Maryland Sheep & Wool 2013

Well, hello there.

My epic gauntlet of travel has been completed, and I have no reason to leave Allegheny County again until I go to Oklahoma City at the end of the month. It’s WiP Wednesday, but I actually do not have any WiPs to show you, since I finished my Love Actually cowl last night!

So, in order to feed the blog for the first time in way too long, I shall show you my Maryland Sheep and Wool purchases from last weekend.


From left to right, this photo includes: Three flavors of honey from The Bee Folks (Queen Anne, Bamboo and Radish), my 40th Anniversary Festival mug, a Melissa Jean hair pin, a pair of US 5/stiletto/33” Signature circs, a 2014 Sheep Incognito calendar, a new drive band for my Schacht ball winder hanging off the calendar, two skeins of Blue Moon Fiber Arts Twisted in Pussy Broadway, three necklaces and two small beads from my latest addiction: Kris Schaible Glass Studio, a Miss Babs Color Affection kit, two skeins of Into the Whirled sock yarn, a new belt, and a Lion Potter mug.

 Not much yarn, but I do feel like I got a lot of stuff. Now for show-and-tell with the non-fiber stuff.


In the last couple months, I’ve gotten to know the wonderful and talented Melissa Jean thanks to my work with SpaceCadet and a pair of shows. I was intrigued by this cool hair pin, and it came home with me.

And now, for the largest rabbit-hole of the entire weekend. One of my running buddies, CelticQueen, was headed for the Noni tent to get a zipper for an upcoming project. I wandered around the upper tent farm in the opposite direction and stumbled upon a completely dangerous vendor. To the tune of three purchases in two days.


Kris Schaible makes some amazing beads. Throw them on a cable or a cord, and you have a beautiful necklace.


This purple bead was my first purchase. Then I dragged CQ and my friend Dianne to the booth later in the afternoon. And this one caught my eye.


I felt like this one looked best with a ribbon instead of a cable.


And then we stopped by again on Sunday and this happened.


Oops.

Of course Kris’ husband had discovered her “junk drawer” overnight and threw a bunch of those beads into a bowl. And I found two that Kris turned into pendants for me. (for scale, they’re propped up against the Twisted in the top picture. They’re pretty small, but very pretty)


Yeah. I love her stuff. A lot.

The other stuff is pretty self-explanatory. I adore the two Lion Potter mugs I already had, so getting the green mug (far right in top picture) was a no-brainer. It’s so hard to find good belts that buying one from the vendor at MDSW was also a simple decision. Drive bands and calendars are boring but helpful. I also got two Festival t-shirts, but I didn’t throw them into the picture. Oops.

It was a great weekend with good friends, and I’m already looking forward to next year!

Maryland Sheep and Wool 2012: The Sights

I had a wonderful time at the Festival this past weekend. I did a terrible job of taking pictures of the people I saw. And I saw lots of people! Friends old and new, Plurk peeps I hadn’t met before and I had a new experience – for the first time, I walked around the festival with a friend almost the entire two days! I’d spent time walking around with friends at various points in previous years, but this time I walked around with my friend Dianne almost the whole time. It was great! There was plenty to see. It’s just easier to show you in pictures.



As always, Saturday was the busier day.



There were plenty of animals. Bunnies…



Alpacas…







Of course, there were sheep!





And some of them were even walking along the midway



The sheep dog demos are always fun to watch



And, the Sheep to Shawl competition has become a definite Do Not Miss for me.



That is my friend Michelle, the weaver for the winning team, Friends Through Fiber. If she looks a little familiar, it’s because she’s the one that made the amazing handspun double weave blanket in my Double Weave class at The Mannings last summer. Tomorrow, I’ll show you what I bought. Believe it or not, I topped out at one skein of yarn. That’s right. One.

Housekeeping

Last year, we pretty much ignored the yard. Let the grass burn out in the summer, didn’t do more than basic maintenance on the beds around two sides of the house, didn’t do anything about replacing mulch or cleaning up the edging. With all the renovations on the back of the house, it just didn’t make a lot of sense to put extra effort into landscaping that was going to be trampled and/or trashed. So this year, with a little help from a Facebook plea for help that came up with a gold-star landscaper, we have a great-looking house.


The beds were cleaned up last week and finished on Monday. They look spectacular.


The plants on this side (of the front door) don’t seem to grow as well, probably because they catch a lot of shade from the big tree. We moved the sprinkler head that finished under the stairs for the deck, and all parties agreed that trying to grow grass under those same stairs didn’t make a whole lot of sense, so we decided on landscaping fabric with gravel on top for that space.


