Lorain and I set off for the
Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival on Friday morning with hearts full of hope
and a tank full of gas. Some nine hours later we arrived at the Frederick, Md. Hampton Inn and met the other ten members of our party from Friendship Spinners. Nancy Reid made all of us woven flower pins to wear and soon other people at the Festival recognized us as the delegation from Kentucky by our lovely pins.
We were ready to hit the festival bright and early on Saturday morning
. Although we arrived at 8:30 and the festival didn’t open until 9, the cars were backed up a long way down the road waiting to park. A LOT of people came to this festival.
The first order of business was to deposit all the wool
we brought with us with the mill representatives. Lorain had brought a few pounds for processing, but Nancy and Cathy brought a whopping 70 pounds of wool in Cathy’s Chevy Suburban – wedging Nancy, Cathy, Theresa, and Betty very tightly on the trip from Kentucky. At least, we reasoned, they’d have been well protected in an accident.
Then, it was on to the shopping! It was almost overwhelming. There was a huge exhibition hall filled with vendors, several smaller halls filled with vendors, AND outdoor booths running the length of the fairgrounds several times over.
There was fiber that had been dyed and spun into yarns of all different textures and hues.
There was fiber of all types that had been carded and dyed and was ready for hand spinning.
There was even fiber on the hoof and paw.
I watched a women spin angora yarn directly from the angora. When I tried this at home later, Andy didn't think it was a good idea at all.
This lovely handcarved loom decorated with swans almost made me want to learn to weave ... almost.
This luscious yarn made me salivate.
I wasn’t too squeamish to chow down on a “lamb-burger”
but even I couldn't face the prospect of eating a deep fried twinkie.
By 4 o’clock we were all exhausted … not to say out of money. Lorain bought a warping reel at the shepherd’s auction and all of us had fiber in tow … and spindles … and books … and shawl pins … and Nancy got a fabulous (and expensive) handwoven jacket.
We met in Nancy and Cathy’s deluxe room at 5 for the annual Friendship Spinner’s Derby party. The flower of Kentucky high fashion, we sported lovely hats
in honor of the Derby.
From the back row, left to right, we see Sandy, Theresa, Lynn, Nancy, Barb, Betty and me. On the front row are Linda, Nancy, Lorain and Cathy. Nancy
made Derby pie and we all had mint juleps. Lorain was the lucky winner of the fabulous Derby pot (I think it almost paid for her dinner). And we decorated a special hat for Carol, who couldn’t be there, so she knew we were thinking of her. Lorain shared the basket of wine and cheese that her husband had thoughtfully packed for her, and I brought brownies.
To cap off the day, we went to dinner at May’s Crab
and almost all of us had delicious crab for dinner.
Apparently, part of the fun of Maryland Blue Crab is whacking it with a wooden mallet to get the meat out. Cathy whacked hers so hard that it exploded onto Nancy’s new jacket.
Oh, well, it had to be broken in some time.
Most of us were dragging by the time we finished dinner, but several of the group had a nightcap in the party room (Nancy and Cathy’s) and watched “Pirates of the Caribbean” (love that Johnny Depp).
The next morning we headed for the fairgrounds again, but this time I had a different agenda: I had a “Novelty Yarns” class. There were 15 of us in the class with legendary spinner Judith McKenzie McCuin. She taught us so many new techniques that I’m sure I’ll never remember it all.
It was great fun to play all day instead of tramping around the fairgrounds again. Here
is a picture of me with Judith. She actually said I was a good spinner!
While I was busy learning something
worthwhile, the others were watching the Parade of Breeds and doing more shopping. Cathy did the most memorable shopping – she bought
two live lambs. We pondered long and hard about how she and three other people were going to enjoy that nine hour trip home in a Chevy Suburban with two sheep. I’m still waiting to hear the details of that trip!
Saturday night we went to another crab place, but I can’t remember the name. It was delicious … but still I can’t remember the name.
The next morning Lorain and I loaded up our loot and headed for home. We tried to go by way of Milton, WV to see the Blenko glass factory, but we were too late and had to miss it. It was a long drive, but we were happy and at least we didn’t share our ride with two sheep!
Here’s my shopping:
8 skeins of wool for felting
5 skeins of alpaca for socks
1 tanned lamb hide
1 pair of socks with sheep on them
1 Maryland Wool Festival coffee mug
1 Maryland Wool Festival T-shirt
4 oz. of Jacob Wool roving
1 leather belt
1 leather credit card holder
8 oz. cone of fine 2-ply wool yarn
For another blow by blow account of the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival check out
Knitter's Review.
I got the ribbed wrist bands done and sewed them into the felted mittens. I'm not actually sure they're necessary because the mittens seem warm enough and tight enough to the wrist without them -- but I wanted to follow the pattern, at least the first time out. I had a little trouble because I ran out of yarn for the ribbing, but I just put the last bits of colored yarn at the edges where they 
would be seen and substituted white yarn to complete the rest of the ribbing. Well, that's probably WAY more than anyone wanted to know about this project.
California Variegated Mutant (CVM) spun into a bulky weight yarn (seen at right) and I'm spinning 4 oz. of Jacob Sheep wool into a bulky weight (seen below). 
I think I'll have enough for a vest front at least and I think the wools will look good together. The natural colors are a little drab ... mostly grey and greyish brown ... but these are the natural colors and the whole point of CVM is that is it colored. So, I suppose I'll leave them natural. Now I need to find a good vest pattern for bulky yarn!
