The Long Thread

I can't believe the weekend is almost over -- it's been such a wonderful one! Of course, it's been a bit bittersweet because under normal circumstances, this weekend would have been Maryland Sheep and Wool weekend. MDSW will always have a special place in my heart because it was the first fiber festival I ever attended and, until the last one I went to when I was helping out in a booth, it was always one of my few weekends away without the rest of my family. For a number of years, it was a trip to go on with a group of girlfriends, and we'd created a really fun tradition of it. I hope next year we'll be able to do it again.

Fortunately, although we couldn't be with thousands of other knitters, Rainbow and I did get a chance to hang out with some knitters. A friend organized a little get-together in a local park with some others I know from my former LYS, which closed several years ago. It was still a bit chilly (I was wearing my new sweater!), but the sun was warm -- and of course the company made it worth it.

Everyone there (other than Rainbow) had been vaccinated, and we were also spaced out and outside, but it was still wonderful to be with other knitters for the first time in a very long time. I am hoping to repeat that experience soon.

In the meantime, I am still working on spinning the dark Polwarth, but I can see the end of the fiber:

I'm fairly certain that I will finish this skein this week, though certainly a lot depends on how busy the week is at work. At the very least, I'll have some time off to look forward to on Friday. Usually staff gets the Friday of spring break week off at the university where I work, but because they decided to condense the schedule due to COVID, there was no spring break, so we're getting this Friday off as a replacement. I might do a Costco run so I can avoid having to go there on a weekend, but I fully plan to take advantage of having a day to myself.

Because MDSW was on the brain this week, I pulled out my very oldest spinning project, which I remembered I had started on a previous MDSW trip:

This delicious-looking stuff is 70% chocolate alpaca (so naturally brown)/30% silk from Gale's Art. It's undyed -- "naked," she called it -- and is probably the best deal ever because 4 oz. of it was only $13. Also, it just so happens that this project is turning six today. That's right, I started it on May 2, 2015. I tend to get it out once or twice a year, determined to finally finish it, and it always gets put away again. Maybe this is finally the year? Stay tuned!

MDSW 2019: Of Puppies and Mud

I'm back! Chances are you didn't miss me at all thanks to the wonder that is scheduling a blog post ahead of time. But I've had quite a bit of catching up to do on e-mail and blog reading after being away and largely offline for about four days, not to mention that I was desperate for a long hot shower and a good night's sleep in my own bed.

All in all, it was a fun but busy weekend. I left at about 6:30 Friday morning, making a quick stop at Bruegger's for a bagel and coffee for the road, and was at the farm by about 7:30. We got on the road shortly before 8. This was my first trip to MDSW with Amy and Scooter Pie after doing the last two Rhinebeck trips with them, and on this trip we had two new companions:

This is not the best photo of them, but with puppies, it's hard to get them to sit still long enough for a photo. These are Amy's newest puppies, Bo (short for Boudin) and Whiskey (full name: Whiskey Tango Foxtrot). Amy likes to say that Bo is her emotional support animal and Whiskey is Bo's emotional support animal. While Whiskey is full Pembroke Corgi, Bo's Corgi mother apparently had a liaison with a French Bulldog. They're both pretty darned adorable, and they were my sleeping buddies in the camper (their crate was right next to my bed, so I woke up each day to the two of them staring at me). They didn't come with us to the festival, but it was fun to see them at the end of each day (as you can imagine, after a day of sitting in their crate while we were gone, they had a lot of energy to burn off when we let them out).

The festival itself was a lot of fun and very busy. Saturday ended up being just about perfect, weather-wise. It was overcast and not too warm most of the day, with a nice breeze, and the sun popped out briefly a number of times. Sunday was the exact opposite: It rained all day long. We were in the Lower Coral in a tent, and frankly the entire area was a giant mud puddle. I was thankful that I'd had the foresight to bring my rain boots, because I really needed them and would have destroyed my sneakers had I worn them. I was also thankful that Scooter Pie had laid a temporary plywood floor in the booth (really done for the ease of wheeling out their display cases, but it helped with the mud, too!).

