May
21, 2006
Hello from Ottawa: The Sheep Shearing Festival
and Other Interesting Things to Learn About Wool
Once a year on the May long weekend, the Canada
Agriculture Museum puts on its Sheep Shearing Festival. It is
held on the Saturday, Sunday and Monday of the Victoria Day weekend.
After my excursion to the see the Flotilla
on Dows Lake, one of the signature events of the Tulip Festival,
I took a slow walk on the western shores of Dows Lake past a serene
nature area towards the Canada Agriculture Museum. As you ascend
up a small hill from Dows Lake towards the museum, you get a beautiful
view of downtown and the eastern part of Ottawa and it's a great
location for a bike ride or a stroll.
Beautiful view looking east over Dows Lake
Approaching the Canada Agriculture Museum from the east you first
see extensive ornamental gardens that at this time featured a variety
of spring flowers and entire rows of blooming lilacs. The Sheep
Shearing Festival was held in one of the main buildings and I made
myself comfortable in the first row of seating right next to the
stage.
It was about 10 minutes before the next round of sheep shearing
which takes place every half hour during the May long weekend. The
announcer introduced me to a man called Dave, one of the herdspersons
at the Canada Agriculture
Museum who looks after the various animals, e.g. beef cows,
horses, sheep, goats, pigs and rabbits. He explained to me that
the Canada Agriculture Museum is a working farm and part of the
Canada Science and Technology Museum. Its mandate is to teach agriculture
awareness, particularly to children who have never even been on
a farm.
Approaching the Canada Agriculture Museum
Dave went on to explain that the beef cattle raised at the Museum
are sold for reproduction and as meat. Milk from the Museum is also
sold on the market and the income from these various activities
helps to offset the cost of running the museum. Dave mentioned that
at Easter about 12,000 people attend their special events which
include an Easter egg hunt as well as a display of Easter bunnies.
There is no doubt that Dave is an expert in agriculture: in addition
to working as a herdsperson for the Museum he also runs his own
farm: some time ago he converted a very labour-intensive dairy farm
into a less demanding beef farm, located about 20 minutes south
of Ottawa. After this interesting introduction to the world of farming,
the sheep shearing demonstration was just about to get underway.
The Horse and Cattle Barn at the Canada Agriculture Museum
The announcer asked the crowd, many of whom consisted of families
with young children, what the purpose is of shearing sheep. A variety
of interesting responses came forth, particularly from the young
members in the crowd: "because the sheep get too hot",
"because we need sweaters", finally someone said that
sheep get sheared because we need their wool. Ross, a tough-looking
but gentle professional sheep shearer came up on the stage, accompanied
by an initially reluctant animal companion: a very woolly looking
grown-up female sheep whose body posture indicated that she wasn't
at all happy about being on this stage.
With the experienced grip of a professional shearer, Ross grabbed
the animal by its legs, turned it around and sat the animal down
on its rear end, supported against his lower legs. What I found
amazing was that the sheep, that had originally been battling him
and didn't want to come on stage, turned into a totally docile and
compliant animal, once it was sitting on its rear end, with its
front legs up in the air.
The sheep gets a manicure
Ross and his woolly friend were soon ready for their demonstration.
The announcer explained that in addition to the haircut, the sheep
also receives a vaccination, an anti-parasite treatment as well
as a manicure and pedicure during this process. Sure enough, Ross
pulled out heavy duty clippers and the sheep's toe nail clippings
were soon flying into the first row of the audience. Then the electric
shearer came out and Ross started shearing the animal from the neck
down. The announcer asked the crowd how long they estimated it would
take to shear the sheep. A variety of responses came back, but the
correct answer was 4 minutes. 4 minutes to shear an entire sheep!
Based on Ross's many years of experience, the shearing progressed
smoothly from the neck to the sides, the back and the belly, and
finally the entire sheep's fleece came off in one big fluffy piece.
The announcer explained that the entire fleece weighs about 4 to
5 pounds and asked the audience to estimate the dollar value of
a fleece. Answers shot out, $5, $10, even $60 for a fleece, but
the correct answer is C$1.50. I could not believe it when I heard
it, that an entire fleece would be worth less than $2! We found
out that sheep are raised primarily for their meat, and that wool
is simply a by-product that doesn't generate any significant revenue.
Then the announcer invited the audience to feel the fleece and she
explained that the sheep's coat feels a little greasy due to its
lanolin content, a natural skin lubricant, also often used in hand
creams.
The sheep is done
Well, the sheep shearing demonstration was over, but I continued
into the adjacent rooms and I happened upon a group of women who
were sitting around the room, knitting, and displaying a whole assortment
of home-knit sweaters, vests, gloves, socks and other garments.
Wendy Steinbach from the Ottawa
Knitting Guild explained to me that their organization has about
120 members (one of whom is male), and that they meet once a month
to knit as a group and to discuss various knitting projects. The
ladies were using a variety of materials, different strengths of
wool, cotton yarn and one knitter even used cut-up strips of plastic
bags to knit! Another lady explained that she pulls out her knitting
when she is stuck in a traffic jam. Obviously knitting has tremendous
therapeutic benefits if it is able to calm you down in a traffic
jam .
The ladies from the Ottawa Knitting Guild
We then continued to talk about all of our first knitting projects:
the "boyfriend sweater". Even I, who's got absolutely
no talent or patience for crafts, have knitted such a garment for
a long forgotten significant other when I was 16 back home in Austria.
