Maryland Sheep & Wool 2008

This past weekend was the ever-wonderful Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival. For my loyal readers (or, reader), you might recall that last year’s festival was where my lifelong refrain of "I’m a knitter, NOT a spinner!" began to break down. In fact, the breakdown took the form of a lovely drop spindle and about a pound of vegetable-dyed roving from Handspun by Stefania. The harder they fall...

So, a year – and one Schacht Matchless spinning wheel – later, I went down to this year’s festival with my friend K. On Saturday, we shopped. And shopped. And shopped. We must have spent a good hour going through the fleece show and sale alone. Imagine, two obsessive spinners with a yen to try fiber processing (and don’t get me started on my wonderful, stupendous, and as-yet barely used Strauch drum carder), in a barn with several hundred fleeces of every breed, color, and quantity. So fun.

My haul from the shopping extravaganza:

- One skein of Yarn Place’s Graceful Lace Yarn in shades of purple, from Carolina Homespun;
- Two 4oz Bluefaced Leicester rovings from Gale’s Art - nicest dye jobs I saw all day! - in Rose Garden and Stormy Sea colorways:


- Some unidentified wooly yarn goodness in two shades of purple to knit a felted bag;
- One skein of VERY GREEN yarn from Made By Eye that has already started to become a felted bag;
- Some acid dyes in shades of green and purple;
- Vegetable dye stuffs: Madder, hibiscus, alum, and tartaric acid from Stoney Mountain Fibers;
- A high speed whorl for Miss Ruth, my Schacht Matchless ST;
- One entire Rambouillet fleece (blue ribbon winner!) from the fleece show/sale: 5.25 lbs. from Roclans Farm:

- One entire Finnsheep lamb fleece from the fleece show/sale: 3.25 lbs. from “Max” at Shady Grove Farms:

- A lifetime’s supply of bamboo circular needles;
- A cute little sheep-shaped tape measure;
- A book on cheesemaking;
- Pretty much every kind of lamb sandwich, gyro, and other form of yummy lamb goodness that I could fit into my stomach.

The Rambouillet fleece is currently out for washing and processing at Morro Fleeceworks and will be split with K. and a woman we know from Ravelry.

I also slobbered all over a gorgeous Golding spinning wheel they had on display. Someday...

On Sunday, K. and I brought our three respective children down to the festival to see what all the fuss was about. After a week of weather forecasts involving rain for Sunday, the day turned out... perfectly sunny and dry. Not a cloud in the sky!

The kids had a good time, although Ivan was pretty tired and cranky all day. He did enjoy seeing the sheep, and the bunnies, and the sheep dogs, and he ate an entire ice cream cone. He also (being my son), tested out both a Schact Ladybug ("This is a wheel for little boys, mommy?!") and an Ashford Joy at the Carolina Homespun booth: