Maryland Sheep and Wool 2009

[crafty_packrat]

I went up with friends, twistedchick, her SU, and ellen_fremedon, early -- I believe we got there at 9:30 or so. It was trying to drizzle, so it was a good thing we had umbrellas. I had my smallest one, which doesn't give great coverage, but does fold up and store neatly in my backpack. And I had a hat on -- golf fedoras for the win!

First off, I got separated from twistedchick in the rain as I had a mission -- tomato plants!

I went to Thorne Farm and picked out four tomato plants and two eggplants. I'm going to need to dragoon one of my car-enabled friends to get fresh dirt and maybe some more big pots to set up my container garden. The really interesting cultivar is the Window Box Roma -- a Roma variety bred for small containers --but I also got a dwarf Red Robin, a Marglobe Select, and a Principe Borghese.

ellen_fremedon found her three different rovings at Misty Mountain Farm, really pretty stuff, including some Blue-Faced Leicester Superwash. I found a 60 inch (150cm) circular from Addi Turbo, which will be very helpful as I proceed on my Pi R Square shawl. Also a ball of Zauberball ('magic ball'?) in Cranberries from Skacel for $10, which I think had to have been priced wrongly, because it's 100 g of sock wool, and I saw it elsewhere for $19. When I unpacked at home, I also found a coupon for $10 of a $50+ order good through August 31st in my bag -- I doubt I'll get to Misty Mountain before it expires, but it's good to have in case I do. I'm going to use the Zauberball for the Elissa hat and scarf, because nothing says 'Pirate!' like blood red yarn.

We checked out Golding Ring, and I do want to get one of the spindles made from vintage bracelets eventually, but they are quite expensive and I'll wait another year. The Ebony Twist model was gorgeous and simple, but still too rich for my blood right at the moment.

I bought an rather girly spindle made by Lynn Bergschultz out of polymer clay from Handspun by Stefania, and 3.6 oz (~100 g) of CVM roving dyed with lac. I'll spin it up into laceweight for a scarf for sanj -- possibly Ostrich Plumes.

The ladies at Yarns International seem to be going strong -- I need to work more on my Swan Jacket -- so I bought two skeins of Shetland Supreme 2-ply in Shetland Black (actually a very dark brown, like extra-dark chocolate) to knit up an Ostrich Plumes stole. Shetland wool wears like iron.

Two of our friends caught up with us and we looked at the Welsh yarn at Wool Out of Wales. The kit they sell has gone down in price because the dollar has fallen against the pound, but it is still not something I can buy until I finish the two sweaters I'm working on, at the very least. We also stopped at Miriam Carter, Feltmaker -- she's a lovely lady, who I have rather embarrassingly tagged 'Wonder Woman' in my head because of her name, her looks, and her height -- she's moved to mostly jackets and vest, and not the cute hats she had a few years ago. But when I mentioned I'd gotten my nice hat from Lauri Chambers of Acme Hats, she congratulated me for making a wonderful purchase. sanj wanted one of her coats, but will think about it for a while.

I also got a minimalist mini with a hematite whorl from The Spanish Peacock. They had tiny inkle looms, perhaps made from a set of directions from Small Looms in Action -- I know I've seen a pattern for building that loom in one of the books in my guild's library. If they'd had one warped that I could have experimented with, I might have bought it, because it was only $20. They also had some amazingly cool aluminum spindles -- but I'd already bought two other spindles, and I didn't really need to buy a third.

The rust colored lace wool from Shelridge Farm in Canada was a lucky find -- I'm going to make an Irtfa'a for myself out of it. I'm pretty sure I boggled sanj by my ability to wear their Mandarin (as is in the orange!) color without looking dead -- but we agreed the rust was an even better color for me -- fox was the deciding vote.

Christine at Misty Tower Fiber was a delight as always. If you ever wanted a RenFair outfit, order from her, because she is great. I have a made-to-measure surcote and gown with matching tall hat from her that is just amazing -- all blue velveteen and bronze trim. I bought 4 oz wool top in a green with orange accents -- spun up and knit, it will make a wonderful scarf to go with the nice hat I got at the Smithsonian Craft fair.

Carodan Farm was selling oddball packs of sock yarn for about half-price. I found a bag that had Regia cotton/wool yarn -- the green-ish ball is for socks for mrshamill, the insanely bright colors are for me -- probably to be made into yet more socks from The Eclectic Sole

At the end of the day, I still hadn't found a jumbo ball winder under $115, which was a bit too high for me -- I suppose I'll have to check eBay -- not even at Hill Creek Fiber, which did have some Melody Superwash in red/purple that I got. They're a great place to get equipment, so I guess no one is making affordable ballwinders that can handle 8 oz skeins anymore.

While searching for a ball winder I stopped Tuatha -- it's so nice when the owner remembers you, but it's sort of funny she remembers me because of the problems with sizing my dragon-head bracelet, since I have really tiny wrists (the artist initially refused to believe the measurements were for an adult!) She had a gorgeous olivewood and amber necklace I would have bought if I could have afforded it, and a whole slew of enameled pendants from Imago Corvi that were simply gorgeous -- some of them semi-abstracts, some with images straight off Greek redware. I wanted the Dionysus pendant (truly, the least hypocritical of the Greek gods) and I suggested that the artist might want to make a pendant based on the octopus design in Minoan pottery because they're rather cute and charming. Sadly, Tuatha is only doing three shows this year -- I might make it to the Potomac Celtic Festival in June, but I will probably still not have enough money to buy the shiny shiny necklaces.

I did get my honey candy at the end of the day, though it's not the same maker as before, so it's not quite as wonderful -- still pretty damned good, but not irresistible. The Bee Folks didn't have any mint honey yet, but they had radish honey (tastes like candy corn!), so I bought a jar of that.

All in all, I probably spent more than I should, but I didn't go absolutely overboard as I have in years past. What a fun day!