So many hobbies!: Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival

Because people have asked in the past, here's a shot of our camp. The camping was great! The weather for camping and the festival was perfect, and I don't say that lightly. The temps were in the 50's at night, perfect for sleeping, and the festival during the day was in the mid-70's, perfect for walking around.

My campmates, Rhonda and Sheri. We had a good time together.

This is Darby. He initially was going to be a friend for Rhonda's grandkid but Rhonda fell in love with him. He was a welcome addition to our camp.

This is a shot of the festival on Sunday. Saturday it was twice as busy.

This was the sheep shearing contest where the shearers use hand clippers instead of electric clippers. The sheep weren't happy but they get pretty used to their yearly haircut.

One of the groups in the Sheep to Shawl contest.

Rhonda, Sheri and I had a great time. It was Rhonda's first time at the festival and she was downright giddy. Saturday morning she was up at 4:30 and chomping at the bit. My yarn, for the third year in a row, won the special prize as the best spindle-spun yarn. I'm going to start a group on Ravelry to encourage people to enter spindle-spun yarn at Maryland because I can't help wondering if I keep winning because no one else enters spindle-spun yarn. Don't get me wrong, I love winning, but if I keep doing it because I'm not competeing with anyone... it kind of takes the fun out of it.

I did a little shopping, which I'll show you tomorrow. I wasn't planning on buying any fiber but on Friday, after dropping off our stuff for the competition, we ran into the dyer/owner of Fiber Optic yarn/fiber. She has beautiful colorways, some of which are gradient dyed so they run from one color to the next in smooth color changes. The braids I bought run from raspberry purple to dark green and my plan is to spin each up, ply them together and knit a shawl. I'll show pictures of everything tomorrow.

I had such a good time. I mean, this trip had everything I love: camping, hanging out with friends and fiber festivals. I'm trying really hard not to be bummed out that I don't have anything planned until August. The Michigan Fiber Festival is the 3rd weekend in August and the Northern Michigan Lamb & Wool Fest. is the end of September. I need to come up with something between now and then to look forward to. I may have to whip out the camp stove and cook out on the back porch just so I can have a bit of the camping feeling.