Looking Forward to Seeing You at CNY Fiber Festival!

It feels like ages since last festival season, and I’m so excited that CNY Fiber Festival is kicking off our first two-day event of the year! I love the slower pace of a weekend-long festival—it gives everyone time to settle in, wander, revisit, and really connect. If you’ve got a fiber-related puzzle, a project you’re stuck on, or just want to explore new tools and techniques, I hope you’ll swing by my booth. I’m not just here to sell Majacraft tools—I’m here to collaborate, problem-solve, and celebrate fiber arts with you. Over the years, my booth has evolved into more of a fiber studio than a traditional vendor space. It’s a place to experiment, try things out, and maybe even see your craft in a new light. Creativity is the heart of what I do, and helping people find the right tool or spark of inspiration is the best part of any festival. So whether you’re shopping, learning, or just exploring, come hang out! Try some tools, ask some questions, and let’s talk fiber. You never know what idea might strike next. See you soon!

May Event - Shepherd's Market Fiber Festival

I will have a booth at the Shepherd's Wool Market in Rush, New York in May.  This is the next festival on my schedule.  It is a nice one day event with local vendors of all sorts connected to fiber crafting.

My booth at Shepherd's Market 2024

I bring the entire range of Majacraft Spinning Wheels for people to try.  

All the Majacraft Wheels

They are set up around the booth - the Aura, Rose, Suzie, Luna and Little Gem.  Experienced spinners like to spin on them with all sorts of different fiber that I bring along.  Those who never spun before I give the opportunity to treadle while I draft so they can see how it feels.  

Giving a future spinner a try at a wheel

And many times people just ask me to show them how its done, and they enjoy just watching me spin.

 I also set up a table with all of the fiber preparation tools from Majacraft.  

All the Majacraft fiber preparation tools 

They all do their own special task, like blending, cleaning or aligning fibers to prepare for spinning or even felting.  It is really fun to demonstrate the drum carder - everyone really enjoys getting an overview of what it does.

Demonstrating the Majacraft Drum Carder in my booth

I love it when people bring along fiber that is giving them a little trouble.  Maybe a washed fleece that they are struggling to get clean.  Hoping at the Shepherd's Market I'll have people bringing fiber for us to find the best tool for the job.

Of course I bring wool from our sheep in many forms.  Handspun yarn, millspun yarn, fiber to spin, hand knit hats and mittens.  This will be the first time the combed top from 2024 will be making a public appearance.  I'll have to pack it in the nylon mesh bags I use for transporting the top to shows.

Handspun yarn and knit items in my booth

I have started setting up the booth a few days before the festival in the garage which helps alot to get me organized, and speed up the set up the day of.

Me and sister setting up practice booth in my garage

Looking forward to seeing everyone, hopefully if you are local to us you will be able to stop out and have a look around!  

Fleece Auction 2024

The fleece auction is a significant milestone here on the farm - from April thru June we are busy harvesting, cataloging and making our soft shetland fleeces available for hand spinners to enjoy.

Shearing Day - I am feeding the sheep thru handling system

I just loaded a video on my youtube channel which shares what it is like here after the auction - getting the paperwork ready for shipping, packaging and shipping the fleeces all over the country.

Please check out my video on my YouTube Channel!

Here are a few statistics I thought you might find interesting: We harvested 66 fleeces this year - 41 roo'd and 25 sheared

Cheerfully Rooing a Sheep

5 will be made into 1 oz packets from Tye, Lucretia, Carrie, O'Brien and Mimi 2 will be processed by me - Ofeibea and Elara 5 went into the Combed Top pool - Sebastian, Duncan, Harry, English Garden (our senior ewe at 13 years) and Salome (Sheared terrible) 1 was sold at full price as compensation to a farm helper - Hermoine 53 were sold in the auction 63 fleeces were from ewes, 3 from rams 53 fleeces in auction - 38 were roo'd, 15 were sheared

Barbarina's parted fleece photo - I roo'd her 19.1 micron fleece

43 sold in the auction, 10 were made available on website after auction closed (one left at the writing of this post) 24 people bought fleeces in the auction

Our Soft Shetland Fleeces are Sprinkled all over the USA!

80 lbs of wool was sold in the auction Color mix for auction fleeces: Black - 7 Fawn - 12 Grey - 19 Moorit - 8 White - 8

Rhinebeck Fiber Festival 2023

It is Autumn here in Western New York, maple trees are in full color of brilliant hues of red and burnt orange.

The temperatures and cooling down and the wildlife around the farm are getting ready for the harsh winter months ahead.

Autumn also is the time when our festival season peaks in a grand finale for the year - the largest fiber festival in the country, the New York State Sheep and Wool Festival.

Important Festival Details

The festival is commonly referred to as Rhinebeck, because it is located in the village of Rhinebeck.  But technically it is the New York State Sheep and Wool Festival

It takes place at the Dutchess County Fairgrounds which is situated in the Catskill mountains, close to the hudson river, about 100 miles north of New York City. Rhinebeck always takes place the 3rd weekend in October and always at the Dutchess County Fairgrounds.

