Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival, Amongst Other Things

I had a great time at the Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival last weekend. Sadly I don’t really have any pictures of my time there because I was an idiot and deleted the pictures off my phone thinking I had pulled them all over, and alas, I didn’t!  I only had a few of the animals, anyway.

I went along with Sam, Efrain, and Josh (whose house I invaded for the weekend), and we met up with Rachyl (the Knitting Pirate), who gleefully and patiently helped Sam and I traverse the wares and seek out our first drop spindles.  We poked about at a few different stalls and eventually settled with Turnstyles. I also got a really nice ballpoint pen for Todd there, but I don’t see it about to take a picture of so he must have brought it to work already!

Besides that and the obligatory fibers, I also picked up a bar of Clovebud soap from Maggie’s Farm, Simmy’s Favorite Organic cat treats (I can’t remember the place selling this), and a button for the top of my newsboy cap. And that’s just the beginning of my loot for the weekend, heehee!

I know y’all wanna see my new fibers!  I’ll just stick pictures of them all in a row for you.  I only bought from places I’ve never bought form before, but frankly that wasn’t very difficult.

After spending lots of money on fibers and wood and yummy yummy lamb burgers, we all trooped back to Josh’s where Rachyl taught Sam, Efrain, and I how to spin. She seemed quite pleased with how well we all did, considering it was our first time. Efrain, having not purchased a spindle, made one out of a cd and a chopstick (is pot REALLY a gateway to carpentry?). I ganked a picture of hers from her blog because it’s just so awesome.

As it turns out, Josh had been hoarding away a huge stash of wool and alpaca roving from Frankenmuth Woolen Mill (I believe the receipts said 1994), for a friend who just couldn’t take it all with her when she moved, and gave it to us to split.  Good thing we got drop spindles, am I right?  Except for one ball (not shown below, but it’s the one I used on my spindle already), they all need to be washed. I might try spinning it without washing to see if I like the oil on my hands.

Come Monday, the Knit Picks order I placed before the festival arrived!  Knit Picks has just released a nice cheap yarn scale, and since previously I had no yarn scale and they all seemed to be pretty expensive, I jumped at the chance.  I also picked up a skein of Stroll sock yarn in “Soot” for an eventual attempt at making Todd a pair of socks, Charmed Knits, Circular Baby Afghans, and….

Oh man!  How awesome is Knit Picks for putting out Doctor Who yarn?  I knew I HAD to have it as soon as I saw it, and I’m not the only one: Knitting Pirate and Knitting Ninja both picked it up right away, too. They’re planning on knitting some Jaywalkers together, but, you know me – I’ve gotta pick something that will be way above my skill level and cause me to curse to the high heavens. So for my “wibbly-wobbly-timey-wimey” socks, I think I’ll be going with Diversion by Kirsten Hall.  Wish me luck!