Maryland Sheep and Wool - The Fun Continues

In yesterday's mail, I had a brown 9x12 envelope from Ellen's Half Pint Farm. What the heck? Inside is a pattern that I bought and paid for on 5/5/07 at MSW ($6), and had completely forgotten. It came with an apology and thanks for my patience (which is pretty good when I don't remember I have anything to be impatient about). The pattern is for a vest and is very nicely printed on good card stock but with no picture--hence I have no idea what it's supposed to look like. And no memory of having ordered it, but it's definitely my handwriting on the order slip. And it's apparently one of those patterns that is a combination of stitches in different areas. Knit 36 stitches in pattern A, then switch to pattern B, then C--and all the rows are different (Row 17= row 6 of pattern A, row 13 of pattern B, etc.). The pattern suggests you might want to write out each row for your size individually to keep track of it all. Yeah, I'm right on that one in my spare time. Oh, my!

In related news, Mr. Pug was cleaning out a closet yesterday and came across a box of yarn that has been in hiding for several years, probably since we moved into this house and maybe since we came to Georgia, since I can't remember seeing it in the recent past. It's a hodge podge of projects, started and unstarted, acrylic, cotton, wool, lots of mohair. Kind of musty smelling. What was I thinking? Some Manos in a funny purple--why would I buy 4 hanks of Manos in that color? Was I intending to use it with some other yarns? No clue... A jacket started but never completed (I remember the pattern from Knitter's magazine--I might even want to make it one day, but probably not in this yarn, and I have no idea where the magazine/pattern might be.) A bunch of cotton in hot pink. Some acrylic for kids' stuff, green, purple, multicolored. More mohair! Lots and lots of needlepoint wool from that period in my life, all stuffed into a black garbage bag.

Oh, my. I'm exhausted just thinking about going through it and figuring out what to do with all that stuff. Like I don't have enough yarn I'm never going to use, I really didn't need to find another box of it. And it's one of those big boxes--the kind that bumps you every time you pass it.

Now what else is hanging over from MSW? Are there more unexpected goodies hanging about? Did I order anything from SAFF that I haven't gotten? Memory loss does have its good points, I guess.

Where in the World Have I Been?

Well, certainly not in the blogging world, that's for sure. I'll just say that I've been busy--job hunting (or what passes for it), knitting, working, hiding out here at home...and, of course, at SAFF!

And, while I was gone, Blogger has made some, er, improvements, that I wasn't expecting. The result is these big blobs of white space. Sorry--maybe I'll learn to control them over time.











So, jumping immediately to what is most interesting, what about SAFF? Debra and I drove up to Asheville on Thursday afternoon. We got off to a little later start than I had planned due to my having a phone pre-interview with a recruiter that took a little longer than I thought it would. And the job is probably not a starter, but would be one of those amazing jobs that you just have to try for, even when you know you don't have a chance!

Of course I've been reading all the blogs and the Ravelry posts about SAFF and the first thing they tell you is that it's wayyyyyy smaller than Maryland Sheep & Wool. Well, thank goodness for that...I barely survived and my checkbook is still whimpering.

So, let's begin with the hotel. Not a good story--in fact, the only real disappointment of the weekend. Let me say from the start, Hampton Inn at the Airport - NOT GOOD. Well, the hotel was okay, but there was a little problem with the reservation and the manager refused to make it right. So we will not be staying there again. No, we will not. My recommendation is that you don't either.

But by Friday morning we had (mostly) put that behind us and were only mildly resentful, and we set off for the Ag Center. Lots of cars, even at 9 am. Lots of people. Right off the bat, we ran into Katey with Ravelry buttons (yay for Ravelry and yay for Katey). We had our buttons, we were ready to go down into the fray. We decided right away that we would not buy, we would only look.

(If you don't know who that dog is -- his name is Bob -- you better go right now to http://www.ravelry.com/ and sign up. Hurry!)

Debra was happy ...

SAFF is about 50/50, maybe 60/40 knitting/spinning. So that means a lot of fiber, some of it spun and plied and some of it as roving waiting to be spun, some of it just the way it came off the sheep (including vegetable matter and, ahem, other extraneous materials), and some of it still hanging out on the animal.

