MDSW Recap

Andy and I had so much fun at MDSW this year!  We drove up on Friday, had lunch at UNO's, did a little shopping at the outlets in Haggerstown and then headed to our hotel. You know you are staying at the right hotel when the first thing you see when you walk through the lobby doors is a photograph of a sheep.  There was a KFC across the street and we grabbed a quick dinner and brought it back to our room and hung out watching movies and enjoying some much needed down time.

I wore my sheep pajama pants which just happened to match the cover of this years show program.  I did a bit of knitting on the plain vanilla sock in the Harry Potter yarn from Truly Hooked.  I had a hard time deciding what to bring to knit on and wound up with this sock and a new cowl that I'm working on.  They are both simple knits and perfect to work on in the car and carry around with me.  

We headed out to the festival fairly early and didn't have any trouble getting into the parking lot.  We wandered over to Miss Babs and did a bit of shopping there.  While I was shopping I met Wythlovy.  We started chatting and she was so nice, I really think I could have talked to her all day!  While Andy and I were waiting in line we got to meet ladyfernaco and franciscangypsy who have a podcast called Pen, Hook and Needles.  It was nice to get to spend some time with them and chat.  Did I mention that he line at Miss Babs was pretty long? 

  

 Babs yarn is definitely worth waiting for. I picked up a few skeins, but was trying to behave myself.  From left to right: 2015 MDSW color on Yummy, Forever on Sojourn, Coral on Sojourn, and Mad Hatter on Yowza.  They are all a little more brilliant looking in person, all these pictures were taken with my cell phone.  

I was so proud to see a Mother of Dragons in Miss Babs Yummy hanging up in the booth right next to her sign!

My next stop was Going Gnome.  The shop is run by two sisters who are just as nice as can be.  Their felt creations are amazing.  This owl and gnome were my favorite and are on my list to make.  There is a corner in our living room that would be perfect to have something like this.

We then headed over to Maple Creek Yarns where I found out that my favorite yarn that they dye, Norfolk 30% silk, 10% cashmere 60% wool is being discontinued.  This yarn is so soft and decadent that you kind of want to just roll around in it!  I had only planned on picking up one skein, but wound up with five since this will be the last time it would be available to me.  The yarn is really that shimmery in real life.  I think it's the silk that does that.  In any case, I love it!

I behaved myself at The Fold and only brought home one skein of Socks That Rock in Lightweight the color is KawKaw.

It was after lunch by the time I got done picking up the Kawkaw, and time to head down to the Indie Untangled meet up.  I was a few minutes early and the podcasters meet up was still in full swing. They made me feel welcome and the Indie Untangled meet up wound up overlapping and getting combined.  It was so much fun to get to talk to so many knitters and podcasters all in one place!  I handed out quite a few of my buttons and got some in return from: Sheepish, CarolinaFiberGirls, Julia Allen, Two Tangled Skeins, a cute stitch marker from FibreTown that was made by my friend Knit Cubby, and a flashlight from Twinset Designs.

I've been working on a secret project with Lisa from Indie Untangled, Vicki from That Clever Clementine and Michelle from Berry Colorful Yarnings.  It was wonderful to meet Lisa and Vicki in person (Michelle had to stay at home in NM, but someday I hope we can meet!!!).  Lisa was wearing her Night's Watch.  It's so exciting to see my designs being worn out in the wild!



Speaking of designs out in the wild, the very nice lady who was working at Jentz Prints was working on her Mother of Dragons when I was in her booth!  I think her name was Jen, and I apologize that I didn't write it down.  She was kind enough to let me take her picture and I've been trying to read the name on her tag, but it just looks like it's the name of the booth.



There were some great antique prints in her booth.  Lot's of sheep and other cool things.  I brought home this one of two pugs and I'm planning on having it matted and framed.  

