This will be our first full sized spring shearing fastival. Most of the vendors on the Tucson Wool Festival page will be here demonstrating their art process and selling their wares. Danny Smith from Missouri will be here shearing all of the animals. Best of all, this is the beginning of the lamb and kid season, so you will get to see babies.
We will be raffling off a nuno felted scarf (too hot for wool!) with the proceeds going to the Casa Maria Kitchen to feed Tucson families in need.
 Rita Bloscksum will be demonstrating needlefelting throughout the day.
 Trish will be demonstrating wet felting throughout the day.
 Danny shearing Kat last year
TUCSON WOOL FESTIVAL 2010: November 6 2010, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. See Tucson Wool Festival page for more information.
PATAGONIA FALL ARTS FESTIVAL: October 8-10, 2010 in Patagonia, Arizona.
I am currently posting all baby picures on my blog: http://www.uniquedesignsbykathy.blogspot.com.
Sunsets here in Tucson are stupendous at this time of year. I am turning them into felted murals/landscapes.
 Absynthe 2005
Written in 2005: I know you aren't supposed to love one animal more than another, especially if they are not really pets. However, there always seems to be one that grabs your heart. The highlight of my day is going out to feed the bottle baby angora goat a bottle of milk. She is 6 months old, and no baby, but it is fun to watch her come running up with her hair flying, ready to get her treat. All of the other animals know that she gets her bottle before they get fed, so they line up next to her at the fence, but no longer butt her away. Absynthe has style. Her first fleece sold and all of the yarn that I spun out of her secodn fleece sold at the two street fairs. She can be seen in a more recent photo take on November 5th, 2005, on the Tucson Wool Festival page. She still sits in chairs.
Update in November 2009 - Absynthe is still in charge. She will always be around because she lets 2 and 3 year old children pet her. Her hair is now rug yarn, but she has given me two sets of triplets and comes when she is called, so she is a keeper.
 This is the fiber from a felting workshop. It was Suffolk fleece donated by Tor Sorenson. I dyed it with Koolaid and Wilton's cake icing dye.
Shearing: I no longer shear - it is cheaper on my nerves and saves time to have someone else do it. Shearing dates are now the wool festival dates - March 27 and November 6, 2010.
I am leaving the photos from the 2004 shearing and adding just this one. Some goats just don't want to behave, so I have learned to adapt and shear them any way I can. This is Licorice, the last buck that I sheared in spring of 2005. He was docile as could be, once he went over the side for the third time and figured out that I was not going to let him back on the stand. I finished his neck and head with my son's help, after taking Licorice out of the headpiece.
I now hire Danny Smith from Missouri to shear my goats. I have too many and would rather spn than stress out over nicking one of my babies.
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 A one year old buck.
 This blanket was finished October of 2004. The picture shows different stages the wool and mohair must go through before becoming a finished product.
I spent the month of October 2004 learning how to shear my own goats and sheep. Nola was one of the last goats to be shorn. She was very patient.
 Part of the shearing process included hoof trimming and worming.
 Catching sheep can be tricky, even when you have a shepherd's crook!
 Bribes seem to work a lot better for some animals than others. The sheep are led by their stomachs.
 Moving a sheep that does not want to budge is hard work. They don't want to go up the ramp or forward, if they can't see where they are going.
 Friendly looks patient and long-suffering, but she was really huffing and puffing the whole time.
 Shearing was slow going, but my friends stuck around till the very end.
Kristie is working on her doctorate in Harp performance at Indiana University. She may be contacted through her own e-mail address: ClassicKristie@aol.com.
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