skill.

We celebrated Mother’s Day in mystic Avolon style as Heather gave me a mobile made of twigs and wool and her handmade charms with glass images of 5 generations of women. After my daughter-in-law, Eszter, retrieved the fleeces from the competition we added our ribbons to the mobile and hung it all on the Great Wheel. Mystical and real all at the same time.

And to top the weekend off, I celebrated finishing up a felted sweater of my own design! I have sworn off knitting for at least 3 weeks so my little muscles can recover.

If you have a festival like this near you, I encourage you to go. You can travel to another world, uncover untold riches and never have to suffer an airplane.