Terri Rosenthal and I became friends on Facebook earlier this year and made plans to meet up Sunday morning.  She is one of those people that you just immediately like and we chatted like we had been friends forever.  I could have talked to her all day, we really hit it off!  She brought me some wonderful yarn that is made of mink hair.  It's harvested when the little critters are in their natural shedding time so it's animal friendly.  The minks are brushed to remove the shedding hair and then it's spun into yarn.  I keep wondering who is brave enough to brush the minks?  Kiwi our bunny, will give me an occasional nip when I'm brushing him and I think the mink teeth are sharper since they are carnivores.  The yarn is really decadent and feels like it's softer than cashmere, kind of along the lines of qiviut.  I plan on working this up into a lace shawl, it's absolutely fantastic yarn!

Here is the lovely Terri and I.  She's wearing her latest design and even made the buttons for it!

Andy and I decided to head home soon after meeting Terri.  I had gotten a lot of sun on Saturday and was really wiped out.  We passed these two black sheep on our way out and I thought it would be a cute end to this post.  

Powhatan's Festival of Fiber

The past week has been spent putting the final touches on everything for the booth that Stephanie and I will have at the Powhatan's Festival of Fiber tomorrow.  I have had so much fun putting the Ready to Knit kit's together, sewing the bags for the Limited Edition Mother of Dragons kit's and making the stitch markers to go with them.  Here is a sneak peek of the Mother of Dragons kit.  The yarn is Indieway Yarns First String Plus and is a lovely Superwash Merino/Nylon blend.  



Stephanie and I decided that we had better do a dry run with the tent, tables and some of the displays so she came over last night.  We set up on the patio and had a blast figuring out where everything was going to go.  Hopefully this will save us some time in the early morning hours tomorrow while we set up.

 

I am coveting that painting of the llama wearing glasses that Stephanie painted! I know just where I would hang it too.  

I already had the majority of my stuff packed up.  I set up my tables and a few other things to make sure they would fit under the tent with everything else.  It worked out well and we are good to go!  I've had everything staged by the stairwell for a couple of days.  I think Andy will be glad it's out of the house!

 

We are all packed up and ready to go!  Since Steph and I live about and hour away from each other and we underestimated how much we were taking, we decided to take separate cars and meet up at the festival grounds.  I will take lots of pictures and hopefully one of us will have time to watch the alpaca shearing so I will have that to share with you too.  I think we are going to have a fun day and I am really looking forward to it!

The little bit of knitting that I have had time to do this week!  It doesn't look like I did much, does it? I really didn't have as much time to knit as I had hoped to, but that's ok.  The nice thing about knitting is that it doesn't go bad and it's there anytime you want to work on it.  The lovely yarn I am working with is Coquette from Wanton Fibers and is 70% baby alpaca, 20% silk and 10% cashmere.  To say that I want to roll around in it and rub it all over me would be an understatement!  I am working on a new design, it's a bottom up shawl and I will have more details on it as it comes along.

 

 

Sheep Plague

You would think that now that the kitchen is so close to being completed that I would have more time to do fun things like post on the blog.  While I have been having a bit more fun, I seem to have caught the sheep plague.  Ok, so that may (or may not) be the correct name for it.  But when you go to a fiber festival, hang out with some sheep, one of which just sticks her cute nose out there and you kiss it and a couple of days later you start sounding like a cross dressing frog, it really should be called the sheep plague.  I actually had to miss knit group this week because of it.  So seriously, no matter how cute they are, don't kiss a sheep!

I have had a bit of extra time to spin this week.  This is super wash merino from Shalimar Yarns in Zombies Treat.  Ive been bugging Kristi to do some zombie and Walking Dead colorways and I love what she dyed! 

This roving was so easy to spin, I swear it practically spun itself!  It came out at 350 yards, 4.10 oz.  I love it! 

Check out all the other pretty colors that Kristi dyed.  I had a really hard time choosing just one.  Im wearing Zombie's Treat to keep warm.  It was freezing in the barn at Shenandoah!