This little Sheepy went to Market

or "Are we having fun yet?" We went to Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival yesterday.

It was a little crowded* (understatement. It was the most crowded I've ever seen. Crowded enough that even though I had a good day and bought several skeins of lovely yarn, next year this little sheepy might stay home. Crowds wear me out.)

We went early to try to catch the Koigu mill ends at the Koigu booth. They've always been sold out by the time I'd worked my way to the main barn so this time I headed in a beeline to A19 hoping for shades of red. No luck. We heard several rumors about why she wasn't there but the fact was, she was not there. I was disappointed, but it's OK. As much as Koigu has legions of devotees and the yarn is nicely spun, maybe it is destiny and I just need to accept its absence in my life.

On the other hand, a woman from Arizona tipped me off that Mountain Colors sells their mill ends at fiber shows in Oregon and one in Seattle. I'm thinking about a road trip... If you put 57 skeins of hand dyed yarn in a pile, I bet I'd fall in love with the Mountain Colors skein.

I gushed a little to Melanie from Pink Lemon Twist (she had posted how to spot her and I couldn't help it. I think her stole patterns are gorgeous. Especially this one.)

Cass couldn't find anything to spend her money on, but we took a felted flowers make-and-take class sponsored by the Maryland Make it with Wool folks and had fun.

We cut petals out of intentionally felted thrift store sweaters, sewed 10 into a string and voila:

fuzzy red felted thing. (It looks better in real life.)

And of course, unrepentant omnivores that we are, we availed ourselves of another thing sheep are good for. Gyros. (Although we could have had lamb sausage, lamb kabobs, lamb stew in a bread bowl, lamb chili, lamb burgers ... )