COMMUNITY
Shear Fun
Alexa and Rachael
Conner Prairie
to get a chance to see it
held by Conner Prairie
is a weekend long event.
During the last weekend
textile. People get to see
everything from the sheep
being sheared to cloth
being woven. Throughout
lots of cool things to see.
In the Animal Encounters
one of our talented youth
have Shear Fun if it weren’t
for our lovely sheep! The
two main breeds of sheep
we have are Tunis and
Horned Dorset. Most of
the sheep we have on the
grounds have grown up at
Conner Prairie. They get
and youth volunteers get to
help as well.
The sheep are the very
beginning of the wool to
a part of the Shear Fun
program. Once the wool
visitors got to see a mock
State Fair Sheep to Shawl
contest. The program
also offers many hands-
skirted. Skirting is when
and drop spindle makeand-takes. It’s a great
experience for people who
wouldn’t normally be able
to see things like textiles
shawl that we made this
out and twisted until it
becomes thread. To make
the next step is warping.
strands are plyed together.
on a table and sorted into
piles of good wool and bad
wool. Once the sorting is
washing. Since the wool
lanolin must be extracted
by soaking the wool in
brushed out with cards
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and each thread was four
yards long. After making
measuring out the thread
for the warp (the string
that are vertical on the
process is weaving.
There is a lot of preparation
that goes into Shear Fun.
had been learning to
spin just for Shear Fun!
getting to try your hand at
which further help the
clean the wool. The next
step is spinning. On either
a spinning wheel or drop
we decided to weave a
shawl instead of a scarf.
Although it may seem like
lot of work that goes into
preparing the shawl before
the shawl can be woven.
done is picking the pattern
and colors. There is a lot
of math that must be done
to make sure that the scarf
number of threads per
warp on the loom. This
is a crucial step in the
weaving process because
one small mistake could
mess up the entire shawl.
effort and a lot of time.
youth spinning captains
and experienced spinners/
weavers to help out!
After all of the warping is
the scarf during Shear Fun
weekend! Hopefully next
year goes just as great!
how many
heddles needed
shrinkage. The
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