Our History Vending at the Rhinebeck Fiber Festival

We have had a vendor booth at this festival for 4 years, starting in 2019.  I was still working full time for a company in addition to having the farm compared to now where I am a full time farmer.  Also, I only had the Rose for demo spinning, and I still had a lot of raw fleeces on offer where now they sell in the spring during my annual fleece auction. 

In 2020 the festival went virtual due to Covid 19, so I just set up my booth in the garage and sat in front of my phone in a day long zoom session.  We didn’t have high speed internet at the time, so I was relying on my cellular service in order to serve the customers that stopped into my “shop” the 4 days of the event. I had a lot more Majacraft supplies, and the sheep heid kits which I don’t make any more, and I had a small amount of roving, I hadn’t started offering combed top yet.

In 2021 they controlled ticket sales to 20,000 and spaced the vendors out, and were monitoring the direction of lanes inside the buildings to prevent face to face contact.  I remember how happy I was to be back talking to all my fibery friends, and because of controlled ticket sales I was able to spend time with people that were interested in learning more about the craft of handspinning.  My niece Gigi came along to help that year.  And this year I had the full lineup of demo equipment and combed top was now the mill prep.  And this was the year I realized I had outgrown our minivan and would need to consider renting a larger vehicle!

2022 was busy, we had a lot of people browsing and enjoying the wheels, and I was still able to spend one on one time with people which is really important to me.  This year, 2023, we were slammed, to the point where I was taking care of three customers at once for practically the entire day on Saturday.  

Products Featured in our Booth

We raise shetland sheep with the singular purpose of producing wool that is ideal for handspinning.  I am also an authorized Majacraft dealer, and I hold stock of al the wheels, fiber preparation tools and accessories.

Our fiber festival booth always has Majacraft demo wheels for people to try, all the fiber preparation tools to play with and then wool from our sheep in various forms.  I try to offer wool products that satisfy the diverse range of fiber crafting possibilities.

So I offer hand processed bats that I hand washed, flicked and then drum carded into batts.

Hand processed handspun yarn

Then I try to provide mill preparations of our wool, so I offer mill spun yarns

And combed top in all 5 natural colors

I usually have some samples of knit accessories on hand to provide inspiration

These are the staples, then I’ll sprinkle in other farm related things just based on what materials I have available

Friday

Our drive to Rhinebeck is a 5 hour road trip.

The van is packed the night before so that on friday morning all we need to do is take care of the sheep and then hit the road

We made arrangements to have our son take care of the sheep for the festival weekend

Only a few more miles to the fairground once we pass this famous landmark - the festival billboard

 

Saturday

We arrive at the fairgrounds a few hours before the festival start time of 9 am.  Once the booth is ready, we like to walk around and check out other booths

Rich and I have split the booth duties during fiber festivals.    Rich is the one in charge of checking out customers

I am responsible for consulting with customers to find solutions to their making needs- ,

helping them understand the wool from our sheep in all its forms

Or assisting them as they try out a majacraft spinning tool for the very first time

 

The Fleece Show and Sale

We arrived early enough on Sunday, before the festival began to be able to  look at the remaining fleeces from the Fleece show and sale - It is important for us as breeders to examine the wool being produced by other farms to see what we can learn. 

Shetland fleeces in the US don’t have a uniform type.  Some are very long and straight, others are short with crimp.  And then many fall in between. They are all considered acceptable by the breed association.   I think this variation makes it difficult for a handspinner to source shetland fleeces - especially if they are looking for a specific type.  You can see this variation here where these are all shetland fleeces but all look very different.

We like to breed for very fine, crimpy fleeces that are dense and nice and soft, this one was the closest to what I like to work with.

The Sheep barn

We make it a point to spend time in the sheep barn where you get to see a very nice variety of fiber producing animals and speak to the farmers who raise them.

Souveniers

We preordered festival souvenirs this year and picked them up when we arrived.  If you want souvenirs from the festival it is best to preorder.  I put this link in the description which you can follow to sign up for notifications when the souvenirs become available next year.  I loved the artwork this year and because we preordered, I was fortunate to be able to secure the very popular tote bag. 

Every year the festival holds an art  contest.  Artists submit their designs for the next year’s festival artwork.  Attendees to the festival can vote for their preferred design.  The artist with the most votes has the honor of having their design used on all the merchandizing, web graphics and signage for the next year’s festival.

This years artwork was created by Jeanne Goodman -

and she is a professional artist with an impressive resume and works all over the country.  I read that she primarily works in colored pencils and color pencil art sticks. 

Never saw a sheep this color, but I’ve seen sheep that made me think about these colors - perhaps a Gotland or a Wensleydale

I keep on running back thru my head the conversations and things I was told by people who came into our booth and I have to say I am so grateful for everyones' support and kind feedback about our farm, our YouTube channel and the products we are trying to supply to this lovely community of fiber crafters.  Thank you so much to all who stopped by, and those of my “locals” who saw how crammed we were and just gave me a friendly wave or quick hug as they were swept by in the traffic flow.