Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival 2006 - Part 1

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Baaaaaaaaaa

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I have to report on last weekend's MS&WF in small bites, as I have lots of pictures to share, and picture-heavy posts tend to take me a long time to organize. So this will be the first installment of three, possibly four episodes.

After driving North on Friday in the desperately-needed pouring rain, Melanie, Suzanne and myself stopped for dinner at Macaroni Grill in Columbia, (I love their "Carmela's Chicken Rigatoni"), before checking into our hotel to rest up for a big day.

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Turns out, it's good to get to the fairgrounds as early as possible. I believe we arrived there right around 9 am when the place officially opened, and the first section of the field was already full-up with cars. Looks like a bunch of folks come reeeeeeeally early and just sit in their cars and knit until the gates open. Not a bad idea, actually....

Once inside, Suzanne had a mission to hit the Koigu booth in the Main Building and hit it hard, which she did with success. Can you find her in this melee? Neither can I.

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I sweat just looking at the press of bodies in this tiny booth

Melanie found a booth selling several-thousand-yard hanks of cotton for dirt cheap, so as both ladies were shopping or waiting to pay for their purchases, I started to wander.

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And look who I ran into?

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L to R: Spirit Trail booth babes: Correct me, but I think (?) that's Amie , Queen Bess, Jennifer and Erica.

As I wandered in the main building, I took a few pictures of things that caught my eye, like:

Team knitting -- a family knits a poncho

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Rover Dance marionette show

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Some sheepy string lights -- not just for Easter!

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Sheep masks - no need to buy one -- I can just borrow Jane's .. ;-)

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Lovely hooked rugs

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Later, we went back into daylight and found the booth I was most hoping to hit hard -- The Fold -- vendor for the highly coveted BMFA "Socks That Rock". When we got to their booth, this is what we found:

See all that sunlight coming through a rack where yarn should be? Here's Vanna, I mean, Suzanne, indicating the dearth of STR -- sold out by 10:30 am!

But I got my paws on a couple hanks! Score!

Sadly - neither of those hanks are for me, but I'm happy to get them to their designated recipients.

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In other wanderings, I saw:

Mecca within mecca - but I resisted

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An under-rated portion of the event -- the animals!


Hey - they even sell plants here!

Artist at work

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Okay, that's enough for one post. Tomorrow -- the blogger meet-up!

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