yarny spoils

So, about Maryland Sheep & Wool.

I bought yarn. (Duh.)

Not as much as in years past, but I definitely got a lot of goodies!

My first stop was at Spirit Trail Fiberworks. They were just opening their booth and I ended up being the first customer of the day!

I got a skein of Frija (a merino-cashmere-nylon blend) in this beautiful blue-gray colorway:



I have knit with Frija before (these cabled socks) and found it spectacular. I am tempted to knit another pair of cabled socks with this yarn, but we'll see!

My next stop was The Fold, which surprisingly did not have a majorly long line. I tried to resist the siren call of Socks that Rock, but it proved to be too much when I spotted this colorway I have long admired.



There, I also picked up a skein of Nightfall sock yarn -- a gradient colorway. This will make some fantastic socks.



My final purchase was at Tess Designer Yarns. I had regretted not buying anything from Tess last year after I saw Tiffany's beautiful socks. (Last year, it was our final stop of the day, it was about 9000 degrees on the top of that hill, and I was summoning all my energy for our walk back to the car!) This year would be different. I got a skein of merino sock yarn in this beautiful peachy colorway:



And a skein of Whiskers (a merino-cashmere-nylon) in this lovely royal purple:



There you have it -- my yarny spoils from MDS&W!

MDS&W recap!

I have been an absent blogger as of late, but I'm back with a fiber festival update! Maryland Sheep & Wool has come and gone, and once again, my pals Lennis, Tiffany and I made the trip from our corner of Virginia. This year we were joined by the lovely Caysie, a longtime friend of Tiffany's. I've gotten to know Caysie over the past few months on Twitter and was so so glad to meet her!



We were SO EXCITED. The weather was wonderful (actually kind of chilly Saturday morning). We had lots of late-night knitting + laughs. Basically it was the perfect weekend.

At the festival, I got to meet up with my pal Kim, who I met for the first time last year. It was lovely to walk around with her and her pals for a while.



One of her pals is Steven, who made the most awesome hotpants. It was kinda fun to be with him when he got stopped for photos -- hee hee.



Doesn't he rock those? He's got the legs for 'em! We hung out at a Twitter meetup for a little while, too, where I mostly felt shy about talking to strangers I don't know too well! But it was lovely to just sit and knit in the sun.

Saturday night was the MDS&W afterparty. It was a lovely affair, complete with a presentation by the authors of "The Fleece and Fiber Handbook."

Finally, here's a shot of our combined haul:



(I'll talk about my purchases in another post.)

And here's a link to all my photos from the weekend. I'm already counting the days to next year! (My mom said she really wants to make the trip next year. I am so so psyched that she could finally experience a Maryland Sheep & Wool!)