Apparently knitting a sweater for your first love is a time-honoured
ritual even on the other side of the globe!
Of course when I first learned to knit I learned the technical terminology
in my native language, German, so I inquired what it means when
you open up a finished garment to unravel the wool and undo your
work. The ladies explained that the activity of undoing your hard
work has a number of names: some call it "frogging", others
call it "tinking" ("to tink" is the reverse
of "to knit", hence the connection).
Dale shows how to use the spinning wheel
Dale, one of the ladies from the Ottawa Knitting Guild and Guide
at the Canada Agriculture
Museum, demonstrated the spinning process and she showed me
how to use a "drop spindle". This manual process spins
the wools without the use of a spinning wheel and Dale demonstrated
that you can create a one-ply ball of wool, or you can even intertwine
two threads and spin the thread in the opposite direction. She then
showed me a pair of knitted mittens that had been washed in very
hot water, and the wool's fibers had become intertwined, almost
like boiled wool, a material that apparently has amazing cold-insulation
capacity.
Karen demonstrates how she weaves a silk scarf
In the next room I met Karen Riches, who is a full-time "wool
artist". Karen is an expert in all the disciplines of wool
handling: spinning, dyeing, weaving, knitting and felting. What
makes her work really unique is that she doesn't only work with
conventional materials such as sheep's wool or cotton yarn. She
actually uses dog hair to produce wool which she then weaves or
knits into jackets or other garments. She said many of her clients
comb their dogs and give her bags full of the soft fine hair that
comes from their dogs' belly. She then turns these fine fibers into
spun wool that she processes into a final garment.
Karen had set up a loom on which she was weaving an intricately
patterned scarf made of silk threads. She explained that her current
project involves 508 threads, and it takes her about 40 hours of
preparation to set up the threads on the loom while the actual production
of the scarf would take about 20 hours. Altogether with one set
of threads she is able to produce 7 different items, all of which
surprisingly end up having different colours and patterns. When
I inquired about the price of one of these scarves Karen said that
they run at about $150 which I thought was not surprising, considering
the tremendous effort and labour involved.
This cardigan is made of black wool and husky hair
Karen mentioned that she has 20 years of spinning experience and
18 years of weaving and that she participates in a studio tour called
"Crown & Pumpkin" during Thanksgiving Weekend. I was
astounded at her skills and the beautiful scarves and garments that
she creates. For someone like me who has very little dexterity,
patience or talent in terms of manual crafts, I always admire people
who are able to create such beautiful items with their own hands.
Related Articles:
Hello from Ottawa
- Overview of my first excursion to Ottawa's Tulip Festival
Hello from Ottawa - Arrival,
two photo exhibitions and my own photo safari
Hello from Ottawa - Doubling up
on antiquity at the Canadian Museum of Civlization
Hello from Ottawa - Sweetgrass Bistro:
Aboriginal dining in the ByWard Market
Hello from Ottawa - The historic
McGee's Inn: 2 couples embark on the adventure of joint B&B
ownership
Hello from Ottawa - The Canadian
Museum of Nature and Fatal Attraction: seduction in the
animal world
Hello from Ottawa - Gatineau Park,
Ottawa's nature playground
Hello from Ottawa - Major's Hill
and a live TV interview
Hello from Ottawa - Bistro 115: Authentic
French-Canadian cuisine in the ByWard Market
Hello from Ottawa - Historic transportation
on the Hull-Chelsea-Wakefield Steam Train
Hello from Ottawa - The Wakefield
Mill Inn & Spa: from historic gristmill to upscale lodging,
dining and pampering
Hello from Ottawa - Flower
and dress design at the Casino du Lac-Leamy
Hello from Ottawa - The Flotilla
- a parade of decorated boats - and an interview about the background
of the Tulip Festival
Hello from Ottawa - Sheep shearing
at the Canadian Agriculture Museum
Hello from Ottawa - Tractors,
cows and small animals at the Canadian Agriculture Museum
Hello from Ottawa - My 2-day
packed itinerary for Winterlude
Hello from Ottawa - First
impressions and an overview
Hello from Ottawa - The Lord Elgin
Hotel: a historic landmark in the heart of Ottawa
Hello from Ottawa - Fat Tuesday's
and the Mardi Gras Experience in the ByWard Market
Hello from Ottawa - An early
morning walk to Parliament Hill
Hello from Ottawa - Skating
on the Rideau Canal, the World's Largest Skating Rink
Hello from Ottawa - Charity and
hilarity: the 26th Annual Bedzz Races on Dow's Lake
Hello from Ottawa - Confederation
Park and other Winterlude locations
Hello from Ottawa - Darcy McGee's:
a historic Irish pub on Sparks Street
Hello from Ottawa - The Canadian
War Museum and "Weapons of Mass Dissemination - The Propaganda
of War"
Hello from Ottawa - The
Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography featuring Sunil Gupta
and the challenges of immigration
An interview with Tourism Ottawa
provides a great overview of this city
An interview about
the ByWard Market, a prime entertainment and shopping area
An interview
with the National Gallery of Canada
An interview
with the Canadian Museum of Civilization
Helpful websites:
Ottawa
Tourism: Ottawa's official tourism information
The ByWard
Market Business Improvement Area
The
National Capital Commission
The National
Museum of Civilization
The National Gallery
of Canada
The Canadian War
Museum
The Canadian Museum
of Nature
The
Canadian Agriculture Museum
Useful books about Ottawa:
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