And Debra is at her happiest when surrounded by fiber. Any kind of fiber. You could put her down in a field of grass and she'd figure out some way to make it into yarn. So she was in her element. (In fact, she made a basket that might have come from a field of grass, damp grass at that.)

I, on the other hand, am a woman of much more discriminating tastes... I had no intention of buying willy-nilly. I went with a plan and intended to stick with it. And here's the way it worked:

THE PLAN: Buy nothing on Friday, look only. Buy enough Brooks Farm yarn for one vest. Buy some alpaca yarn. Buy some sort of roving so I can work on my spindling. NO NEW SOCK YARN. DEFINITELY NO NEW LACE YARN. Spend only cash.

THE IMPLEMENTATION: Bought immediately, continuously, and often. Bought the Brooks Farm - Acero -- photos later this week, along with a gorgeous pattern for a diamond vest. Bought sock yarn, bought lace yarn, bought roving of every description. Spent all the cash, wrote checks, used the debit card.

THE RESULT: Not altogether spot on, as the Brits would say.

The most amazing thing was the number of people we met that we knew. Well, Debra knew approximately 63% of the attendees--they were either knitters, spinners, or knitter/spinner wannabes. But even I knew a bunch of people. And if I didn't know them when I started, I did when I left.

Here are some of the Gainesville knitters I met while resting my tired back on Friday. Debra was taking a class and I was so happy to meet some friendly folks and even happier when they told me they were from just up the road in Gainesville (Georgia, that is).

And, of course, there were those Atlanta blogger girls -- Melissa and Claudia and Janice and Jane and The Real Diana and Kim Nickels of Knitch. And the lovely Debbi Light of The Whole Nine Yarns. And Nancy T (Sassafras on etsy) and Nancy W and Jean K and ... and ... and .... well, I can't even remember who else from the AKG. Almost forgot the boys--Lou and Brett and Steve and Doug, though they disappeared so fast I almost thought they were figments of my imagination. And those sassy south-of-Atlanta girls Jody and Kathy and Maggie and their friend Grace from Michigan.

Well, there's more news but I don't have time to tell it all--the trick or treaters are coming. (Just to whet your appetite, I took a great class and we visited a wonderful Asheville LYS. And, it goes without saying, that we played with animals, or attempted to.)

And ... drum roll, please ... Lily Chin comes to Atlanta tomorrow so it's a big week. She'll speak to the guild tomorrow night, then I have two classes with her, one on Friday and one on Saturday. Then a potluck at Whit's house. And there's lots of homework before the classes. My, oh my, by Sunday I'll be a quivering mass of fiber overload.

Maryland Sheep & Wool (2)

So what did I come home with? Here's the yarn:








By the way, this photo isn't quite accurate. Two of the skeins of yarn pictured actually went with me in my suitcase. (Don't even ask why I would have thought I needed to take yarn to a yarn festival -- the answer is that I was close to the end of the socks I was knitting (I See You socks, my own design), and there might have been 10 minutes that I couldn't knit if I didn't take yarn.)

And here's the rest of the stuff (tote bags, tee shirts, coffee cups, and other miscellaneous stuff that jumped into my backpack:






Finally, here's an actual list of yarn purchased. I'm publishing this to keep myself honest, because I'd really like to actually use it before next year--and yes, I want to go back next year.




2007 MDSW Yarn Purchases:

Tess's Designer Yarns Superwash Merino blue (for Diamond Vest)
Autumn House Yarns (Moss Agate, for Rune Way Vest)
Socks That Rock, Superwash Merino, Mediumweight:
(1) Romancing the Stone
(2) Neptunite
(3) Carbon Dating
(4) Iolite
Ellen's Half Pint Farms
(1) 100% merino wool blue/green
(2) 80% wool 20% nylon, red/fuschia
(3) 50% wool, 50% tencel, blues
Celtic Knot Yarn Shop
(1) Online Linie 3 sock yarn, blue/black
(2) Opal taupe, coral and tan
Athlone Farm Llama/Suri alpaca handspun
Thistledown Alpacas Myfanvy handspun
Tess Designer Yarns sock yarn, blues
Tess Designer Yarns Superwash Lace (raspberry and green)
Claudia's Handpainted Fingering (for Multidirectional Scarf)

2007 Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival (1)

Oh, my gosh! What a wonderful three days! Whit, Joyce, Debra and I spent three days last weekend at the 34th Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival, and what a terrific visit it was. It was a weekend of laughs, aching legs, and more laughs. Here are a few of the highlights:

(1) I stayed at Debra's house the night before our flight. We had all attended our guild meeting that night and it was an emotional evening, full of sturm and drang. So it was a pleasure to be able to snuggle into Debra's stash and fondle it before bed. I wanted to just curl up in her studio and roll in her yarn and roving but that seemed over the top even for me.

