MADRAS — A pair of buzzing, oversized barber’s clippers in her hand, Correy McAtee worked her way around a limp black sheep Saturday at the Fall Wool Gathering at the Jefferson County Fairgrounds, shearing and shearing and shearing until the pile of wool at her feet was as big as the animal in her arms.

“You take six inches off every side, there’s not much left,” she said.

Sheep owner Shirley DeMaris, of Tumalo, gestured to the overflowing garbage sacks stuffed with freshly harvested wool, then back to the pen of not-yet-shorn sheep.

“They’re actually about the size of a chihuahua,” she said. “Maybe a little bigger.”

Now in its seventh year, the Wool Gathering includes demonstrations of every step of the process, from sheep to sweater, and vendors of all things wool and wool-related.

McAtee, a Prineville resident, said sheep, llamas and others bred for wool production don’t really shed their coats the way their wild counterparts might. Left unshorn, the coat keeps growing, she said, recalling a llama she once sheared that produced strands of fiber 2 feet long, and a sheep that had gone five years since its last shearing.

“You could see the individual bands, like the growth rings on a tree,” she said.

“Do they feel better when it’s done?” an onlooker asked DeMaris.

“It’s hard to get them to fill out the survey,” she quipped.

This year’s wool gathering is only the second time the event has been held in Madras, having moved from Shaniko in 2012.

Coordinator Bobbi Meritt said while Shaniko — the one-time “Wool Capital of the World” — has a history well suited to the event, its remote location probably deterred some from attending. The Jefferson County Fairgrounds has been a good home for the event, she said, with room to expand and a wool history of its own.

Meritt said Shaniko’s time at the top of the wool heap lasted only a few years, and once the railroad came to Madras, most of the Central Oregon wool market followed.

Raising wool-bearing animals is one of the few ways a small landowner in a climate like Central Oregon’s can produce a reasonable income stream, Meritt said, particularly if they learn how to card — the separation of wool into distinct fibers — and how to spin the fiber into yarn.

“With a lot of products, when you have vertical integration of all these processes, you have higher margins,” she said.

Picking through a basket of raw fibers, Meritt said much as oak might be best for a piece of furniture and pine preferable for framing a house, there’s a wool for every imaginable product. It’s a bit of an unusual substance, she said, suited for both warm ski sweaters and the cooling robes of Bedouin desert dwellers.

“Most of our man-made fibers are trying to mimic the qualities of wool, and they still haven’t done it yet,” she said.

The event continues today at the fairgrounds. Doors are open from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m., and admission is free.