RT and I had a very scattered Friday, but managed to get on the road just about 20 minutes after the rest of our MSWF posse. We actually passed them before we got to the hotel, arriving about five minutes before Michelle and her van-full of fun.
After a yummy dinner and bad night’s sleep at the hotel (typical for me the first night in just about any hotel), we woke up in the morning to get ready to head to the festival.
When we opened the window to let some sunlight in, we saw this. RT was impressed
Just a bummer that it wasn’t the real rig of the Home Depot Toyota!
We drove over to the festival grounds, and we only “stood” in one line the whole day. This one!
Yep. The line to park! But we were early enough that we never really stopped moving, so no big deal.
We walked all around the fairgrounds. Well before we got our bearings, we wound up doing a circuit around the main barn. We got sucked in to the Koigu Mill Ends booth, where we met Katiebell (Ravelry link). I did a lot of grabbing and tossing into my bag and SWEATING! (oh my GOD was it hot in there!). Once I got weighed (yarn! Not me! I’d hate to think what I weighed in grams ::shudder::) I had to move over into a different line. I stood there and thought “XX grams at 25 cents/gram = … WTF! That’s way too much $$ and again, what the HELL am I going to do with hanks of yarn this small?”
So I walked away. I later found out that I inspired Katiebell to do the same thing. Yay, being rational at the festival!
I will admit that I had some serious Camnesia for the bulk of the festival. After leaving the main barn, I walked up between the two rows of barns and witnessed The Lines. One very long line going uphill for The Fold and an even longer one going downhill for festival stuff. I had intended to stand in the T-shirt line, but once I witnessed it, I decided that there was absolutely nothing that I needed badly enough to stand in that line.
So RT visited some Alpacas
And some sheep
We saw a few felted pincushions and remembered that my mom had asked me to keep an eye out for a pincushion for her. So I called her to make sure I was remembering correctly. And I was!
Mom had one question for me: “Have you found that blogger girl you wanted to meet yet?”
Why no, I hadn’t. But less than a minute later, I walked into the next barn in line and there she was. Turtlegirl was buying a wheel and I was there! I felt a little goofy standing there just watching the whole scene and leaching onto her posse. I finally caught a break in the drama and introduced myself to TheOtherAmanda (who has a kick-ass blog name, IMHO ... great minds think alike!) and did a dumb thing … I said “Hi, I’m Amy.” And when I got a blank stare, I added, “uh … DPUTiger?”
At which point I got a rousing round of Oh wow! Hi!
Very flattering. :)
Anyhoo, after picking up Al Swearingen (Turtlegirl’s new wheel … an Ashford Kiwi ... I don't get the name, but I'm sure I'll figure it out eventually!), that group headed to the car with their ill booten gotty (sorry … MASH reference) and I was on my own once again.
I got myself really seriously lost within the Main Barn trying to find Yvonne at The Mannings. It’s just one of the biggest booths at the whole festival, and I couldn’t find it FPS!
After that ill-fated loop, I went to the car to empty my backpack, grab a snack and some water and take a little break. I went back in for Round Two and did another leisurely tour of all the buildings and got a few more items.
By about 4:30 pm, RT and I were pretty tuckered out and checked in with Michelle and met up with her at Kiparoo, where we sat outside. RT kept his eye out for exciting people walking around
He was looking out of my backpack like that all day ... I figured he's the star of this blog, so he'd make me recognizeable if any of my vast number of readers < /sarcasm > were looking for yours truly.
We ate ribbon fries and a truly awesome pit lamb sandwich, then decided to go check out the t-shirt line, which wasn’t bad. We left the fairgrounds at about 6 pm, tired and happy. Here was our haul
• Two small pincushions. I can’t remember where I got them
• One large pincushion just like the other ones I own. It’s for my mom.
• T-shirt and pin (longest line of the day, but only took about 15 minutes when I went through)
• A pig coffee mug that I’ll use for pencils and a pottery penguin for my collection
• A Flat Feet that I found at Carolina Homespun
• Two lucets, one found at the Jaeger booth and a second one at the booth with the Medieval-dressed people
• Four skeins of Socks that Rock from The Fold. Again, no line. They were quite picked over, but I got one lightweight (Knitters w/o Borders colorway), one midweight (Thraven), one heavyweight (Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds) and one silkie (Haida). Although there wasn’t much left, they had most of the Raven Series there, so I was able to see all the colorways in person. Makes a big difference!
• One skein of sock yarn from Ellen’s 1/2 Pint Farm. It’s purpley and green and shiny merino/tencel and it jumped out and bit me. I found it before I decided to check out the STR, but that's irrelevant. I had to bring it home!
• That sheep was my one impulse purchase. But he's so damn cute, I don't care. He came from a tent just inside the entrance, across from the information tent. I can't remember the name. Sorry!
So that’s about it. Hope you enjoyed your mini-tour of my trip to Maryland!
5 comments:
Great recap and photos. And, I noticed in your haul, you REALLY like blues.
Yeah - me with names? Now so much. Throw a blog name at me and the light goes on! Ha! Sorry about the blank stare. It's not like I'd see a picture of you before! You're very mysterious on this blog ;)
Your yarn purchases? Me want. I think we have the same taste in colors. I try to be adventurous, but I always go back to the blues!
See ya tonight!
It was such fun to meet you! I just wish we'd had more time to chat.
And yeah - I'm with Cristi. I was running through all the possible Amys in my mind when you said DPUTiger. :)
I am so jealous. I am going to have to stop reading blogs until at least next week, hearing about all the fun times and great buys. sniff. Glad you had fun and got to meet lotsa cool people!
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