Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival (and socks)

I spent several hours on Saturday at the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival. This was only my second time there, but since last year I've taken up both spinning and sock knitting, which are reflected in the day's purchases. I left home early to be sure I'd arrive by the 9 a.m. opening. That's because I wanted to join the sock yarn madness by getting in line at The Fold to buy Socks That Rock. I got in line around 8:35, with maybe about 20 people there ahead of me. The wait was pleasant enough, though -- I worked on a sock, and chatted with the other knitters. I even got a gift -- I admired a sheep pin that a woman behind me was wearing, and she pulled out a bag and gave me one!

Once I joined the crush inside the booth, I managed to squeeze my way back out with these, in Little Bunny Foo Foo, Waterlilies, Mystic Kelp, and Henpecked:



It was only about 9:15 at that point, so I raced off to see if I could get some Koigu, too, but it turned out the Koigu folks hadn’t made it to the festival after all. Since I didn’t have another crazy sock yarn line to stand in, I just started wandering around to check out all the other vendors. By the time it was over, I had acquired all these goodies:


Bamboo knitting needles with glass tops, from Sheila and Michael Ernst; one fat skein from Seacolors, for a felted bag; and baby alpaca from The Fibre Company.


Terra yarn from The Fibre Company, at a great price; a case for circular needles; and some gorgeous glass buttons from Moving Mud. I plan to design a felted bag around the big blue and gold one. No idea yet what the others are for, though.





Lots of gorgeous, fluffy fleece from Grafton Fibers. This should keep my spindle going until next year’s festival!



And while I was photographing all my goodies from the Festival, I finally got around to getting a picture of the socks I finished last weekend.




Pattern From Sensational Knitted Socks, beaded rib stitch, knit toe-up.
Lorna’s Laces in the Gold Hill colorway, on size 0 needles