We’ll be spraying and over-seeding the lawn over the next few weeks. Then we’ll definitely be off the hook as Neighborhood Slackers. I love our awesome house! And, finally, I’ll be headed to Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival tomorrow (Friday) and will be there both days. If it’s as hot as forecasted, I’ll probably be wearing this hat and definitely be carrying this bag:


Now where the heck did I put my Ravelry name badge?

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!

Ilanaaq

Since my crazy friend CelticQueen decided to stand in line at The Fold on Saturday morning at Maryland Sheep & Wool, I told her there was one colorway she should purchase for me if it was available


The minute I saw the Socks that Rock colorway Ilanaaq go up on the website back in February, I knew I had to have it. It has actually gone “on vacation” already, so I’m glad I got it when I did!

The color was released at the beginning of the 2010 Olympic Games in Vancouver. Ilanaaq is a stone landmark that was built by humans at Whistler in Vancouver and it was the basis for the logo for the Vancouver Games. This colorway is based on the colors in that logo.


I like that this is a full-spectrum variegated yarn. Many more colors than the usual variety. And it’s kind of like Pride, but with purple and slightly less saturated colors.


Most likely, this will eventually become a pair of socks. Eventually. For now, I’m happy to just have it in my stash.

Miss Babs

Yes, there is more Maryland Sheep & Wool swag to show off. Better get it done now so I have YPF space once the stuff I saw at TNNA starts coming in to the store. Yeesh. Anyhoo …


One of the “stampede” booths on Saturday was Miss Babs. I took a pass on Opening Day, but strolled by on Sunday. Not too crowded, so plenty of room to paw the stock and pick something.


I originally picked something different than this skein, but then I wandered over to a “booth extension” and found a different base yarn and this colorway. After consultation with Miss Babs herself, I confirmed that this base was a bit heftier (and therefore more to my liking) and switched gears.


It’s the Miss Babs “Yummy” base, which is a 3-ply superwash. The Cleopatra colorway in this base is 335 yards and 5.2 oz. Once again, I don’t know what I’ll make with it, but it’ll be something cool. I’m sure about that!

More Jazz

I didn’t actually go to Maryland Sheep & Wool with a list, but I did have a few project ideas in mind. I was seriously considering Timpani from the latest Twist Collective. I think that the pattern needs a yarn like the one suggested from Green Mountain, but after checking out the yarn in person, I decided I didn’t really need to make that particular sweater.

But I digress.

I loved knitting my Shawl That Jazz so much that I had my eye out for yarn to knit that pattern again. On Saturday, I saw an amazing blue-black yarn in Brooks Farm Solana that quickly became a front-runner. But I didn’t buy immediately. And when I went back, it was gone!

This precipitated my first-ever foray into the Tess tent, and I came away empty-handed and not in any hurry to go back. Which took me back to Brooks Farm. Where I found this.


Meet three skeins of Brooks Farm Trio. Each skein is 420 yards of 70% wool, 20% alpaca and 10% silk.


It’s a lighter weight yarn than the Solana and the yardage per skein is higher, so this turned out to be a cheaper second Shawl That Jazz than if I had scored with the Solana, which was my original plan.


It’s the one yarn I bought in Maryland with a specific purpose. I have no idea when I’ll cast on, but this will become a Shawl That Jazz before too long. I’m looking forward to it!

Maryland Sheep & Wool

Sorry it has taken me a week to get around to telling you about Maryland. It has honestly taken this long for me to get caught up on my life after two straight weekends away from home! Yes, I got yarn, but I’ll dole that out in chunks as Fridays roll around. I promise I’ll even advance-post YPFs for when I’m in Oklahoma at the start of next month!

Tigger mostly hid in my bag trying to stay cool It wasn’t easy! But he did want to prove he came along, so here’s a picture of RT with some sheep

Baaaaa!!

Meanwhile, I did make a few non-yarn purchases and met some excellent people!

I started off the day running into Trillian42 (Pam) and Turtlegirl76 (Cristi) almost immediately and in almost exactly the same spot where I met up with them in the main barn last year. No, it wasn’t planned, but who am I to argue with fate?

After a few hours of walking around with them, I needed to find the one other contingent that I absolutely needed to find before it was time to leave the fairgrounds for the day to get lunch with my mom and aunt.

I still Plurk just about daily, and two of the crazies I enjoy the most came down from the NYC area for the festival!

