In December of 2010, I decided to attend this year's annual Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival in West Friendship, MD. The MDSW is one of the largest sheep and wool festivals on the East Coast. It is always held the first weekend in May. I ended up having a blast.
I was getting ready for the festival for several weeks before hand, buying food and supplies. I borrowed my dad's pickup truck and slept in the bed. The night before I left for Maryland, I spent the night at my grandmother's, because they lived in the direction I was going. At 7:30, I got on the road. Almost the entire trip was on various interstates; specifically: I-64, I-79, I-68 and I-70. It was an eight hour drive, and since I was by myself, I used a variety of different things to keep it from being boring, mostly listening to music and audiobooks on my Ipod.
Even though I only stopped three times on the way, twice to use the restroom and get a Maryland state map, and once to eat lunch, I didn't reach the campground were I would be staying until 3:30. The campground I was staying at was called Patapsco Valley State Park. There were several other people from Ravelry staying there, including Lucinda and Joe from New York, and Mike and Ruth from Pennsylvania.
I spent most of the afternoon fighting to keep my campfire lit. They sold wood at the campground, but it was green and difficult to keep lit. I ended up hunting the ground around my site and was able to find several pieces of wood that had been trimmed from the trees around my site. With them, I was able to get enough heat to roast a few hot dogs and make s'mores. However, when it came time to roast the hot dogs, I discovered I had forgotten both a can opener and a pot for the sauce, so ended up having my dogs with just ketchup.
After I ate, I wandered around the campground for a while. Half the people there were for the festival and many of those were on Ravelry. I met and spoke to the people around me, and found a few more. While talking to a few ladies who were all there together, we noticed that it was starting to look like it might rain and I headed back to my site. Because I was sleeping in the bed, I had very limited space in the bed of the truck, so put the remaining wood, and the cooler and plastic bin in the cab. I climbed in the truck at around 8:30, just as the rain started. It was soon to dark to read without the flashlight and I didn't want to use up the batteries, so at first I listened to music on my Ipod. I then decided that the rain was nicer and was soon asleep.
The next day, I got up at 7:30 in order to get to the festival early and get a good spot in the line for the t-shirts. That early, the traffic was not that bad, and I was parked and heading for the gate by 8:45. I got in line and ended up talking to a very nice lady named Patty who asked me about the sock I was knitting. She was knitting a hat for her mother for Mother's Day, and was unsure of how to use DPNs. I was able to answer her question easily and chatted with her and her husband as the line moved.
I was using a food saver bag with Marshall University on the side and was spotted by another knitter from Huntington. I ended up telling her about the local guild and invited her the next meeting. There were a few other guild members there, but I didn't see any of them. After I got my t-shirt, I headed out to check out the rest of the festival. The weather was perfect, 70 degrees and sunny and the fairgrounds were fairly crowded. This is the view from the top of the hill:
I started at the far end of the festival. MDSW has grown so much that this year there was an entirely new section at the bottom of the hill, by the sheep dog demos. I ended up buying an oz of CVM fiber. I then decided to concentrate mostly on fiber, to find as many different breeds as possible and play with them to see which I liked best.
After a quick stop for a lambburger from the boy scouts, I headed for the main barn. I ended buying a BFL grab bag from Bullen's Wullens, totalling 4 oz and was given a free CD spindle kit when I traded them several ones for a ten.
I then wandered through the barn until I found the booth I was most interested in: Golding Fiber Tools. I had been coveting a Golding Spindle for several years, but wanted to see and test them before buying one. I soon selected and purchased a Golding Tsunami in cherry wood, weighting 0.75 oz. It spins like a dream and is beautiful to boot, see:
I continued through the main barn, including checking out the items in the fleece sale. I ended up deciding that a raw fleece would have to wait for another year, even though one lady was interested in splitting a lovely gray Romney fleece with me, with about 4 pounds for each of us. I also spent an educational few minutes listening to one of the volunteers talk about the qualities of a good fleece. I continued on and bought a 4 oz braid of BFL from Cloverleaf Farms, colorway Spruce Goose:
After Cloverleaf Farms, I headed on through the main barn. My next purchase was at Shadeyside Farms, were I found about 3-4 oz of a Shetland-Icelandic cross. It is the fiber in the above pictures of my Golding. I then left the main barn and headed for the others. In barn 6 I made two more purchases of 4 oz of Jacob roving from the Jacob Sheep Breeder's Association and over a pound of cleaned, processed Romney for $15.00. I was told by several people that was a good price.
I then wandered through the other two barns. I decided to save the outside vendors in the North and East sections for Sunday. So, I headed to check out the sheep barns. Some people complain about the smell of the sheep, but to me, it smells of county fairs and I find it a comforting smell. In the sheep barns I made my last purchase of the day when I got about 3 oz of black Finn sheep. The lady selling it was very nice and through in a bit extra.
It was now about 5:30 and I was tired, so I decided to head back to the campsite.
This was my home away from home for the weekend:
I cooked dinner (more hot-dogs) and had a bit of show and tell with the other festival-goers in the campground. Some of the Ravelry people had a little get together around a fire-pit, and I didn't go to bed until 10:00. I ended up waking up at 3 am, from the cold and could not get back to sleep until I added a couple blankets my mom had insisted I bring. I texted her in the morning that she was right and got a text back saying I told you so.
The post for Sun and Mon will be posted later, it is getting too big.
Then, my brother asked me to make him some fingerless mitts after he saw a pair that I made for myself, so here they are:
Then both of my nieces got teddy bears (and Airianna's was literally finished Christmas Eve.) This is Airianna.
And this is Kira and her mom Kristen.
