I'm B-a-a-ck!

Ezra and I were a match made in Heaven, and Heaven was the Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival 2003. But more about him later...

The Welcome

I arrived at the Baltimore airport Friday evening, and was greeted by the sweetest little girl on the planet, Miss Emily:

Oh, her mom, the very wonderful Caroline F, was there too! I handed Miss E a little Space Needle t-shirt I brought for her, and she paid me the utmost compliment of immediately attempting to put it on herself. What a little sweetheart; she suffered through the whole day at MS&W with nary a complaint. At home she was an entertaining hostess, making sure that I had plenty of toys to play with and helping me to get ready for the festival. It's so obvious that Caroline and Emily were meant for each other!

The People

We arrived at the festival on Saturday morning not long before it was time to meet with the various online personalities whose acquaintance we have collected over the past year and a half. We had arranged to meet at the booth of The Barefoot Spinner. This vendor is Maureen Prichard, a delightful woman who has wonderful roving for sale and is a friend of Louise's. I am so crestfallen to realize that I did not get a photo of Louise and Chloe!

After a long trip from France, Louise looked impossibly like a fresh bundle of energy-- a friendly, intelligent face surrounded by black curly hair and punctuated with big brown eyes. Chloe and Emily had some toddler-level discussions to which the adults were not privy, and later in the day Chloe entertained Emily by putting on a sheep mask and practicing her vocabulary of "Baa-a-a"'s. Emily was suitably impressed.

I didn't get pictures of everyone that day. It was a crazy melange of excitement and yarn talk. An introduction would be made, invariably followed by a repetition of the first name and then a guess of the last name. It seemed like a sort of code. For example, a person would introduce herself thusly: "Hi, I'm Tina". and I would reply "Tina... Ramey? From Houston?!" And she would seal the code exchange with "yes! that's me!" It was a great game, and whether we guessed right or not, it was wonderful to put names with faces and to see some of the sweaters in person that we have heard about when they were being knit. Here's Tina, wearing her Inishmore, saying "Hi, I'm Tina!":

And here is Laura, the sock poetess, in a Rowan cardigan. I've always thought of Laura as a very nice person whom I'd love to meet, and I was not the slightest bit wrong. But I forgot to ask her which of her socks she was wearing!

Speaking of wonderful people, I had the extreme pleasure of meeting Marcia G, one of my favorite posters on FiberTraditions. I think I'd love to be her next-door neighbor; she has a way of making the world seem calm and well-paced, and her innate sense of knitting is transferred by her in that same unhurried but complete and pleasant way. I was happy to see that she succumbed to the pull of the Golding spindle later in the day, and can't wait to hear how she likes using it!

Now here's someone I don't know that well, but I've been so blown away by her knowledge of the English language and linguistics that I was glad to have an opportunity to meet her. I loved her t-shirt too, showing the Bad Kitten club logo. It's Karen, from California:

Pam from Pennsylvania was a treasure of knitting examples! In the foreground of this picutre she is wearing a gorgeous Dale of Norway cardigan (didn't catch the design name), while in the background we have another friend (aack, brain cannot remember name, help!!) wearing Kilim by Kaffe Fassett:

And here Pam shows us the gorgeous Luckenbooth she is working on. We'll just call her Pam the Enabler, shall we? Because that one is going on my to-do list pronto!

And while we're in the category of Women and Their WIP's, here's the very fun Nancy Donahue with a sweater she is knitting for her niece in self-striping yarn. Wild, huh!!?

Now THIS is the picture that should have been in The Scottish Collection for Catriona, don't you think? It's my lovely hostess, Caroline, who is also carrying the Tote Around from KnitKits that she completed last week from bulky Lopi. I should have counted the compliments she got on both items, I'm sure they were in the triple digits.

Jennifer, a lucky local, was sporting this beautiful Ron Schweitzer-designed vest:

I was surprised when Laurel introduced herself-- I did not recognize her because she is so much lovelier in person than in any photo I have seen of her. Unfortunately, my camera could not capture the true Laurel, either! But here she is modeling Fern, just finished on the airplane over from California.

[photo removed]

Ah! Here's our sweetheart Vanessa, saying "hi!" What a fun time we had hanging out with her! I want her to be my other next-door neighbor. I wish I had taken a picture of the Nantucket Basket she was carrying. Not only can this gal knit, but if her basket is any indication, anything she touches is exquisite.

And here's another Caroline (I think it's Caroline L ?) waving to us all:

The Loot

Oh, the wonderful wares that were there! I looked longingly at the Golding spindles and then convinced myself that I could buy those later; I wanted to find the Unfindable, the Unique and Wonderful. And here's what I came up with.

Remember the Chasing Rainbows silk and silk/merino I got at the Seattle Fiber Arts Expo? I love it so much, and found some there at MS&W. The middle hank is pure Tussah Silk, the outer ones are 50/50 silk and merino, and the one on the bottom of it all is a mixture of alpaca, silk and merino from a different vendor.

And from The Barefoot Spinner comes two of these huge balls of wool/mohair from Maureen's sheep. Sherlock and Ginger are trying to decide whether they can get away with using it for play!

My good friend Vanessa opened my eyes to the Dancing Leaf Farm "Soft & Shiny" Mohair/Wool and the Lil' Loop Mohair Yarn, hand-dyed and irresistably gorgeous. I think I will try to make one of the Jean Frost jackets from this, and make the cuffs and collar with the boucle.

I can't decide which is my most favorite purchase! But this one spoke to me from the moment I saw it. In fact, I walked away from it the first time, and then had to find it again. It is the "Mother Marion's Magnificent Spinning Machine", a supported spindle hand made by a man in the Ozarks. It works like a Great Wheel (I had to be educated on what that meant, by the way) in that you spin off the end of the spindle, letting the fiber go plunk, plunk, plunk against the the sharp point. It sits on the floor and you spin the wheel with your bare foot, while holding the fiber at an angle to the spindle and every once in a while winding it down and back up the shaft of the spindle. Very, very cool.

And the triumph of my trip: Ezra. I couldn't bring Ezra back with me, but he gave me his coat, all nine pounds of glorious, shiny steel-grey Romney. I think he reminded me of Brad! The fleece is beautiful, and loaded with lanolin. Sam said two words when I told her about it: Scouring Party!!!

Posted by Sheila at May 5, 2003 08:27 AM Posted to Fleece | Friends | Ginger | Maryland Sheep & Wool | Sherlock | Spindling | Spinning | Spinning Wheels | Tools | Yarn | TrackBack