09 May 2006

Maryland

I know this post is a long time coming. What can I say? Saturday, all day, was MDS&W. Sunday, I was recovering (and had a baby shower - for triplets - to attend). Yesterday, well, I had to get the SP8 questionnaire posted. So, today I'll tell you about Maryland.

My day started at 5:45 AM. My Mom & I were meeting the others from church, at the church, at 7:30 AM. The QP spent the day with her Grandpa. She was upset that I was leaving for the day (even though she would have hated the sheep & wool festival!). 7-year olds!

We were all on the road to Maryland by 8 AM (don't even ask what happened to the "we're leaving at 7:30" thing!). We didn't have much traffic till we got off the fairgrounds exit. Then, we just followed the masses into the fairgrounds. We had three vehicles in our group, and we got separated at this point. Thankfully, we all have cell phones! My Mom got a close parking space. In fact, we were parked before anyone else in our group. We were parked, maybe 500 feet from the fairground entrance (my Mom's lucky like that).

Well. Let me tell you. I walked around (all day!) with my mouth hanging open. There was yarn and fiber EVERYWHERE! Any kind of yarn. Any color. Some had crazy prices. Some had regular prices. And some was cheap. Then there were the spinning wheels and the looms. And sheep. And alpacas.

Our second stop (the 1st was the bathroom), was the line for the Sheep & Wool souveniers. I'm not sure how long we were in that line (I'm really not a time person), but it had to have been an hour. It was ok - because we stood there and talked, and ate (there were all kinds of food stands close to the line).

**Little did I know, that this was how the entire day would be - waiting in lines.**

Next year, we're shopping first!

Once we were finished there, we got some more food & drinks and headed over to the border collie demonstration. It was already packed. But was interesting.

After that, we headed over to the main exhibit hall. This is where we got split up. The place was PACKED. And in the center of the building, it was so hot. At one point, I thought I was going to pass out. I took my bottle of water out & drank some, and felt a little better. Then I got to the end of the building and there was a little air coming in, that helped.

My Mom & I went through 2 more buildings and then it was almost time for the blogger meet-up. So we went to the meet-up area and sat on the grassy hill. Bloggers came pouring in and soon the little group turned into a bigger group. No sign of Cara, though (I was looking for the shawl). Then we found out that there was another group of bloggers, farther down the hill. So we combined with that group. Now. If you look at the sidebar on Cara's blog, you'll see that about 50 bloggers were signed up for the meet-up. There were way more than 50 people there! It was amazing! It was a huge group. Of women (I don't think there were any men). Talking. And knitting. And wearing and/or carrying knit items. And shopping bags full of fibery goodness. And yes, Cara and her shawl. I saw it (and touched it!). Heather and her friends (sorry - I don't know everyone's names) had these wonderful (bright!) shirts that had their name on the back and their blog name! What a great idea!

If you look at the picture to the left, you'll see Cara's black shawl laying on top of her bag. She was off, talking to people.

Me, the introvert, was a little overwhelmed by all these people I really didn't know. So I stood and took some pictures. My Mom & I left after maybe an hour (she doesn't read blogs). Anyway. I don't really know who's in the pictures I took! So if you're reading this, and recognize someone, let me know!

We wandered around the festival for a little longer. We left around 3 PM. We were tired and hot and grimey feeling by that time. We didn't see the others from our church at all after we were split up in the main exhibit hall. I'll tell you what - we were sooo happy for that close parking space when we left!! And can you believe that as we were walking out, there were still people walking in?!?

On the way home, we stopped at an Italian restaurant a few miles from the fairgrounds, so that we could sit down and eat. And cool off.

We got home around 5:30 PM. The QP and her Grandpa had gone out to eat. I guess, by that time, she was over being upset that I was not with her for the day!

So, overall, the S&W was great. Crazy packed with people. But amazing to look at all of that yarn! It would have been waaaay more fun if I'd had several hundred dollars to spend, but it was cool. I'll have to plan better for next year!

I bought a few things. I bought 3 skeins of sock yarn. No. Not Socks That Rock sock yarn. I didn't know which stand had it, and by the time I found out who was selling it, they had pretty much sold out. The sock yarn I bought is Filatura Lanarota Country Sock. It's 45% cotton, 40% superwash wool, 15% nylon. We'll see how I like it.

I also bought some yarn that's a merino/alpaca mix. It is sooooo soft. I have about 200 yds of it - not sure what it's going to be yet. It's a beautiful lime/purple/white color. I love the color more, every time I look at it.

That's all for today. Tomorrow, maybe some finished objects...

MAKE it a great day!

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Nice to meet you! Glad you had a great day.

Carole Knits said...

Sounds like a fun and tiring day.

f. pea said...

What a great day! I'm glad to hear that it ended with Italian food - that's how many of my great adventures end, too.

Anonymous said...

Oh, thanks so much for sharing your impressions of the festival and those amazing pics! I'm quite jealous of everyone who had the chance to go there, but then again, I would have had to travel for, like, 8000 miles for it, oops :)
So reading through these accounts and watching all the pics made me almost feel as if I'd been there as well, what a great thing - thank you for that! I'm so glad that you enjoyed yourself such a lot there, what a truly great day it must have been!

Anonymous said...

Thanks for telling about your trip and the pictures. I would have loved to have gone but the flight would have been a bit expensive-I would be left with no money for yarn. ;o) I can well understand that it was crazy and I would have probably tried to stay a bit away from the masses-I'm like that too.