The highlight of the festival for me was this:

For the first time this year I was able to enter one of my handspun skeins into the skein and garment competition in person (you may recall that last year I entered two skeins and had to mail them in, and someone switched the tags on them, leading to poor scores). I knew this was one of my better skeins and hoped it would do well, and I'm absolutely delighted to have received a third-place ribbon!

Because the booth was so busy, I didn't get a ton of time to go out and shop -- and that was just fine, considering my strict yarn and fiber diet -- but I did sneak out to pick up a couple of little gifts for Rainbow, who was a little weepy when I had to leave on Friday morning.

I specifically wanted to stop by the WeeOnes booth to see if she had any Westie stitch markers, and I was in luck! I hadn't planned on also picking up a project bag, but when I saw this one, I couldn't resist buying it for my sloth-obsessed daughter.

Amy and I took a stroll through the Main Exhibition Hall on Sunday morning, when business was slow, and I decided to treat myself with a new tool (it's not yarn and fiber, so it's okay!).

This is a lucet from Stephen Willette in beautiful Bubinga wood. I've never used one before, but he gave me a quick lesson in the booth and I was sent home with an instruction booklet, so I'm all set to give it a try. It's actually much easier than I would have thought, and it will be another good way to use up some stash yarn, particularly some handspun that is perhaps too scratchy to knit with but would be good for a rug or a hot pad.

Though I was mighty tempted by a lot of beautiful yarn and fiber at the festival, I didn't buy any -- but that's not to say that I came home empty handed.

This lovely pile is my favorite yarn from the farm, Shetland 3-ply sport, which Amy generously gave me for a new sweater design that I have planned for later this year (if all goes according to plan, it will make its debut at Rhinebeck). It's been years since my first sweater design, and I think I am now ready to tackle a stranded colorwork yoke pullover. I'll be using Marigold, the lighter color, as the main color and Lindy, that gorgeous chocolate brown, for the contrast in the yoke. I still have some reading and swatching and number crunching to do, but my hope is to have this in the works by the summer.

Everything is now back to the normal schedule for me, and this week I'm working on finishing up a couple of projects at home and packing up my office for a move next week at work. Though it wasn't a relaxing weekend away in any sense, it was a lot of fun and a great opportunity to see some friends from far away. Now let the countdown to Rhinebeck begin!

In Prep Mode

I will be leaving bright and early (actually, probably before the sun is fully up) tomorrow for Maryland Sheep and Wool. For the first time, I'll be going to work rather than shop, which should be a nice change. My plans to go with friends never really fell into place, so when Amy of the Ross Farm said they could use my help in the booth, I jumped at the chance.

Despite the fact that I have to leave very early tomorrow (Amy wants to get on the road by 8, and I've got about an hour-long drive to get down to the farm), I've done no real prep for the trip other than think about it. I've checked the forecast throughout the week and it looks like it'll be wet and warm, so I'm definitely taking my wellies and some extra shoes, but I haven't started packing at all. True to form, though, I've already planned out what knitting I'm taking.

I figured the trip would be a good excuse to get a fair amount done on my two current WIPs for Rainbow, the brioche hat (pictured above) and her Little Boxy (which has gotten only one round knit on it since the last time you saw it). I also my take my current design WIP, which really needs to get finished soon. That should be plenty, considering the drive down isn't nearly as long as the drive to Rhinebeck.

Tonight I've got to pack, wind the rest of the minis for the hat so I don't have to do it by hand, and get shopping lists and schedules all set for my husband for while I'm away. If you will be at the festival this weekend, come by the booth and say hi!

MDSW: The Take

Most times when I go to a fiber festival, I have a list of what I'm looking for or, at the very least, a list of vendors I want to visit. This time, other than buying the hackle, I didn't really have any specific thing in mind, though I thought maybe I'd look for yarn for a sweater and then just browse. There were certainly plenty of vendors I like there, so I knew there would be no shortage of things I could buy if I was so inclined.

Our first stop of the weekend was at the Needles Up event on Friday evening. This is a small event (only about six vendors total), but my friend Lisa of Fibernymph Dye Works was one of the vendors and I knew I wanted to go to support her -- and of course I love her yarn, too! I'd just received a club shipment from her before I left, so I limited myself to just one skein of her Bounce fingering weight:

I also stopped by the booth of AmyBeth, aka the Fat Squirrel, to get one of her amazing bags -- but really only because my Boxy was already getting too big for its project bag. Yeah, that's right, it was a necessity.

