Drum Roll Please....

And now, my very modest Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival purchases.

The t-shirts. See one you like KnittingNovice?

And of course, Tess' sock yarn. I also bought Tess' at Stitches. One can never have too much Tess' yarn. Her booth is like a magnet. Or maybe, more like a flower garden to the honeybees. So many colors, so pretty!!

And a sentimental purchase. Brooklyn Handspun sock yarn for DD#2. She will be leaving New York in June and relocating to Philly. So this is in memory of all the great times we had the three years she was there. We did it all. Well, almost all. Broadway, Canal Street, the Seaport, Ellis Island, the Cloisters, Central Park, Rockefeller Center...well, you get the idea. And yet, one of the most memorable of all, was the beautiful, breezy, summer day we decided to walk across the Brooklyn Bridge from Manhattan into Brooklyn and ate the best pizza ever!!

So there you have it. Sock yarn. I told you they were modest purchases.

Maryland Sheep and Wool - the abbreviated version

Is it possible to fondle too much yarn?? If you can even imagine such a possiblity, I came dangerously close Sunday at Maryland Sheep and Wool. It was my first trip to the fiber festival. And it was overwhelming. Stitches East on steroids.

I took a bus trip with the Bucks County Guild of Crocheters and Knitters and was lucky to have a MDSW veteran, Maggie, as my guide. After a lovely road trip that included sock knitting and chatting, we rolled into the parking area about 11 o'clock. And from the moment we left the bus, we were on a mission.

First the t-shirts. Getting some MDSW festival merchandise is a must. Fiber enthusiasts have shirts from each year they attended. Worn proudly like a badge of honor or your fiber credentials, if you will. And to get a t-shirt involves standing in line. We stood in line for about 10 minutes, in the midst of all the food concession stands. In those 10 minutes I went from "eat lamb, no way!" to "boy, that smells good!" to "I'm so eating whatever it is they are grilling!!"

Once the t-shirts were bought, we were off and running and even at the brisk pace that my festival mentor set, we didn't see it all. Impossible. And that was with no bathroom breaks and a lamb sausage sandwich in hand, as we went vendor to vendor. Yarn, roving, fleece, needles, more yarn, spindles, wheels, more yarn, looms, shawl pins, swifts, baskets, more roving, buttons, more yarn, more, more, more!!

And of course, a big draw to MDSW is the animals. We saw sheep, goats, alpacas, bunnies, and my favorite of the day .... a Llama named Quentin.

I thought he looked very regal and handsome. When he saw the pictures, my son, empathetic soul that he is, thought he looked embarrassed to have been shorn.

By 4:30 we were running for the bus. It's a good thing I didn't go with any grand stash aquisition plans. I bought 2 skeins of sock yarn, pictures to follow later. And a couple of bars of lovely smelling goat's milk soap and the requisite t-shirts.

Overwhelming! I'll do better next year. Put it on your calendars KnittingNovice and JennyGirl!!

Take two aspirin and call me in the morning

I survived the Monday from HELL at work, only to endure an hour long train ride home that had me contemplating jumping off the moving train... or... using my dpn's to force all the rude, ignorant cell phone yakkers from the train instead. When I finally got home I was forced to stretch out on my sofa in the quiet of my living room for an hour, with a skein of Manos Silk Blend on my forehead. AHHH... sweet relief!! Thank you Rosie's!

Yes, jennygirl, my skein of Manos arrived today in the mail. A bright spot in the day. Now I can finish my Little Arrowhead Shawl.



And I'm sure by tomorrow or Wednesday I'll be sufficiently recovered to tell you all about my trip down to Maryland Sheep and Wool.

Goodnight!