Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival 2006 - Part 3

Third and final installment to the MS&WF report. We're now up to Sunday, and one of the first things we saw was the Sheep-to-Shawl competition, which was a lot of fun:

Last year's winning team finished first and won again!

Afterwards we watched these shawls being auctioned off and I believe the winning shawl also went for the highest price -- something over $500!

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Later, we stepped inside to see the winners of the skein and garment competition, and saw these lovelies:

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A few other random shots from Sunday:

An angora kid sleeps snugly

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Suzanne scores hemp yarn for her husband's sweater

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This little lady does her own kind of weaving

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Finally, the obligatory showing of the loot and yarn pr0n:

Clockwise from top left:

(1) Obligatory MS&WF merchandise (I waited until Sunday when the line was small):

(2) BMFA "Socks That Rock" in Rose Quartz:

Click here for extreme close-up

(3) Claudia's Hand Painted Sport Weight merino in Caribbean Blue. I waffled back & forth over this purchase for an entire day before succumbing to the lust for this lovely yarn. (Hey, I just found out Claudia's located in Harrisonburg, VA - hometown of my alma mater, and where I'll be staying for SoXperience.)

Click here for extreme close-up

(4) "Thermohair" ankle socks for my mom, who is perpetually cold. Here's hoping these might convince her to turn the thermostat down from 80ºF.

(5) Glass buttons:

so purty!

(6) Earrings - the blue-green glass pair are for me, (what a shock); the American flag pair are for my niece whose birthday is in early July:

(7) Raw silk yarn and fish belt pattern from Tess' yarn:

(8) Four skeins of Merino/Baby Alpaca/Silk from The Fibre Company, who had it on sale -- 2 for $10. Who could pass that up, especially when it's my colors? Melanie suggested that since this yarn seems somewhat Noro-esque, (although quite a bit softer, in my opinion), it would make a good multi-directional scarf.

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In summary, I had a fantastic time last weekend. I woke up Monday morning still glowing from the experience. As I told Suzanne at one point Sunday while we were sitting in the beautiful weather, finishing lunch, knitting and chatting and listening to the sheep show next to us, it felt like a little piece of heaven. After a long, warm, crowded, tiring day on Saturday I had boldly declared to my travel buddies that I thought one day was enough to see and do most everything. But after a sweet, lovely, leisurely day there on Sunday, I know now that I would have missed a lot if we hadn't stayed for both days. I do think that if there aren't urgently-necessary things to do on Saturday, (blogger meet-up, koigu & STR scrum), it might be nice to come up midday Saturday and leave Sunday afternoon. Sunday is definitely key, I think.

Is it next May yet?... ;-)

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