In plotting with my traveling companions on Friday night, I decided that if I was going to buy a sweater quantity of yarn, I really wanted it to be Jill Draper's new base, Kingston, a tweedy DK weight. That was perfect, because the sweater I was shopping for calls for DK. My friend Susie, who was a sheep and wool festival first-timer, also was interested in looking at Jill's yarn for a sweater, so that was where we headed first. We were not disappointed -- Jill has some amazing yarn, as she always does. I came home with five skeins of Kingston:

After that, I didn't have anything specific I wanted to buy, but I still wanted to support some friends. So I picked up a skein of delicious Shetland sport from the Ross Farm booth (a lighter shade to go with the dark brown I brought home from Rhinebeck):

And of course I bought some more Hobbledehoy battlings (which you saw in my last post) because I got to know Liz a little bit at SSK and she's a real sweetheart in addition to being a very talented fiber artist.

Finally, I made one last yarn purchase on Sunday morning when we went back for one more brief visit (and let me recommend that you go back on Sunday morning because it's so much less crowded and there's still plenty of stock there). I'd popped into the Into the Whirled booth on Saturday but was much too claustrophobic to make a purchase. Somehow with more room to browse, these two skeins hopped into my bag:

I think these two skeins will become a new shawl design -- I just love these two colors together!

So that's it, and I think I did pretty well this year. I also brought home a little felted sheep pouch and some honey sticks for Rainbow, which she was thrilled with -- most of the honey has already been eaten and the pouch went with her to school today to be shown off. Now I'm off to knit so I can use up some of this stash!

Back to Reality

I'm back, only just, from Maryland Sheep and Wool, and I came home to much to do before starting the week and very little time to get it done, so this is just a short post from me tonight.

I got in a little bit of spinning time before we left for our trip and finished up the second bobbin of my Southern Cross Fibre Spelsau. Two down, one to go.

I was fairly good at the festival in terms of buying spinning fiber. The only dyed fiber I bought was this 2 oz. bag of Hobbledehoy battlings:

When I say fairly good, I'm probably exaggerating, because other wool followed me home as well. I'd told my travel companions not to let me buy a fleece, but then I had to go into the fleece sale barn to meet someone who was selling me a hackle, and while I was waiting for her to listen to the fleece judges' comments, I did a little browsing. I guess by now you can tell that one thing led to another and I came home with yet another fleece. Oops. I can't say I'm sorry -- it's a beautiful fleece. It was from a yearling Romney/Romeldale cross ram named Ollie. The bag went right to the basement, but I pulled out one lock to show you so you'll see why I was so smitten:

The sheep was coated so the fleece looks incredibly clean, and it's all this beautiful dark chocolate color (with some slightly lighter tips). I'm planning to wash this as soon as possible and do some carded and combed samples. It seems likely that I may be going to Rhinebeck again this fall, so wouldn't it be amazing to spin up and knit a Rhinebeck sweater from this gorgeous fleece?

Packing Time

Tomorrow I leave for a weekend I've been looking forward to for months -- Maryland Sheep and Wool. I am headed down with two friends tomorrow morning and we'll pick up a third friend at the airport. Sadly, the weather forecast is not looking optimal (there's rain likely), so I'm packing extra shoes and a rain poncho. But a weekend full of wool and yarn and friends is automatically awesome no matter what the weather, right?

I am taking just two projects with me, and they're the only projects I have on the needles at the moment. First is a pair of socks that I started earlier this week from the Gale's Art sock blank I bought at Rhinebeck last year. It's just a simple stockinette sock, but that's really perfect for traveling and walking around.

I also cast on my next sweater on Tuesday evening, despite the fact that spring finally arrived and we hit 80 degrees earlier in the day. This is my handspun Boxy that I'm knitting with the HipStrings Buoy I spent all those months spinning. It doesn't look like must now, mainly because there are close to 400 stitches on the needles, but this will be perfect for car knitting because there is zero thinking involved -- I've done the three rounds of 1x1 rib and now all I have to do is knit until it's the right length.