(2) We stayed at the Hampton Inn in Columbia. Nice hotel, clean rooms, good breakfast, lots of camaraderie with other attendees, but the highlight had to be the manager's comment when we checked in: "I understand the "Maryland sheep" part, but why would anyone have a "sheep and WOLF festival? Aren't wolves and sheep enemies?"

(3) Since we couldn't get into the festival until Saturday, we pulled out our Yarn Finder and went in search of a yarn shop. I know, I know, why go looking for yarn when you're about to go buy yarn? Uh, duh! Anyway, we ended up at the Celtic Knot Yarn Shop in Ellicott City. The people there were very friendly and welcomed us warmly. I picked up a couple of skeins of Opal sock yarn, just to warm up the debit card.

(4) While we were at the Celtic Knot, we ran into two fellow festival attendees, Debbie and Linda from Connecticut. No, we'd never met before, but the pheromones took over and we recognized fellow fanatics. We got to talking and Debbie (the knitter) and Linda (the non-knitter--what's that about, Linda?) gave us some tips for new attendees--what time to go, where to park, what to eat, etc. Invaluable advice for the newbies!

(5) We wandered over to Baltimore to do a quick tour of the highlights--the Inner Harbor and Fort McHenry. We got to the fort just before closing so we only had a few minutes to walk over to the water, draw in the wonderful smell, and check out the view. Then back to Little Italy for dinner at Sabatino's.

(6) We found Sabatino's (an old haunt of mine from the days of attending Orioles games with our friend Larry Frisbee) but parking, of course, looked impossible. I looked for the valet guys but a middle-aged guy (read, my age) sitting in a lawn chair in front of the restaurant said, "hey, just leave it right there."

Me: "There? It doesn't look like a full parking space...I'm worried about being towed."
Him: "Nah. You'll be fine--in fact, give me your keys and I'll park it for you."
Me: "Uh, how do I know you won't steal my car?" (I'm trusting but not dumb. Well, not much.)
Him: "Hey, my name is Vince, and I'm the owner. I'll bring you the keys."
Me: "Well....okay." (Okay, I'm dumb.)

So we went in, were seated, and pretty soon the waitress arrived to say, "Vince told me to take good care of you. Here's an appetizer on him." And right after that, Vince showed up with the keys. So, okay, trusting is good. Sabatino's was good, Vince was a good guy. Thanks, Vince! (And, we had so much food that we had dinner for the next night to stuff into our hotel room refrigerator!)

(7) So, early Saturday, we're up early. I ran into a very nice couple from Vermont named Marly (sp?) and Keith, and they told me their daughter lived in Decatur and had told them she didn't know if there was knitting in Atlanta or not. What the heck? I dispelled that notion immediately, and gave Marly instructions on how to come to a guild meeting or a Peachtree Handspinners guild meeting (she's a spinner, too) when she's in town. I hope she will. Then we drove to the festival grounds, thinking we were so slick, we'd probably be among the first to get a parking space. Uh, no! We were probably the 200th car at that point, about 8 am. (Festival opens at 9.) So off to stand in line for the tee shirts. (Tip from Debbie: The tee shirt line fills up early and the the sale doesn't start until 9, so get in line and be prepared to wait.) We waited in line, then we waited some more, then we found Debbie and Linda in line, then we schmoozed with some other folks, and the line didn't move, the sales didn't begin. In the meantime,

(8) I saw another line forming across the way and realized, "Socks That Rock!" So I left my pals in the tee shirt line with my order and rushed over to The Fold booth. Pretty soon (8:30-ish) they opened up, and I joined the melee of friendly, pushy, grabby shoppers (and I say that in a good way!), finally scoring four skeins of Socks That Rock (see list in Post #2). Plus, I ran into one of the gals from The Celtic Knot shop scoring her yarn and we had a good laugh about that--she was on her way to a christening or something like that and we both had to question the wisdom of that. Non-knitters...what can you expect?

