Maryland Sheep & Wool, 2011

So I took a break from my regular crazy last weekend and switched to a different flavor of crazy by traveling to the Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival. A few of my favorite visitors-from-afar were unable to attend this year and they were missed. But I still saw several of my favorite peeps and a good time was had by all.

I spent very conservatively on Opening Day, and then let loose a little bit on Sunday. I had Camnesia for the most part, and did not manage to take people-pictures, but that’s OK. We’ll skip to the haul:


Top Step (L-R): Jennie the Potter mug, Echinacea honey from The Bee Folks, Mug from the Lion Potter, Crochet hook needle roll, Inkle loom in the background, Recycled sweater mittens, Lunatic Fringe (weaving) scarf kit; Bottom Row: Broom from One Oak Brooms, Bamboo Honey, Miss Babs sock yarn, Sanguine Gryphon Bugga (x2), Killer Bee honey and Lemon honey candy, Socks that Rock (x3), Miss Babs Yowza! Whatta Skein (x3)

Let’s take a closer look at some of those non-yarn purchases, shall we?

My first purchase of the day made me a repeat buyer of this item.


They’re made from recycled felted sweaters and fleece-lined. I bought a pair on my second trip to MDSW, but that pair is a tiny bit small, so I was able to justify a second pair. While I hope it’s a long time before it’s cold enough to wear them (they’re really warm!) I’m excited to have such a fun winter accessory to look forward to.

About three steps later, I solved a problem I’d been pondering for several months.


Since I filled out my Addi crochet hook collection last summer, I’ve been thinking about the fact that they needed a home. Yes, I’m perfectly capable of sewing a case, but this was a good price and it meant that I didn’t have to think about making it myself. WIN!

Another three steps and I landed on the doorstep of one of my favorite vendors, the Spanish Peacock. They moved from their “one spot” near the door because the Main Barn is being wired for heat and AC, but they were still easy to find.


I forgot to put something “for scale” in the above picture, but these are stick shuttles, about 5" long for the bigger one. Used for Inkle weaving. I’ll get to that later, but they were pretty and very reasonably priced, so YAY!

After meeting up with Jenn, the newest Hurricane Knitter, we started making our way uphill. She was unfamiliar with Jennie the Potter, so I dragged her into Jennie’s booth.


The mug on the left appealed to me because, well, the yarn is blue, and because the sheep on one side is white and the sheep on the other side is black. Yay! But there are two mugs in the picture, you say!

Well, Jenn decided to return the favor by walking me up to her favorite potter, the Lion Potter, who is one of the outside vendors at the top of the hill, near Brooks Farm. The mug was beautiful, and somehow those “dents” you can see in the body of that blue mug make it fit perfectly in my hands. I’ve spent the last six months having a cup of tea just about every morning, so I figured it was a reasonable purchase.

The only problem is that now I want to ignore my entire shelf of mugs and just use these two. They’re both awesome.

All of those purchases had been made by lunchtime on Saturday. I perused quite a bit more as the afternoon wore on, but didn’t make any other purchases.

All of the yarn was purchased on Sunday morning. Three of those skeins were purchased for friends, the rest will appear on future Yarn Pr0n Fridays.

Going into Sunday, there were two things that I knew would be purchased: Honey from The Bee Folks, and a broom. After a wonderful conversation with the staff at The Bee Folks, I tried at least a half-dozen honeys and landed on three varieties to bring home. Bamboo, Killer Bee and Echinacea. All very yummy. I finished my Wildflower jar from last year’s MDSW on Monday morning, so I figure that’s good timing. Oh, and I tried the lemon honey hard candy last year and YUM! So I got more.

I didn’t take close-up photos of the broom because, well, it’s a broom. It’s been doing a great job getting the bud-bits from the tree in our front yard off of the front walk, and I expect it to get heavy use on our new deck, and clearing snow from the front walk next winter.

As for the final things in the picture … Over the last month or so, I’ve been daydreaming about getting an Inkle Loom (that's a YouTube link, so you can see how it works). It will give me a portable loom, and it makes warp-faced bands. I can take it back and forth to the Lake, and because it’s small and portable, I’ll be able to use it in front of the TV when I want to work on something smaller than whatever is on the floor loom.

So I caved.


Yeah, it’s goofy looking. It’ll make more sense when you see it in action in a month or two.

And I made one other weaving purchase. A scarf kit with cotton yarns from Lunatic Fringe (purchased from a resale vendor, actually, the same vendor where I got the Inkle). I’m quickly getting sucked in to Lunatic Fringe World, and am already part of their yarn-of-the-month club, but an eight-yard two-scarf warp should go on and off quickly … assuming that I ever finish the rep weave placemats.


So that’s about it. The weather was nearly perfect, although I forgot sunscreen on Saturday and got a mild burn on my arms. Still, no complaints. I look forward to returning to the Howard County Fairgrounds again next year!