I've even been super ambitious and wound the second skein of yarn, which is about 650 yards, so I'll have to do an awful lot of knitting to run out before we get home.

If you will be at the festival and happen to spot me, please say hi! I'll be back with an update of what I brought home at the end of the weekend.

Yarn, Fiber, and Mud

I am back from a whirlwind of a weekend away at MDSW. As usual, it was a lot of fun but not particularly restful. It was really nice to have a weekend away from home with friends, particularly friends who don't care how many hours in a row I spend knitting.

We'd been lucky with the weather for many years going to this festival, but this year it seems some of our luck ran out. It had been raining pretty much all week leading up to the festival, and it poured on Friday as we were driving in, so naturally when we got to the fairgrounds on Saturday morning there was some mud to contend with. I think I did a fairly good job of not stepping in anything too messy (though there was also a walk through some of the sheep barns, which meant more than just mud on my shoes), but plenty of people were wearing boots or wellies (and I would have taken mine were it not for the fact that they're pretty darn uncomfortable to walk in). It was a damp, chilly day, but that made it perfect for wearing knitwear, so there were lots of shawls and sweaters to ogle! Fortunately the sun came out on Sunday and we had a very pleasant drive home, including a picnic lunch at a rest stop.

After going to this festival for several years, I did not feel such an urge to buy all the things, so much of this trip was about browsing and seeing people. Our first stop was the Jill Draper Makes Stuff booth, and I was able to show Jill my Ravessa Shawl sample knit in her Esopus base. Then I ran into Clara Parkes on Saturday morning by the Spirit Trail Fiberworks booth (incidentally, they still have a sample of my Three Wishes mittens on display!) and she signed my copy of Knitlandia.

I also made it to the podcaster meet-up on Saturday afternoon, where I got to meet Laura and Leslie of TheKnitGirllls as well as Melanie and Deborah, aka the Savvy Girls. I was wearing my Leventry sample on Saturday, and Melanie tried to steal it!

But enough name dropping -- I know you want to see the haul! I must say that I was fairly restrained this year. I really did not have plans to buy much of anything for myself, but a few things did come home with me:

There's another skein of Jill Draper Esopus in Tastes Like Purple, which I might use for another design, and a skein of marigoldjen merino/nylon in Sherlock that's destined to become a Spindrift Shawl. The colorful little batts are from Boho Chic Fiber Co. -- I just couldn't resist them. Finally, the big fluffy ball of naturally colored fiber is 4 oz. of Finnsheep roving; Finnsheep was the featured breed at the festival this year. The only acquisition not shown in this photo is a jar of honey from the Bee Folks; I bought a jar of Scorpionweed honey for myself and one for my mother.

There were some other purchases, too, but they were gifts for a friend who might be reading this blog and I wouldn't want to spoil the surprise by posting a photo here. Friend, if you're reading this, get ready to receive your goodies this weekend!

The Calm Before

I'm posting this less than 24 hours before my friends and I will be leaving for Maryland Sheep and Wool. I am super excited, but before I get to enjoy the trip, I have to do the dreaded task of packing. I hate packing. I'm always afraid that I'll forget something and as a result usually overpack. That's not really a big concern in this case, but it still stresses me out.

This year -- my sixth time going -- feels a bit different. We've been extremely lucky with weather in previous years, but this year looks like conditions will be less than optimal. The forecast keeps changing, but the gist of it is that it's going to be a bit cooler (no warmer than the low 70s) and there's the potential for rain. It's always been raining in Maryland all week, so the fairgrounds are bound to be muddy. So I am packing layers and several changes of clothes and shoes -- I'm even packing some wool socks!

For the first time, I also don't have a shopping list for myself (though I do have a list for a friend). I am still actively trying to reduce my stash, so while I'm not restricting myself from buying anything that truly calls out to me, I don't feel like there's anything I really need or want. I'm sure I'll enjoy admiring pretty things, but most of all I'm looking forward to being among my people. I'm hoping to get to meet some people I only know from online and see some beautiful knitwear.

