Sunday, May 24, 2009

Sheep and Wool Festival Day 1

Well my one main thought when I went was no more fleece. I quickly broke that thought within the first hour of being at the festival. Dax and Sierra wanted to get some socks that rock yarn from the Fold and while they were waiting in line a lady walked up with a bag of alpaca. She was showing it off and letting me feel it etc…. Finally I asked her where she got it and I told Dax and Sierra I’d be back in a few minutes. My first purchase was 2 lbs of alpaca from Ameripaca. Ok it’s not a whole fleece so that doesn’t qualify as fleece right?

Here's Sierra and Dax listening to some music while we take a break.

Dax got a camera as a Christmas/birthday present. She spent a lot of her time taking pictures of animals while we were there. Also she just finished those fingerless gloves when we were on the airplane. The pattern is a free pattern called fingerless gloves musica. Here is the Ravelry link.

This was one of my big purchases Tilli Tomas rock star yarn. It was on sale but still very expensive, at least for me. I have a specific project in mind for it and it was discounted at the festival so I tried not to feel to guilty for buying it.

More purchases for specific projects the Kiparoo Farm Celtic Lace is for a pattern I got last year called the linen wrap blouse and the other linen, I can't remember where I got it, is for a market bag.

Oh, and I bought more alpaca. I was so drawn to the brown fleece this year. I saw so many pretty browns and when I saw this 1 lb cria (baby alpaca) fleece I bought it. Can't you see how upset I was for breaking my promise to myself not to buy more fleece :).

Saturday, May 16, 2009

Patapsco Park

I decided to do the post on the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival in sections. This year I was heading up to the Festival with maybe a few specific items I wanted to look for but it wasn’t like I was going to be upset if I didn’t find them. I simply wanted to go to be around a lot of other people who enjoy fiber crafts as much as I do. I did tell myself I was not going to buy more fleece because I’m up to my ears in fleece as it is.

We stayed at Patapsco State park. Dax and I left on Thursday. We flew up and met my sister and her daughter who drove up with all the camping gear. I had to work on Thursday and Dax had school so we caught a late flight. The sun was setting as we flew towards the north. This was my view for most the flight.This was Dax’s view.


Because we came in a day earlier then what we usually do it gave us all day Friday to hang out around the camp site. I’ve been running again and was determined to try and keep on my schedule even though we were out of town so I got up on Friday morning to run. It’s hilly there. I mean really hilly. It felt like mountains to my Florida legs but I managed.

When I left Florida there was a prediction of some rain. We decided that we should hang a tarp over the tent to help waterproof it. Here is Cyndi and Sierra tying the tarp up. Nothing like team work to get the job done.

This is what we ended up with and started referring to it as the cave.
The tarp gave us enough space over the picnic table to sit while it was raining and boy did it rain.

Even though it was lightly drizzling on Friday we ignored it and went hiking down some of the trails. It is very pretty there. I had seen some deer on my morning run but did not have a camera at that time. Here are some pictures we took when we were walking around the park.





They also have some playground areas. This one is the closes one to the campsites. As you can see you are never too old to play at a playground. That was kind of a role reversal. Cyndi and I were playing on the swings while the girls were taking pictures. There was another playground further away from the campsite that had more equipment, monkey bars etc.

Here is proof that Dax got Sierra to do the Caramelldansen with her.


We ended the day by making a fire which needed some umbrella assistance to get it going because of the rain but the girls did manage to get it going.We had to have the fire to make some smores, of course.


Next post Saturday at the festival…..