Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival Gearing Up W. FRIENDSHIP, Md. One of the time-honored rites of spring sheep shearing will be demonstrated by one of the most skilled exponents of the art at the 15th annual Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival May 7 and 8 at the Howard County Fairgrounds, West Friendship, Md., when Char lie Swaim, Drakesville, lowa, sev eral times international shearing champion, will be on stage at vari ous times both days. In addition he will judge shearing competitions. Novice competitors, those who have sheared 75 but not over 700 sheep in a lifetime, will compete at 6 p.m. Saturday, while profession als who have sheared over 700 sheep will show their skills at 11 a.m. Sunday. The Festival, located off 1-70 at exit 80, just west of Baltimore, includes sheep shows, educational seminars, crafts, entertainment in the form of music and dancing, good food, trade shows and con tests involving both old and young in an annual celebration of the wonders of the miracle fiber, wool, and the animals who produce it. Sponsored by the Maryland Sheep Breeders Assoc, and chaired by Mary E.F. Streaker, the event is open to all free of charge and with ample free parking. Take Exit 80, go south on Rle. 32, then turn right on Rte. 144 to Fairgrounds. Nearly 200 craftspcrsons and suppliers will be exhibiting, demonstrating and selling their wares, according to Ernie Hall, Kcymar, crafts coordinator. This is the largest number ever recorded and they hail from 21 different C|oMtooDl_ QUALITY HOG QUALITY slates, from Maine through Florida and as far west as Colorado and Utah, with midwest states sand wiched in between. More than 500 sheep, bred for their wool, will be shown in shows featuring Border Leicester, Col umbia, Corriedale, Romney, white wool and natural colored. In addi tion, more than 30 breeds, repre senting dual purpose, meat, wool and exotic breeds, will be display ed in separate quarters. Their own ers will be on hand to discuss their merits. Eleven breed organizations will have booths explaining the attributes of their sheep. Three county organizations will have booths. Feeder lambs to grow out for the future will be shown and sold Saturday. A carcass contest is scheduled, with the champion and reserve champion lambs to be awarded lucky raffle ticket holders. Always a crowd plcaser is the sheep to shawl contest, which this year will pit 11 teams against each other and the clock. One team will feature male personnel. Each team consists of a shearer, 3 spinners and a weaver. The sheep is shorn and wool given to the spinners who treadle as fast and evenly as they are able. The yam then goes to the weaver who creates a shawl to spe cific dimensions within a 3-hour time limit, beginning at 9:30 a.m. Saturday. Shawls arc judged, awarded ribbons and cash prizes and are sold at auction. The auc tioneer will remind the gentlemen that this is a rare opportunity to buy their ladies “one of a kind” items. SETTING THE liH PMSLfiI? INCORPORATED ™ * evergreen rd . LEBANON, PA. 17042 PH. 717-274-3488 % CONFINEMENT SYSTEMS INC. Some leslival goers wouldn’t think it complete without witness ing the expertise of Border Collies herding sheep. They won’t be dis appointed, for Nathan Mooney, Carlisle, PA, will pul his talented dogs through their paces both days. Food is an important part of any gathering and the festival will offer many kinds of dishes, from sand wiches to gourmet lamb. Several restaurants will be selling food in the food building, which also will house the lamb cook-off contest and lamb cutting demonstrations. There will be food booths through out the grounds. Coupons for re demption in certain markets for fresh American lamb will be distri buted. Fundings for the lamb promotion is provided by the American Sheep Producers Coun cil, Maryland Sheep Breeders Assoc, and partially by the Virgi nia Sheep Federation. Giant Food and other retailers arc cooperating. A lamb and wool queen will be crowned Saturday and will reign for the year over many sheep related events. Other events include skein and garment compet ition, fine arts, photo and poster contests, shepherd’s lead, fashion show, square dancing, junior spm mg and 4-H, FFA judging. An important auction will take place at 3 p.m. Sunday when breeding rams and ewes will be sold. These animals will have been shown and evaluated by the judge. Only rams grading blue will sell, while ewes grading blue and red will be offered. Jack Price, 339 Lemmon Rd„ Westminster, Md. s INSTALLATION 21157, is sale manager. Phone 301-848-8097. Sale catalogs arc available. Sheep shows coordina tor is Donald Scaling 11, 7524 Gaither Rd., Sykcsvillc, Md. 21784. Phone 301-795-6955. Festival visitors look to sup pliers for raw materials to take home with which to fashion their own garments or products. Para mount is the offering of many kinds of fleeces. Both natural col ored and white fleeces of grades from the finest to the coarsest may be purchased at the fleece barn. Fleeces may be consigned for sale or entered in competition and placed for sale at producer’s option. They will be judged Satur day morning and go on sale at 1 p.m. While the festival is intended to be fun and entertaining, it is also designed to provide education on various subjects through seminars. Dr. Scott Barao, extension lives tock specialist. University of Maryland, will begin the sessions at 7 p.m. Friday, May 6. He will discuss reasons for and usefulness of good record keeping in the sheep flock; minimum records and methods of collection, on the farm computerization of flock records, software available, and the new national sheep improvement program. If you’ve always wanted to try your hand at spinning here’s your chance. West Friendship 4-H club members will conduct a “drop in, learn to spin” from 12:30 to 2 p.m. Sunday. “We arc fortunate to have two experts on fleece selection and pre TREND Lancaster Farming, Saturday, April 16, 1988-F3 f -*■*. J • CORROSION RESISTANT paralion and knitting,” slates Mrs. Streaker, chairman. Caye Speak man, who holds a degree in crafts from the University of Maryland and a master weaver rating will talk about what to look for in a fleece, different methods of prepa ration for spinning and demons trate techniques of spinning at 1 p.m. Sunday. Mrs. Speakman has taught in the area for IS years, is past president of Potomac Crafts men and charter member of both AVachne Spinners and Moonspinners. Hands on Knitting will be taught at 3 p.m. Sunday by Beth Brown Reinscl. She is a teacher, designer, writer and most recently, organizer of the Harford County chapter of the Knitting Guild of America. She chairs the national guild commit tee for professional designers and teaches knitting, spinninng and dyeing at Harford Community College as well as in her own stu dio. Bring size 7 or 8 needles and 2 or 3 colors of worsted weight yam for this course. On-going both days in the infor mation tent will be a video show on fiber working techniques. Of great interest will be a slide presentation of sheep of the USSR presented by Peter Hagerty, Maine sheep fanner and orginator of the peace fleece. He will discuss breeds of sheep raised in the Soviet Union and relate his experiences concerning his negotiations for the purchase of Russian wool, which he combines with American wool for “peace fleece”. Both yams and patterns or instructions for finished garments are merchandised in both countries. Additional information may be obtained by calling 301-321-1344 or 301-845-8744. AAA Associates, Inc
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