More than anything, of course, I'm looking forward to a long weekend away with the girls and plenty of extra knitting time. I'm hoping to use it to my advantage to make some decent headway on my WIPs. I'm taking my Hitofude, of course, which has gained only a few rows since you saw it last, so I won't bother with a photo. Another project that I'm taking is one you haven't yet seen, a new shawl design that I'm knitting for the Mad May original design contest using a skein of Tosh Merino Light in Chamomile.

I've only spent one evening so far knitting on this, so what I have done isn't much, but I'm hoping to put in at least a few hours on it this weekend. What you can't see is all the advance prep I've put into this -- I've already written up a draft of the pattern and done some charting. I'm hoping this prep work will make it easier and faster to get the pattern ready once the sample is done.

I am also still knitting my adorable Earbud Pouches out of leftover sock yarn. They are so fast and addictive that I can't seem to stop -- I already have three done and a fourth about halfway there! My very loose plan is to make a bunch of them and put them away for little holiday gifts.

I'm taking a skein of sock yarn with me to MDSW as well, as I figure that a sock is a good thing to knit while standing around or waiting in line.

If you'll be at MDSW this weekend, please do say hi if you see me! I'll be wearing a Ravelry button with my ID on it (and possibly also one of my pattern samples, depending on the temperature) and carrying a Ravelry sheep bag. Hope to see you there!

The Festival Report

I've now had a full day to recover from the weekend, a weekend that was a lot of fun but not at all relaxing. We were up early and running around for much of both days, so it's no wonder I was about ready to collapse when I crawled into bed on Sunday night! It was a great time, though, and the weather was absolutely perfect, so I can't complain. But enough about that; you want to see the loot!

I was actually fairly restrained this year. I have a well-curated stash, so I didn't feel the need to go crazy. The only thing I had on my list was a maintenance kit for my miniSpinner, which I got pretty early on on Saturday. Other than that, my plan was just to stroll around the festival and see what was there, taking home things that really called out to me.

On Saturday, the focus was fiber. One booth I know I wanted to visit was Gale's Art. Last year, Gale had some gorgeous undyed alpaca/silk fiber that I had fondled on Saturday but not purchased, and it was gone when I went back to buy it on Sunday. I wasn't sure if she'd have it this year, but I certainly planned to check. Luck was on my side this time, and 4 oz. of incredibly luscious chocolate alpaca/silk came home with me. I even started spinning it Saturday evening.

I also stopped at the Knitty and Color booth after having seen a preview up online. That photo showed a lot of bright colors, which appealed to me a lot given the socks I've been knitting. I've decided that my new thing when it comes to spinning sock yarn is going to be spinning sort of self-striping yarn, so I thought this braid would work very well. This is superwash merino in the colorway Ain't It Fun!

That 8 oz. of fiber was the sum total of my fibery purchases for Saturday (I also bought a small jar of Justamere Tree Farm maple cream, which is now residing in my refrigerator), so I decided that I really should buy some yarn on Sunday when we headed back.

The Miss Babs booth had been way too crowded to even approach on Saturday, but it was much more manageable on Sunday, so I snuck in and picked up a gradient set for a new design idea. The yarn is probably much prettier out of the bag, but I thought if I took it out, I'd never get it back in neatly, so I'll wait to take it out until I'm ready to wind and use it.

Finally, I made a stop at the Verdant Gryphon booth, where in the past I've often stopped to fondle but rarely purchased. This year, I decided it was high time a skein of Bugga came home with me (this one is in the colorway Persephone).

At least part of this skein is destined to become a Star Anise, a pattern I bought during the Giftalong last year but haven't yet knit.

All in all, I'd say it was a really good year. I could have gone crazy and bought a lot more, but I kept reminding myself about the size of my stash and restrained myself. Perhaps this year I'll actually manage to use what I bought before it's time for the next festival!

One More Sleep

Tomorrow is the day I've been waiting for for a year -- the day I leave for Maryland Sheep and Wool! There are still a bunch of last minute things to do: packing, picking out my knitting, getting the house in order, etc. Usually I worry about running out of knitting when I pack for a trip, but this is one where that will not be a problem!

