Every year there's the MD Sheep & Wool Festival at the Howard County fairgrounds. It is probably one of the largest events for needlecraft folks in this area. There are lots and lots of yarn, fibers, fiber animals (sheep, alpaca, bunnies), and fun stuff to buy.
This year we convinced two newbies to come with us to experience the stashing awesomeness. The five and a half (a miniature person) of us headed up to the festival on sunday. Unfortunately it rained the entire time we were there, starting with our drive. Thankfully since we knew it was going to rain all day we had our raingear (did you know strollers have raingear too? It's so cool!) so we stayed (mostly) dry. Fortunately the rain meant there were a LOT less people on sunday than saturday. Many of the vendors said saturday was literally full of people elbow to elbow in the booths with very little space to move. I'm a grumpy old person (mentally) and I hate crowds so I was just fine with the steady rain and less people.
We all trekked around, watched Noah (the mini-person) have a grand time with the sheep and alpaca, ate lots of carnival foods (YUM, one of the best parts!), and bought some fun stuff. Ok, so everyone showed some restraint with purchasing but I decided to go all out!
I ended up buying some cool ribbon yarn and a tank-top pattern. I saw the tank top last year at Stitches East but didn't buy it. It was still calling to me this year so I figured that meant I really wanted it. I've also made a fair number of socks but I've never tackled fair isle (multiple colors) before. I love the bright colors and since this came as a kit, I had to buy it. I also got a sock blank dyed in a neat pattern. I'm very curious to see how it looks after being knitted into socks. Lastly Sue noticed a great swirl shawl that I had fawned over at Stitches East (but didn't buy) so she enabled and bought me the pattern! Now I have to find cool yarn to go with it. Course I have to hurry up and finish some of my other projects so I can add these to my queue (HA, that's funny, I'll probably just start these without even finishing my other stuff first).
All in all I think we had a really good time. Purchases were made, new crafts were discovered, bunnies were lusted after, and lots of great food was consumed. Oh, and did I mention that the rain stopped RIGHT as we were leaving the festival?
This year we convinced two newbies to come with us to experience the stashing awesomeness. The five and a half (a miniature person) of us headed up to the festival on sunday. Unfortunately it rained the entire time we were there, starting with our drive. Thankfully since we knew it was going to rain all day we had our raingear (did you know strollers have raingear too? It's so cool!) so we stayed (mostly) dry. Fortunately the rain meant there were a LOT less people on sunday than saturday. Many of the vendors said saturday was literally full of people elbow to elbow in the booths with very little space to move. I'm a grumpy old person (mentally) and I hate crowds so I was just fine with the steady rain and less people.
We all trekked around, watched Noah (the mini-person) have a grand time with the sheep and alpaca, ate lots of carnival foods (YUM, one of the best parts!), and bought some fun stuff. Ok, so everyone showed some restraint with purchasing but I decided to go all out!
I ended up buying some cool ribbon yarn and a tank-top pattern. I saw the tank top last year at Stitches East but didn't buy it. It was still calling to me this year so I figured that meant I really wanted it. I've also made a fair number of socks but I've never tackled fair isle (multiple colors) before. I love the bright colors and since this came as a kit, I had to buy it. I also got a sock blank dyed in a neat pattern. I'm very curious to see how it looks after being knitted into socks. Lastly Sue noticed a great swirl shawl that I had fawned over at Stitches East (but didn't buy) so she enabled and bought me the pattern! Now I have to find cool yarn to go with it. Course I have to hurry up and finish some of my other projects so I can add these to my queue (HA, that's funny, I'll probably just start these without even finishing my other stuff first).
All in all I think we had a really good time. Purchases were made, new crafts were discovered, bunnies were lusted after, and lots of great food was consumed. Oh, and did I mention that the rain stopped RIGHT as we were leaving the festival?
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