I went up with [personal profile] temve and a friend of theirs named M___; they picked me up from the Wendy's across the Wheaton Metro, because the Wheaton Kiss & Ride stops are impossible.

We got there about 10 am, and it was surprisingly little traffic for that time of day. Usually the last mile into the fairgrounds during MDSW takes a good 30 minutes, if not more. But it was raining and forecast to rain all day, so the casual daytrippers didn't come (leaving the hardcore yarn enthusiasts to be all over).

I stopped at the plant nurseries first, and bought 3 petunias plants (purple with yellow edges, and pink with white splotches), 2 fish peppers, 1 mortgage lifter tomato, 2 basils, and 6 cotton plants (from Putnam Hill Nursery.

Next we went to Friends in Reed, a group of basket makers who always have amazing baskets for reasonable prices. I bought a market basket and a smaller basket labeled as a 'bread basket' that is just the right size to drop envelopes in until I have enough energy to deal with sorting my mail.

Then we went to the auction tent -- there were a couple things that tempted me, like a 'surfboard' style tablet-weaving loom -- but it was still early so we checked out what was already there and then walked on.

We walked through the outside north booths until we came to The Bee Folks. It was only about 11, but they'd already sold out of the Coffee Blossom honey and the Mango honey, unless you were willing to by 1 gallon containers (that weigh 12 lbs). I did buy Thistle honey and WildFoam (when the bees have fed on meadowfoam and wildflowers, a good compromise when you don't want to pay the premium for pure monofloral meadowfoam honey) and picked up two bags of honey candy.

It was about 11:30 or so then, so we headed to the Boy Scouts and had lambburgers for lunch. The younger boys take the orders, the older boys handle money and serving up the food, and the dads do the cooking. It's adorable to have an 8 year old concentrating his hardest on customer service because they just aren't able to remember everything yet.

Then we stopped and picked up some candied pecans because the line was short and they're a good snack to carry with you through the fairgrounds.

We went into the Main Barn, partly to get out of the rain and partly because it has the biggest number of vendors. I picked up some yarn from Into the Whirled -- socks yarn in colors Melange (semi-solid copper orange) and Rhinebeck (chocolate brown with bronze notes). [personal profile] temve was surprised at the name, since there is a town in Germany named Rhinebach -- the Rhinebeck in New York state was probably named after it, but is also where the big sheep & wool festival is held in the autumn.

At about 12:45, M_____ had to go the auction and I decided I shouldn't, so [personal profile] temve and I walked on. I did run into someone I know from the farmer's market, and guided her to Bosworth Spindles and Charkas, partly because I knew where they were but mostly because they make excellent handspindles. I bought a new one out of spalted tamarind (apparently 'spalt' is same word in English and German, but in English refers specifically to spalting in wood instead of splitting in general).

I looked at Wild Hare, walked on, and then realized their Pinnacle DK mini-skein set was perfect for the 8-bit doodlee hat pattern I got from Pacific Knit Company (the place that does the knitting doodle decks.

We then walked through the annex where some demonstrations were being held, cut back through the main barn, and walked through the smaller barns. Tem was looking for yarn to knit a replacement shawl with but kept running into 'not enough skeins' or 'wrong color' but we did finally find something that should work -- a dark blue-purple-green, the colors of an oil slick but much nicer.

I bought a skein of flamingo pink fingering tencel just because I love the color, and a giant skein (5250 yards) of 72%wool/28%rayon in the palest lilac (the colors had already been picked over, so that was the best of a weird lot) to make one of the really big lace shawls out of. Also, I picked up three balls of merino roving, about 6 oz in all, and plan to spin them into fingering for fingerless mittens, a hat, and maybe a smoke ring scarf.

We walked through the south outside booths and came to Kiparoo Farm, which is both very local and a place I used to go to regularly, when I lived in upcounty from where I am now. I picked up 2 skeins of their silk/wool blend in a crimson that will look great when knit up. I plan to get gloves, a hat, and a scarf out of it.

Last, I picked up 1000 yds of a superfine merino lace, which I may make into either Eyjafjallajokull or Simurg.