The only project that might actually get finished while I'm away are my Boogaloo socks. The first one is just about finished (I should be able to do the rest of the heel this evening). Do I really need to express how much I love it?

I had a slight issue with it yesterday when I was knitting away at my lunch break, looked down at it, and started to wonder why it was looking so long. So I measured it and then quickly realized that the length measurement I'd figured out was two inches too long; I'd forgotten to subtract 2 inches for the toe. Fortunately, I was only about half an inch past that point, but it did mean some ripping. I decided to do the toe in the handspun and reserve the commercial yarn for just cuffs and heels because it looks like there's plenty for both socks. I will likely start the second sock tomorrow to work on in the car.

My Airflow is moving along as well, though not nearly as quickly. The sleeve stitches are sitting comfortably on scrap yarn, and I've knit to the back shaping of the body. The knitting is pretty mindless at this point, though I do need to keep track of rows for shaping and the eyelets on the fronts.

I did meet my goal of finishing up the last batch of Gourmet Stash punis before leaving, so tonight I will wind off these singles, thereby freeing up the spindle to take along.

I do not have a big list of things to buy at the festival this year, for once. My stash is pretty well curated, so other than one thing I would like to get (a maintenance kit for my miniSpinner), anything I buy will be something that jumps out at me and begs to be taken home. As fun as it is to buy new yarn and fiber, what I really love about this weekend is being out with my people -- the people who think it's completely normal to whip out your knitting anytime, anywhere, and who get excited about all things fibery. I'm looking forward to meeting some friends who live elsewhere, seeing the animals, and taking it all it. If you happen to see me (I'll be wearing a Ravelry pin with my user name on it), please say hi!

MDSW 2014: The Loot

Every year that I go to MDSW, I try to be restrained in my purchases. After all, I have what some might call a very well-curated stash and certainly don't need anything else. But there are always such lovely things, many of which I can't get locally, so I usually take the opportunity to buy in person and save on shipping from ordering online. Plus, most of the vendors are small businesses -- and it's good to keep small fiber-based businesses in business, right?

Here's a look at the sum total of this year's haul:

As you can see, I stuck mostly to spinning stuff this year. Let's take a look in more detail.

First, there was 2 oz. total of punis from Gourmet Stash. The hot pink colorway is called Kick Your Teeth In Pink and is a blend of 40% merino, 30% yak, and 30% silk.

The light pink colorway is a limited edition called Sakura Luxe Redux and is a blend of superfine merino, merino, seacell, cashmere, silk, milk fiber, and angelina.

Then, I picked up another 85% polwarth/15% silk batt (in a colorway called "The Bird Girl") from Into the Whirled. (The funny thing is that I picked out two other batts before this one -- in the same two colorways I purchased the past two years!)

At Hobbledehoy, I picked up a bag of eight "battlings" -- mini batts in a lovely blend of merino, yak, silk, soysilk, and sparkle. As you can see, I've already started spinning them up (I'm going to do one ply each of the blues and greens and then ply them together).

And then I picked up two 4 oz. braids of fiber specifically for sock yarn. This is 4 oz. of BFL from Gale's Art in a bright, but unnamed, colorway:

And this is 4 oz. of Falkland in Flowering Courtyard from Three Waters Farm:

The lone skein of yarn was one skein of Jill Draper Makes Stuff Esopus, a springy four-ply light fingering that comes in a very generous put-up of 500 yards. This color is called Greyhound.

I'd say I did pretty well overall, wouldn't you? Now the challenge will be to spin and knit all of this up before MDSW 2015 so I can buy more!

MDSW 2013: The Wrap-up

The festival this year was, in a word, fantastic. The weather was absolutely perfect -- sunny, clear skies, low humidity, and even cool enough to wear a shawl and be completely comfortable. We got to the fairgrounds at about 8:25 and headed right to the main exhibition hall, where most of the vendors we wanted to visit were located. The lines were rather unbelievable at some vendors, but throughout the course of the day, we were able to stop at every booth on our list, I think. We went back for just a bit on Sunday morning to stop at a few booths that were much too crowded all day on Saturday before we headed home.

But enough about our schedule. You want to see the haul, right?

