Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival 2011

That was TOTALLY WICKED!!!

Wow! It was great this year -- lots of vendors, cool sunny weather, and just a great day. I stayed about 4 hours -- that's a record for me, considering my low tolerance for crowds. It was packed! Maybe because tomorrow is Mother's Day, and supposed to be rainy ... maybe more people came out today. It was just jam-packed, especially in the barns. I had a small backpack and a big shoulder bag, but I saw people carrying wheeled trolleys. Hehee. Maybe next year.

Here I am ... arrived at 0900, and still parked waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay out from the fairgrounds. You can't even see them from here! And yes, I got confused trying to find my car afterwards. A small VW Beetle just disappears in a big lot.

Main exhibition hall ... I went through this 2 1/2 times. On the first pass through, I saw a Russian spindle I wanted, but I didn't want to buy it right then. I had to circle 1 1/2 times more to find it when I went back to get it. I was frustrated, but determined to find it.

I chose one with a cap towards the end, so I wouldn't have too much trouble keeping the fiber on. Yeah, I'm a newb ;-) I've used Turkish, drop, turnip, and Trindle spindles, but I really wanted to try a Russian one.

Despite my protesting allergies, I went through and looked at all the sheep. There were soulful sheep ...

Sheared sheep ...

Rasta sheep .... ;-)

And psychedelic sheep.

And a curious alpaca.

A big loom-y thing was quite intriguing. Also in the sunlight, and I was getting a headache, so I didn't stop to ask about it. I'm afraid to learn too much about weaving. I'm worried I'll become intrigued and buy a loom. I saw a Cricket, and I was very tempted, but then I would have had to haul it around all day.









So, what did I buy?

"Meriboo Roving." 70-30 merino/bamboo, Frog Tree Yarns. The color is a gorgeous pine-y green. I really like merino-bamboo blends. I might spin this first.

Merino roving ... Stony Mountain Fibers. I'm thinking since this is just four ounces, I might spin it and then combine it in a knitting project with some silvery-blue merino I spun a while back. That will give me about 8 ounces all together, enough for a big project.

Manos del Uruguay laceweight yarn.

Mohair yarn ... even though mohair makes me sneeze ;-)

Made By Ewe wool yarn ... laceweight, or almost.

And from the store that nearly bankrupted me last year, Misty Mountain Farms ... tangerine corridale roving. I may have a weakness for merino-bamboo blends, but I loves me some corriedale! This stuff is gorgeous. I might spin this first.

A bit of an oddity for me, colorwise ... merino/bamboo, Made By Ewe again. I'll have to unbraid it to figure out how I might spin it. I don't want blocks of single colors, but a blend of both.

I don't remember what this is. It's not merino ... the label the vendor stuck in says "Coopworth," so if that's a sheep, then it's Coopworth. Otherwise, it came from a store called Coopworth. I love this shade of red ... I might spin this first.

Merino multicolor, Yarn Barn of Kansas. A full eight ounces. It's more purpley than in the photo. I absolutely love the color variations. I might spin this first.

Lastly, some Icelandic roving. I don't think I've ever spun Icelandic before; if I have, it was a small sample. This stuff looks hairy and rough, but it isn't. This might be good to spin on my new Russian spindle, it looks like it would hold together well.

A bit of bling ... a very lightweight spindle, and some stitch markers.



I tried to break my typical yarn habit of red, blue, purple ... you see that I didn't! I did actually buy yarn this year, though -- last year I bought nothing but roving. And this year I bought two laceweight yarns, despite my previous disastrous attempt to knit lace. I'll give it another shot, though. I don't like to say "I can't do xxx" when I probably could if I tried harder. For years I would say "I can't learn knitting, it's too hard." Now here I am knitting all sorts of things!

Thanks for stopping by!