May has been jam-packed with activities starting the very first weekend. The Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival happens the first weekend of May every year. The weather this April and May has ranged from days in the 60's to 90's. May 1st and 2nd were very hot!!-not the best for yarn shopping in huge crowds. I started out by going to the Howard County Fairgrounds on Friday night to meet up with a Ravelry friend knitredsox who had moved from Maryland to Chicago, and was coming back for a MSW weekend. The Columbia Sip n'Knit group had a bbq to prepare for their big weekend. They were hosting the podcasters' meet and greet on Saturday. We did a quick tour of the fairgrounds to figure out where vendors were because there were lots of changes this year.
Saturday I left home early (luckily I am only about 30-40 mins. away) and arrived at the fairgrounds at 8:30. This year I made a list which worked well for me. It helped me focus, and shop with a purpose. My bad because I always advise folks not to go early, but by 8:45 I was at Tilli Thomas' booth and she was open. I snagged 5 skeins of yarn at great prices. Then I hit Miss Babs and got 2 skeins of her show special merino and bamboo sock yarn.
I also picked up a yarn meter from Carolina Homespun. I then bought a couple of plants and brought my purchases to car, went to the Columbia Spin n'Knit tent to knit and wait for the podcasters scheduled at 11:00. They got caught up in traffic and arrived at 11:45. After the meet and greet, I met up with my friend Becky from Pittsburgh for more shopping. The heat was hard to take, and I found that once you sit down, it's hard to get up. By 4:30 we were baked, and she headed back home with her friend Kate. I had a ticket to the after party but decided to go home to shower. Once I got home, I realized there was no way I was going back so I jumped on Ravelry and within an hour found someone looking for a party ticket. She was thrilled and I was happy it worked out.
I have done some additional yarn buying since MSW. Last weekend I went to Pittsburgh as visited Natural Stitches where I bought Brown Sheep Nature Spun sock yarn to knit
"Ode to Socks" which incorporate several lines from a Pablo Neruda poem and are shown here .and here (must be logged into Ravelry). Then this Friday night at Stitch n'Pitch - The Washington Nationals vs. The Baltimore Orioles - I snagged some Miss Babs team color sock yarn in red and blue from Fibre Space. Just that morning I had been looking at yarn colors for some Red Sox good juju socks.
My peeps at SNP