I had a list of several things I was looking for and managed to find all of them. Chief among these was some natural Jacob fiber (already washed and processed, as I'm still working through last year's fleeces). I found an 8 oz. bundle of two shades of fiber at one of the Jacob-specific vendors:

This actually looks to be two strips held together, so I can spin them separately or ply them together as I wish.

I was also hoping to get another Into the Whirled batt and got there early enough on Saturday to snag one of the Firefly-themed batts. This is Falkland in a colorway called Captain Tightpants.

The colors are a little more vibrant in real life; the sun seems to have washed them out a bit.

I had to head back to one of my favorite fiber vendors, Gale's Art. Her colors are always pretty, her prep is always excellent, and her prices are always a good value. Her booth was calm enough when we got there that we were able to chat with her (and I showed her a picture of my Velvet Elvis from last year, which she told me I had to knit up and bring next year to show her!). This year, I bought two braids of fiber from her. The first was 4 oz. of BFL in bright, cheerful colors (the colorway is called Crayon Box) that will be spun and knit into a hat for Rainbow:

Then, for me, I found 4 oz. of 85% Polwarth/15% silk in a colorway called Winter Is Coming (I've only seen one season of Game of Thrones, but it's enough to get the reference):

Usually MDSW for me is about buying fiber, but this year I did have some yarn on my list and was able to find exactly what I wanted. I braved the enormous crowd at Miss Babs for some of her Yowza -- Whatta Skein! in Indigo Bunting. This will become a Cabletta Cardigan.

My one other yarn purchase was a bit of an impulse buy. I happened to walk by the Fold's booth and it was not at all crowded, so I picked up this skein of Socks That Rock lightweight in Twitterpated (I felt the need for some superbright socks).

The last thing on my list was a gradient braid of fiber from Fiber Optic, because last year the booth was too packed to get in. I scored this 80% merino/20% silk braid in Thunder & Lightning.

My only other fiber purchase was not planned. When we went back on Sunday, we were able to get into the Spirit Trail Fiberworks booth. They're known for their luxury blend yarns, but what I discovered along the floor was a huge bag of natural CVM fiber. I'd loved spinning this breed in the Crown Mountain Farms fiber club last year, so I immediately bought 4 oz. of it in a dark brown.

Finally, the tools. Although I technically didn't have more spindles on the list, I was interested in looking at them and was open to buying more if some called to me and planning to visit the Bosworth and Golding booths. I especially wanted to check out the Spanish Peacock's booth, but the line there was absolutely insane on Saturday, so I didn't get to go look until Sunday morning. Fortunately, there was still some merchandise left (though the proprietors told us that there was one woman there the previous day who'd bought 14 spindles!). I came home with two:

On the right is a Bosworth Mini with a Bloodwood whorl; it's 26 g/0.91 oz. and will be perfect for spinning laceweight spindles. On the left is a Spanish Peacock Russian in Bolivian rosewood that weighs 32 g -- my first support spindle! I even got a quick spinning lesson from the owner's wife (something that couldn't have happened if I'd tried to fight my way in on Saturday). I'm very excited about expanding my spinning repertoire and hope to at least get proficient in support spindling during the Tour de Fleece.

So there you have it. I'm taking the day off from work to recover from a whirlwind weekend and do some knitting and spinning before I have to back to the craziness of my day job. I'm doing my best to remember how relaxed I was all weekend and trying not to think about what'll be waiting for me tomorrow morning!

Into the Nebula

In a lucky break, the Mister and I found ourselves child free for much of the weekend, as my in-laws offered to entertain Rainbow for a sleepover. I spent a leisurely afternoon at my LYS yesterday while the Mister was at a movie, and then yesterday evening I finally got around to plying up the singles I spun last week. As a reminder, this yarn started out as this 85% polwarth/15% silk batt from Into the Whirled in a colorway called Nebula that I bought at Maryland Sheep and Wool last year.

I knew I wanted to keep the color progression, so I tore off strips starting at the pinky orange and spun them up one at a time. Then, I chain plied the lot. You can tell I was getting a little impatient to be done by the end, because the light blue part of this skein is thicker than the orange part. Nonetheless, I'm quite in love with this yarn.

