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these so-called vacations will soon be my death
Usually when visiting the DC area, I like to head back to Kentucky on Saturday. Gives me a day to rest up and get everything back in place before I have to work. Upon the suggestion of the Knitting Pirate I decided to put it off until Sunday and.... go to Maryland Sheep and Wool.
We didn't didn't arrive at the crack of dawn to rush the gates, but we did head out early (for us, on a weekend) and got there before the morning was over.
To put it simply, it was overwhelming. To scout everything before deciding on items to purchase is impossible. You need to plan your prime targets and hit them quickly and then meander around and see what else there is. Evidence of this with The Fold's booth, which was almost stripped (excepting certain colorways) of Socks That Rock yarn. I managed to snag a nice colorway called Footzey Foo.
But that is a thought about what to do for next year. MD Sheep and Wool is a wonderful place to learn things. We watched a gentleman demonstrate how to make brooms with his 150 year old simple yet well designed machines. There were all sorts of animals and fibers to be experienced as well. There were sheep (of course), goats, llamas, alpacas and rabbits around to meet and we fondled yarns made from their fibers. (Llama is surprisingly soft!)
We were in an alpaca booth, commenting on how roving isn't dangerous to us (unlike yarn) since we don't spin (yet)... and then were then snapped up by a lady who took about 10 minutes to show us both how to spin with a drop spindle she had on her and gave us the basics for what to look for in roving. We then spent the rest of the day looking for lightweight spindles (with another lesson on what to look for in a drop spindle by a booth owner) to learn on and some starter roving. We ended up with 1.1 ounce spindles and about a half pound of multicolored Romney roving to play with.
Near the end, we managed to meet up with![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
aurenta and her friend, which was wonderful as I haven't seen her in ages, and wandered around and chatted before they had to leave. We managed a bit more shopping after that but it was near the end and shops were closing up. Next year, get there earlier!
That evening we dropped everything and spun up singles with our new spindles and roving. :)
So now, pictures...
The pirate and I each bought a skein of this colorway of Fleece Artist sock yarn
The Socks That Rock I snagged
Half pound bag of Romney roving
Spindle with single from the roving on it.
Wrapped the single around my hand some to show it off.
Finer than I had managed before, although I need to practice to make it more uniform.
We didn't didn't arrive at the crack of dawn to rush the gates, but we did head out early (for us, on a weekend) and got there before the morning was over.
To put it simply, it was overwhelming. To scout everything before deciding on items to purchase is impossible. You need to plan your prime targets and hit them quickly and then meander around and see what else there is. Evidence of this with The Fold's booth, which was almost stripped (excepting certain colorways) of Socks That Rock yarn. I managed to snag a nice colorway called Footzey Foo.
But that is a thought about what to do for next year. MD Sheep and Wool is a wonderful place to learn things. We watched a gentleman demonstrate how to make brooms with his 150 year old simple yet well designed machines. There were all sorts of animals and fibers to be experienced as well. There were sheep (of course), goats, llamas, alpacas and rabbits around to meet and we fondled yarns made from their fibers. (Llama is surprisingly soft!)
We were in an alpaca booth, commenting on how roving isn't dangerous to us (unlike yarn) since we don't spin (yet)... and then were then snapped up by a lady who took about 10 minutes to show us both how to spin with a drop spindle she had on her and gave us the basics for what to look for in roving. We then spent the rest of the day looking for lightweight spindles (with another lesson on what to look for in a drop spindle by a booth owner) to learn on and some starter roving. We ended up with 1.1 ounce spindles and about a half pound of multicolored Romney roving to play with.
Near the end, we managed to meet up with
aurenta and her friend, which was wonderful as I haven't seen her in ages, and wandered around and chatted before they had to leave. We managed a bit more shopping after that but it was near the end and shops were closing up. Next year, get there earlier!That evening we dropped everything and spun up singles with our new spindles and roving. :)
So now, pictures...
The pirate and I each bought a skein of this colorway of Fleece Artist sock yarn
The Socks That Rock I snagged
Half pound bag of Romney roving
Spindle with single from the roving on it.
Wrapped the single around my hand some to show it off.
Finer than I had managed before, although I need to practice to make it more uniform.
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just as an aside - Great Big Sea have never released Home for a Rest - it's from a band called Spirit of the West. If they have released it as an mp3, i'd love to get it from you, but it's one of those commonly mistagged songs.
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