Sheer enjoyable in Dixon – The Vacaville Reporter

Dropping temperatures later this fall may have Solano County residents reaching for woolen sweaters, hats, and mittens, however few will absolutely perceive the quantity of labor that goes into these merchandise. Those who attended the fortieth annual Lambtown USA competition on the Dixon May Fair this weekend, nonetheless, had the possibility to fulfill sheepdogs, watch shepherds present prize sheep, buy an enormous number of wools and even see what it takes to shear sheep up shut and private.

“I call it salsa dancing with a sumo wrestler while holding a power tool,” skilled sheep shearer Jordan Reed mentioned throughout one among his shearing demonstrations, held all through the weekend.

The Lambtown USA competition, which started in 1985, showcases the whole lot that sheep and sheep manufacturing have to supply, from scrumptious lamb-based meals choices to a sheep-to-shawl spinning and knitting competitors at an occasion that seeks to honor the world’s heritage within the trade. At one level, in accordance with the competition’s web site, extra lambs have been born in Dixon than wherever else within the nation, incomes town the nickname of Lambtown USA.

Reed mentioned he has been working with sheep professionally for greater than 15 years and has loved the nontraditional profession path. Shearing has taken him all throughout the nation’s small cities and farms, introducing him to new folks and meals and whereas the pay isn’t very excessive, it retains him away from the drudgery of a nine-to-five.

“You don’t enter agriculture to make money, you get into agriculture for a healthy lifestyle,” he mentioned.

Reed mentioned sheep have traditionally been shorn with hand blades for hundreds of years,  however mechanical clippers have been invented at concerning the flip of the century and started to achieve their ultimate kind in about 1950. Now, he mentioned, shearing is just not solely an agricultural job however a nationwide and worldwide sport.

Shearers work in crews of about three to 5, Reed mentioned, and look forward to sheep on the finish of a chute, requiring only some steps per sheep, as shepherds convey the flock to them. However, shearers must hold the sheep nonetheless and comparatively docile as they take away the wool, he mentioned, a tall activity for animals that may stand up to 250 kilos.

“Sheep have personalities and breed types,” he mentioned. “Not all breeds are very calm.”

But for these fascinated with fiber arts, the enjoyable begins when the wool is off the animal. From there, it’s typically cleaned, carded, spun, dyed, and offered to knitters, crocheters, weavers, and every kind of crafters. Robin Lynde, of the Meridian Jacobs farm on Meridian Road outdoors Vacaville, raises sheep and hosts a sales space along with her items on the competition.

“I sell all of the goods from the sheep,” she mentioned. “I sell the fiber, I sell yarn, lamb skins; my sheep are spotted, so we get different colors of yarn, at least within the natural range, and they have horns, so I have horn buttons, because I make buttons from the horns.”

Lynde mentioned she enjoys interacting with knitters and crocheters, as a result of some have been part of the passion for a few years however have by no means petted a sheep or talked to somebody who shears or raises them. For crafters seeking to go behind the scenes to “connect with their fiber,” Lynde presents a farm membership that visits her flock and learns concerning the animals in particular person.

“It’s good from a standpoint of marketing, because they understand better what they are getting,” she mentioned.

Despite being the one one among its type in Northern California, the Lambtown USA Sheep-to-Shawl competitors is strictly because it sounds: groups crafted handwoven shawls a minimum of 72 inches lengthy and 19 inches vast out of the fleece of a sheep. Fleece may be dyed upfront however not absolutely ready, and have to be spun, plied and woven into the scarf inside 4 hours.

Sheryl Thompson of the “Flocking Awesome Spinners” workforce mentioned her workforce’s scarf was hand-dyed to replicate the look of fall timber in an ombre sample. The eight members, principally from the Placerville space, competed for the primary time two years in the past and now meet as soon as a month. Despite the hours of labor and observe that the occasion requires, Thompson mentioned the camaraderie retains her coming again.

“We meet once a month and spin together, talk about the weave, decide which kind of fleece we want to use,” she mentioned. “As the weaver, I look at several patterns to see, you know, you look at the rules of what they want for the shawl and look at several patterns and decide.”