Dear Kristen,


Here is my VERY belated Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival update. It's now been more than a week since the event and I am still sorting through everyting I saw. The fair grounds are amazing and completely overwhelming. There was a sea of kintters...

And you could see fiber everywhere! In one of the first booths I saw this woman.
The picture isn't the clearest, but she has an angora rabbit on her lap and she was carefully removing tufts of fur (they almost slide off the rabbit) and then spinning them into some of the most beautiful yarn I had ever seen. I was tempted to purchase some, but the very high pricetag for a very small amount of yarn put me off it. Maybe next year when I think I can create things worthy of that expense...

From there I went for a wander which included cheese fries and ice cream for lunch. YUM! As I finished my ice cream I watched a sheep dog exhibition. I think that this particular dog was a border collie, but since I am completely inexperienced when it comes to dogs I can't be sure. You'll have to let me know. It was incredible to see the dogs work the sheep. I couldn't believe how confident they were. One small move and the sheep would completely turn direction.
After watching the sheep dogs do their thing I wandered through booth after booth of incredible fiber. In the end this was my "haul".

The purple and pink yarn to the left is 1000 yds of a merino/silk laceweight. It was by far the most indulgent purchase I made. The pattern next to it is the shawl that it will eventually become. But, because this fiber is so amazing and lux I'm planning on experiementing with lace a bit before hand so that I don't make any mistakes when I start working on the knitting. Next to it is a merino sock yarn for another pair of Si socks. The yarn is full of Si's favorite clothing colors, olive green, grey and burgundy. It's really beautiful and he was pretty excited about it. :) Next to that is a mother's day present, size 2 lantern moon rosewood dpns. My mother loves to knit socks on DPNs and has been searching for this particular set for ages. Finally I purchased some "everything" yarn. It's about 200 yds of soft merino?angora?and something sparkly in greys and pinks. I think this might be a scarf, but it hasn't told me yet. I figure I'll store it away and one day it will start talking. :P

After the festival I attended the Knitbloggers Ball! It was a fantabulous evening and I met some amazing knitters and bloggers. I had dinner with soapturtle and her shmoo. They are a really fun couple and soapturtle was working on an amazing lace shawl which she has now finished and posted about in her blog. I also had the pleasure of meeting mama-e...what an awesome host and dye goddess, and lightning chick who is a really sweet person and talented knitter. I see a few more sidebar links in our future! I'm hoping to make it down to their knitting group once in a while. They are exactly the type of people I was hoping to meet in this area, I just have to figure out how to justify the 2 hour trip each way.

This is the progress on my current project. They are modifed Whitby socks for Si. For those of you who don't know, Simon and I met in Whitby England so when I found this pattern I decided that I would knit us each a pair of these socks. I <3 mine more than I can say and Simon's pretty excited about his. I'm thinking I will finish them this weekend while visiting my brother for his graduation.

Alas, what this means is that I haven't made any further progress on my sister's wedding afghan. Yikes! I'm totally obsessed with socks when I need to be totally obsessed with finishing this gift. I'll be in big trouble with the fam if I am working on it the night before. (They were pretty peeved when I spent most of Christmas eve finishing socks for the aforementioned brother... *sigh* My little introverted heart loved that evening, but never again if I am to stay on the family's good side!)

Much love,
Kate