The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Sheep to shawl demos at Farmpark
Youngsters learn the process ‘from sheep to shawl’
Spinning, weaving, sheep shearing, and plant dyeing demonstrations are just a few of the activities visitors to the Lake County Metroparks Farmpark experienced May 12-13 during the annual sheep shearing weekend.
In addition to activities such as hands on milking displays, cheese and ice cream making, animals and crafts, attendees observed the process of how wool goes from the sheep to a finished product with shearing, spinning and dyeing and weaving demonstrations.
Also, a border collie herded sheep in a field.
The highlight of the weekend was on May 12, when park staff sheared a sheep dyed in rainbow colors with Kool-Aid and water.
Alexis Swiatkowski, 7, of Fairview park who was attending the Farmpark for the first time, said her favorite part was getting to spin the fibers from the rainbow sheep into yarn
Wool sheared from the sheep was available for purchase during the weekend.
Park interpreter Kelley Mader showed how to weave the yarn on a loom while explaining how the speed of completing a project can be determined by the type of wool used. A project using a thicker wool will often go faster than one woven from thinner yarn, because the thinner yarn takes up less space and will involve more weaving.
Shepherdess and park interpreter Wendy Vacik provided hands on demonstrations on spinning the fleece into yarn and on shearing sheep using both a set of blades and electric shears. She encouraged audience members to come up and give it try while she guided them on doing it.
Cambria Scarborough, 11, Akron, thought helping to shear the sheep was entertaining.
“I think it’s nice to get out and be with nature and have fun while doing it,” Cambria said when asked what she thought of the event.
Logan Garrett, 6, of Huntsburg, said he thought shearing was good for the sheep, and he enjoyed helping.
Interpreter Donnie Malinas and border collie Tot gave a demonstration on sheepherding.
Interpreter Valerie Reinhardt demonstrated how various plants such as madder root, hollyhock, walnut hulls, turmeric, indigo and eucalyptus can be used to dye the yarn into an assortment of colors.
For Mother’s Day, moms were treated to a complimentary tea and scone.
“It’s really an opportunity for our visitors to follow the process from the animal growing that fleece for the entire season, the care of that animal throughout the entire season, and then the harvest of that fleece and fiber off the animal,” Vacik said. “They get to actually participate and help us shear. Then after the fleece is off the animal then they can help us prepare the fleece for spinning and actually spin it into yarn and then take that yarn and weave it on the loom. So it follows the entire process from beginning to end, from sheep to shawl as we like to say.”
Farmpark event manager Andy McGovern describes the Farmpark as a seasonal park and said that it’s important to shear the animals in the spring.
“Our animal care staff is a very talented and they have a long history of doing this. Wendy and Jackie and Donnie, they all in one level of the shearing to the actual finished product have expertise
“To see kids not just at the event, but to see kids from the city come in and go ‘Wow that’s an animal. Wow they are getting a haircut just like me. Wow wait a minute, hold on, my thing is made of wool that came from a sheep,’ its’s eye opening.” — Farmpark event manager Andy McGovern
in one area or another and we are lucky to have that here at the Farmpark,” McGovern said.
He also notes that since they all love to be interpreters in that aspect, why not have one weekend in the spring where the Farmpark can highlight their skills. In the fall Farmpark has a jamboree where they kind of do the same thing but with a little more detail to the final product. So its The sheep are very important to the Farmpark, according to McGovern.
The Farmpark has school groups that come in during this time of year.
“To see kids not just at the event, but to see kids from the city come in and go ‘Wow that’s an animal. Wow they are getting a haircut just like me. Wow wait a minute, hold on, my thing is made of wool that came from a sheep,’ its’s eye opening,” McGovern said. “That’s what the park is about. It’s about educating people about where your food comes from and in a sense where your clothes come from.”