HolyKnitballs (Sharon), Sairy (Sarah) and me

Sharon and Sairy were quite hilarious to cruise with while walking around the festival. I’m so glad I made sure to meet then and get to know them a little bit IRL when I had the chance. Maybe next year, Zarzuela will be able to come down with them!

As I’m quite certain you’ve heard from just about everyone who attended the festival, it was quite warm the entire weekend. Around 1 p.m., I checked in with my mom and aunt and we decided we’d scram and find a place to eat lunch in air conditioning. And then visit a few quilt shops. So I took my Plurk Peeps and headed off to find my first set of running buddies from the day.

Turtlegirl76 (Cristi) and me

I was not in “NEED PICTURES NAO” mode when I found Pam and Cristi (and their friend whose name I can NOT remember) in the morning. And if you go over to Cristi’s post about MDSW, you’ll notice that a goodly number of her people pictures are from that top-of-the-hill spot near Brooks Farm. I’d guess they were all taken within 10 minutes of the above picture of me with Cristi.

So yes, I hung out with Pam and her awesome hat (I’ll get back to that). I saw RosiG and met Bezzie (YAY!) but it was hotter than Hades and nobody was really in picture-wrangling mode, so I got the above picture and then left to go cool off, knowing that I’d be back the next day.

Yes, I bought some fabric on the trip. Hell, I bought fabric before we left the state of Pennsylvania, since we stopped by Sew Much Fun in McMurray because they were having a sale! After leaving the fairgrounds on Saturday, we trooped over to Mount Airy, Md., to visit a really good quilt store over there and I got a little batik. But fabric pictures are boring, so you’ll just have to trust me.

Aside from the STR that Celtic Queen picked up for me on Saturday, I actually didn’t buy anything at the show the first day. I figured there was nothing I really needed, so I’d just pick stuff up on Sunday. That plan turned out just fine.

I had been a good girl and applied plenty of sunscreen before heading into the fairgrounds on Saturday, so my winter-pasty-white arms and legs emerged unscathed from my hours on (what felt like) the surface of the sun. My face, however, was not so fortunate. I had been with Cristi and Pam when Pam bought her kick-ass hat (third picture down HERE). Since my aunt Suzie is a hat expert, I took her and my mom up to the Australian Shop tent first thing on Sunday morning and took a cue from Pam:


I love my hat and I wore it all day on Sunday to rave reviews. Until I got home and the Hubster asked me where my knife was and called me Crocodile Dundee. Oh well. He’s just jealous!

After years of listening to KnitNat rave about the honey that she purchases at the festival every year, I checked out the booth for The Bee Folks. Holy customer service! They give you a tiny spoon and let you taste every single honey they had in stock while telling you what that particular honey would be best used for, answered every question anyone could think of and made recommendations when asked. I came away with a jar of Wildflower honey (since that was the one I liked the best) and a bag of their lemon-honey candy. YUM!


I took my purchases out to the car and executed my planned meet-up with Makinika (aka “The Knitting Lady”) and KatieBell, who I had actually met on my very first trip to MDSW! A picture was taken, but not on my camera. You’ll just have to take my word for it. We left the fairgrounds around 1:30 p.m. on Sunday, hot and happy, having enjoyed another festival weekend.

Oh, and Derf wants you to know what his normal headwear is at the moment

Let’s Go Pens!

Rare Gems

Sorry I haven’t been feeding the blog. Two straight weekends away from home have required every thinking-required minute during the week to even pretend I am caught up. Which I finally am. I think.

So to prove that I am still sneezing and wheezing (holy cow, allergy season has GOT to finish up soooooon!) and since I still have 52 minutes of Friday left, I now present to you a little Yarn Pr0n Friday.

Last weekend’s trip was to Maryland Sheep & Wool. I didn’t get a ton of yarn, but I did get some. Oh, and I had good friends to enable me. CelticQueen gave me advance notice that she planned to stand in line at The Fold for potential Rare Gems. And she was kind enough to snag one for me!



This means that I now have STR Rare Gems skeins in Lightweight, Mediumweight and Heavyweight!



This particular skein is Heavyweight



And while the Rare Gems I purchased from the New Year’s Eve online sale are nice, none of those skeins hold a candle to the ones that were selected for me by my friends.



Obviously, it must not be very hard to figure out what colors are going to appeal to me. Turtlegirl (Sock Summit), KnitNat (Rhinebeck ’09) and CelticQueen (MDSW ’10) have all picked total winners.

I have no idea what this skein of Heavyweight will eventually become, but I know I’m gonna love it.