NOTE TO OTHER ATTENDEES: If you brought your non-knitting husband or spouse for company (what were you thinking?), please leave him/her outside the booth while the rest of are looking for STR. They just take up space and they're not buying or fondling...frankly, they're just in the way.

Back to our regularly scheduled posting.

(9) Back to the tee shirt line. Still not open. Hmmm....9:15. Grumbling, mumbling, hell, yelling. "It's after 9 o'clock! We're waiting." Were we about to witness some yarnplace violence? Eventually, the line began to move, glacially. Luckily, I had my order completed (but I still made changes) and I moved through the process pretty well. Whit wasn't so lucky--she had the volunteer from hell and her purchases took forever. NOTE TO MDSW VOLUNTEER COORDINATOR: The volunteers assisting buyers with purchases should NOT be color-blind. When you tell the guy, "I'd like the green one," you really don't want to be handed first purple, then taupe, then gray. ANOTHER TIP TO VOLUNTEER COORDINATOR: Please ask your volunteers (and, yes, we really do appreciate them and we do understand they're volunteers, not paid), to come a little early for training.

(10) Okay, we've got our stuff. Debra took off like a scalded cat looking for swag, Whit and I made a quick run to the car with our purchases (based on a tip from Debbie--thanks, Deb!), and Joyce toodled off in the direction of the main building. We made a plan to meet for lunch (everyone but Debra who was on her own mission) and off we went. (Watching Debra's dust in the distance turned out to be a trend for the weekend.)

(11) Food: Lamb, lamb, lamb. Wonderful, juicy, tasty. Tip: If you're not a meat eater, or if you can't deal with hearing about little baby lambies being eaten, skip this part. But this is, after all, an agricultural festival and farmers have a pretty basic view of the whole process, and we tried to embrace the concept. I had grilled lamb and lamb kabobs. We also checked out the burgers and the gyros. Then we added lemonade, ice cream, and those wonderful potato-chip thingies with cheese. Then we had more. Delicious, and a good variety.

(12) Animals: What a wonderful experience. Sheep, goats, alpacas, llamas, angora bunnies. Lots of animals to pet and talk to, some just to watch in awe. Some in pens, some in their owners' arms, some in the judging arenas, some patiently waiting their turns, others being groomed and sheared.




(13) Yarn: Oh, my gosh! Some commercial yarns, much home-grown. I bought way too much (list to follow), but the highlight was some gorgeous chocolate brown alpaca from Thistledown Alpacas. Go to the website to see the picture of Thistledown's Myfanwy. I bought two skeins of her championship yarn and it's the softest stuff you can imagine. By the way, her name is pronounced Mu-vane-way.

Here's the photo of our spoils from Saturday. We piled it all on the bed that night:



Excessive? Yes. Your point? Well, we were all pretty sure we wouldn't be buying much the next day, just "filling in the gaps." Hello ..... what were we thinking?

(14) Back at the hotel, we found Debbie and Linda! Linda had learned how to knit that day and was forging ahead on a swatch. We couldn't believe what beautiful, even stitches she was making--she's obviously a natural! We all sat around and knit for awhile, and then off to bed. D&L were leaving in the morning so we wouldn't see them again--until next year!

(15) Sunday, more of the same. We packed up early (Tip from Debbie and Debra: bring an extra collapsible suitcase--yes, you WILL need it.) ANOTHER TIP FROM DEBRA: Now, make sure that the suitcase will be large enough to hold the large picture you bought. This time we got to the fairgrounds about 8:30 and the place was full. (Don't believe the people who tell you that Sunday is a much lighter day.)

(16) Airport, and home bound.








(17) Debra got greedy and tried to bring home a little more of the festival then we wanted:







(18) Finally, one last piece of fun. We greeted Debra's intrepid husband, who was there to schlep all our stuff home) thusly (here's Whit, and yes, those are sheep ears she's wearing):