I have a total of 261 yards, and it averages out to somewhere in the sport/DK range, I think. In all honesty, I don't care that it's inconsistent. I know I can turn this into something where gauge won't matter, and I don't think anyone will notice in the face of these colors.

I was expecting the yarn to poof up a bit in the finishing, but what I didn't expect was how the silk's shine would come out. The batt was so well blended that I didn't really notice the silk content while spinning, but after this came out of its bath and dried, it positively glowed.

I haven't done a whole lot of spinning from batts, but now I'm hooked. Time to figure out how to make my drum carder work for me!

MDSW: The Haul

Last year was my first year going to the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival. I had one thing in particular I was looking for (a lazy kate that would fit my WooLee Winder bobbins), but other than that, I was mainly there to see the sights and pick up some things that I liked. This year, now that I was a festival veteran, I went with a very specific list of things to buy, and I'm happy to say that I found all of the things on the list -- plus a few extras. You want to see?

We got to the fairgrounds just before 8 on Saturday morning, though technically the festival didn't open until 9. This gave me plenty of time to get my bearings and get in line for the fleece sale, which was the first thing on my list. I had made plans to meet up with a friend from Ravelry to pick out fleeces together (I wasn't completely confident that I could pick a good one, so she offered to help). We were in the first five or so people to get in, so we had our pick of fleeces and were very happy with what we found. I will get to that later.

After a fleece, the next highest priority on my list was to find a pair of wool combs. I had decided that I would wash and process this year's fleece myself; I was very happy with my experience last year sending my fleece to a mill, but what I got back was roving when I find I really prefer to spin from top. I had researched the vendors carrying the combs I wanted and ended up at Carolina Homespun, the same vendor that sold me my Lendrum four years ago, where I bought these:

These are Valkyrie double pitch extra fine mini combs (and a pad to hold one while in use). I'd done a lot of reading in the Fiber Prep Ravelry group, and these had gotten good reviews, so I'm very excited about them.

There were two fiber vendors whose booths I wanted to visit -- Loop, whose "bullseye bumps" I'd looked at last year and regretted not purchasing, and Into the Whirled, a new vendor this year. Both booths were conveniently located in the main building (where I already was to make the first two purchases of the day), so I stopped by and picked up the following beauties:

Wisteria bullseye bump -- 4.6 oz. blend of merino, bamboo, tussah silk, and angelina

Nebula drum carded batt -- 4-4.5 oz. blend of 85% Polwarth/15% silk

After I'd made these purchases, it was about 10 a.m. and I'd crossed everything I had on my list for me off! Pretty incredible, if I do say so. I did make a couple more acquisitions as we wandered around and looked for the rest of the day Saturday and for a bit on Sunday morning:

Gale's Art Blueface Swirl, 4 oz., colorway Velvet Elvis

Verdant Gryphon Eidos, 4 oz./420 yds., colorway Hathor

Miss Babs Color Affection kit -- Yummy Sock in Peony, Impatiens, and Lilacs (4 oz./400 yds. each)

I bought a little more than I was planning, but I'm really happy with all my purchases, especially the ones I spent several hours playing with today:

I wanted to buy one fleece, but I ended up coming home with two half fleeces -- a Rambouillet on the left and a gorgeous deep chocolate brown Merino X on the right. My fleece shopping friend and I each found a good one, so we decided to split them both. Each was about 8 pounds, I think, so I have an awful lot of fiber to wash and process. I started in on the merino today. It's quite sticky -- lots of lanolin! -- but I think you can see why I picked it when I show you this detail shot:

Isn't that crimp spectacular? We saw the sheep from the farm this fleece came from when we were touring the sheep barns on Sunday morning and found that the sheep were coated -- which explains why this fleece was so clean. The Rambo is pretty spectacular, too:

I'm really interested to see how this will wash up, as the locks seem to be multicolored, but I can't tell if some of that might be dirt. My plan is to try to wash a batch up every evening, if I can, and maybe a couple over the weekend. I know it will take me a while to actually comb or card it all, but I want the fiber to be clean at least.

All in all, it was a great, if expensive, weekend. I'm going to have lots of fun with the stuff that came home with me, and I'm fairly certain my wallet is glad that this won't happen again for another year!