M______ had managed to buy a spinning wheel, but one that needs a good bit of repair work. They retrieved it and I made my last purchase of the day, a partial cone of extra-fine weaving wool from a Pendelton mill end. We picked up all my plants on the way out and walked through squishy grass back to the car.

We drove back, and then hung out at [personal profile] temve's place for dinner, meeting several of her wife's martial arts students and enjoying no longer wearing wet socks.
skein of mostly black yarn, with flecks of colors

Finished today, 1 ounce of handspun laceweight in a colorway called "Blacktop Chalk Art".

This is from the fiber I picked up at MD Sheep & Wool, which I attended with [personal profile] el and [personal profile] temve this year. I have another ounce, which I will ply with this one when I finish it.

I'm not sure what I'll make out of this, but probably another scarf, or possibly a hat.
I went to Maryland Sheep and Wool today with [personal profile] temve and [personal profile] el -- we left to arrive when the gates open because [personal profile] temve had a concert she had to be back for.

We watched the sheepdog trial demo, ate lamb-burger, lamb sausage, and roasted, candied pecans.

I bought:

  • 12 chile, bell pepper, tomatillo, and tomato plants

  • 6 cotton plants -- 2 Egyptian green, 2 brown, 2 red-foliated

  • 3 bags of honey candy

  • 4 oz of 50% yak/50% silver roving in a gorgeous silver color

  • 2 oz of puni (merino, polwarth, bamboo, soysilk, silk) in a colorway called "blacktop chalk art" from Cooperative Press

  • a 6-pack of Kashmir mini-skeins in a color-set called "Valentine" from Fiber Optic Yarns

  • a skein of Kashmir in a colorway called "Oakmoss" also from Fiber Optic Yarns

  • a jewel-box set of mini skeins for the 9-color version of this pattern -- Vacillate

  • a black that was supposed to go with the jewel-box, but might actually be the wrong weight..?

  • a skein of laceweight bison down yarn in a blue-green color called "Taos"

  • a neon gradient from Wild Hare in black to neon rainbow in 2 repeats

  • a 1.1 oz spindle from Snyder Spindles with a cogwheel pattern in whorl and a biohazard symbol on top

  • an 8 g spindle from Kate's Cauldron that is made out of Scrabble tiles and spells the word 'Spin'



We didn't get funnel cake, but I bumped into two people I know, one for the local fiber arts guild (I stopped going years ago, because became too much trouble to get to meetings after they kept moving locations), and one from my old job.
I went yesterday... and had a great time.

Now I just need 12 more hours of sleep...
neotoma: Roadrunner fetish goes "beep beep!' (roadrunner)
( May. 6th, 2007 03:55 pm)
I went up [livejournal.com profile] gblvr's house the night before, because she was driving and it was easier to go straight from her place than to circle around to my place and then go the festival. I wore my feather and fan stole, since I finished it Wednesday and the weather was a bit chilly out. But boy did I have at the festival (with pictures) )So now I'm taking the day off and going to be lazy lazy. I might order a pizza later, I'm feeling so lazy...
The current issue of Spin-Off had some delightful projects, including a crocheted yarn bag for knitters. Yesterday I bought some linen yarn to make a practice bag, with the idea of maybe making one out of the ingeo fiber I had also purchased, after I spin it.

However, the crochet pattern was written by a beginner, and it shows -- quite obviously. Crocheting in the round can be tricky enough, without bad directions added on top of it.

So I let the Spin-Off editors know...The letter I dashed off )


I'm going to rewrite the directions, because it is a cute little yarn bag, but there really isn't an excuse for such sloppy work from Interweave.
neotoma: Neotoma albigula, the white-throated woodrat! [default icon] (Default)
( May. 7th, 2006 09:40 am)
The Sheep and Wool Festival was a treat! 'A' and I got there at 9am and got all the errands done before 10am. At which point, we had lunch, to avoid the huge lines that form by noon.

[livejournal.com profile] twistedchick, her SU, [livejournal.com profile] sanj and [livejournal.com profile] ellen_fremedon arrived a bit before 11 am, and we broke into different groups to find our wanted items.

Basically, I had a blast, and spent too much money, which is what you do at this sort of thing. But I got *lots* of shiny things... )

All in all, I had a good (if expensive) day.
.

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