Maryland Sheep & Wool 2010 Part I: Saturday

Yay it's Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival Weekend! This is my third year going, and decided to go both days (hey, why not). Saturday was the day I got to see Ammon and his family, and I also took along Asher. This was my first Saturday experience, so I didn't know what to expect.

Definitely didn't expect this:

What! 2 mile traffic jam?! We were stuck for good 30 minutes on SR32.

We finally got there, and first checked out some auction items.

This one was my favorite:

This year I also decided to enter some competitions.

I dropped off 2 skeins and 1 shawl for the skein and garment competition on Friday, and couldn't wait to see the results.

My sock yarn! First place! Best novice skein! I'm soooo excited!

My excited face.

My skein #2 got 4th place.

Then we could check out the festival in peace. Here are some silkworms.

Great music.

Funny sheep.

Sheep is one of those animals that you think you know what it looks like, then you realize that you don't. There are so many different breeds with different characteristics, that there is no "average sheep" image one can draw up.

I think this is Lincoln (correct me if I'm wrong)

Blue face Leicester

Teeny kitteh

Getting trimmed. The sheep must be very scared on the pedestal like that. They hold very still.

Working sheepdog demo. One of my favorites. I think the kiddies were getting too hot in the sun to enjoy it. Bummer. Maybe next time!

Blade shearing demo.

I didn't know that sheep didn't recognize each other once they are shorn. Apparently they look and smell different, so they fight to establish hierarchy within the flock. I find this really amusing. Dumb sheep.

And my favorite moment! I got to meet the inspiring, wonderful, talented, lovely Ms. Judith MacKenzie McCuin!

I was totally flabbergasted and forgot that she lives in Washington State. Duh! I hope I didn't offend her. But she was really nice about it, and signed my copy of the Intentional Spinner.

I was really good and only bought 4oz of polwarth and 6oz of Jacob. Lovely stuff. More Sunday.

I keep meeting famous people!

Yesterday I discovered that there is another yarn store near the museum. I checked out Annie & Co. on Madison on Sunday, and was quite pleased with it.

Knitty City has late hours on Wednesdays and Thursdays, so I can stop by after work, and knit and meet some knitters in New York! How perfect.

And! They were going to have Kay Gardiner and Ann Shayne speak about the new book! Whoa! And I never meet famous people. The closest I got was when my buddy sold a shirt to Joey from NSYNC. I'm showing age.

I absolutely loved their projects. I'm definitely making the coat and maybe even the rug they are holding....after I finish the scarf, socks, and the vest.

The people I met here were REALLY nice. I really liked their yarn selection too. I wish I can finish the darn scarf, socks, and the vest so I can start making cool things I saw in the store.

And the lovely Mason Dixon ladies signed my new book, and one of them even went to write "turtle fossils 4ever" :)

I'm really excited!!

The Yarn Harlot!

I like New York. How about you? I like it, how about you?

There seems to be lots of stuff going on here. I mean LOTS. I was cruising around on ravelry and discovered that the Yarn Harlot aka Stephanie Pearl-McPhee

is coming to sign books and say hello! I never meet famous people!

I invited my fellow medical illustrator to be inspired to knit. She sure was inspired to get one of the copies of the book.

And look! She even held my orange sock in progress, and thought it was real nice! Yaaaay!! I got to hold onto her thick warm sock!

Now I have a signed copy of her latest book! See that in my hand?